81 replies to this topic 5 votes

[Aaron]

If for some reason you find the need to get back to your Windows XP bootloader instead of the one installed by your Linux distro, simply follow these instructions:

1. Boot up with your Windows XP disc.

2. Select the option Recovery Console.

3. At the prompt, type "fdisk /mbr" (without the quotes of course)

4. Restart your computer.

Edited with correct info from the following posts...

[Aaron]

Jeez, leave it to me to have a typo in my very first HOW TO. Mark, fix that would ya?

[MR_Candyman]

For me and some others you might need to type "fdisk /mbr" instead of "fixmbr"

just thought I'd add that before people start saying it doesn't work

[Hurmoth]

Thanks for the info This might come in handy

[SpeedyTheSnail]

Which if you still need linux you better have a boot disk. you can also type "fixboot" (without the quotes) to get it fixed.

[acerr]

is there a way to recover the winlogin.exe

[QuarterSwede]

MR_Candyman, on Mar 3 2005, 22:21, said:

For me and some others you might need to type "fdisk /mbr" instead of "fixmbr"

just thought I'd add that before people start saying it doesn't work

Hahaha, you beat me to it!

Yeah, Fixmbr and Fixboot both don't work. I know, I've tried several times. All they do is jack up the NTLoader.

Edited by Jstphish, 04 March 2005 - 04:09.

[Help]

Nice how to, might be useful one day.

[Mr. Dick C. Normous]

acerr, on Mar 3 2005, 22:34, said:

is there a way to recover the winlogin.exe

Of course there is Boot into the recovery console and use this command.
expand d:\i386\winlogon.ex_ c:\windows\system32\winlogon.exe

D: = drive Xp cd is in
C: = drive Xp is installed on

Edited by Mr. Dick C. Normous, 04 March 2005 - 04:17.

[markjensen]

Armeck, on Mar 3 2005, 22:02, said:

Jeez, leave it to me to have a typo in my very first HOW TO.  Mark, fix that would ya?

Not a problem. Done.
You should always be able to go back and edit your first post. All members are able to do this. At least that is how I understand it to work.

And, by the way, thanks for the quick write-up! This gets asked an awful lot.

[butterflychoke]

What if you do not have an XP cd, just recovery discs? Are you out of luck?

[markjensen]

butterflychoke, on Mar 4 2005, 15:31, said:

What if you do not have an XP cd, just recovery discs? Are you out of luck?

I would think that borrowing a friend's XP CD would be a good solution.

[MR_Candyman]

I like using the windows 98/me boot discs the best. You can freely download them from the net

[Krpano]

Jstphish, on Mar 4 2005, 04:00, said:

Hahaha, you beat me to it!

Yeah, Fixmbr and Fixboot both don't work.  I know, I've tried several times.  All they do is jack up the NTLoader.

Agreed with that.
It always mess with the NTLoader.....arghhhhhh...gotta hate windows.

[glasscleaner]

fdisk /mbr

work well too