Uninstalling LILO

[warpman]

After getting VL 5.9 up and running on my new laptop I had to remove it since I'm have to send my new laptop to the manufactuing company so that they can check it because it just shuts downs for now reason. So, any how, after I remove VL I ended up not been able to connect get into my windows vista partition. All I get are a bunch of 99999999999999999999. I cannot seem to be able to run the FDISK /MBR command because it doesn't work under windows vista. How can I restore the MBR so that I'll be able to get into my windows partition? Any help would be appreciated.

[wcs]

I cannot seem to be able to run the FDISK /MBR command because it doesn't work under windows vista.

Does that include the fixmbr command?
Also, I heard there was some recovery thing on the Vista CD, if you have one.

[warpman]

I cannot seem to be able to run the FDISK /MBR command because it doesn't work under windows vista.

Does that include the fixmbr command?
Also, I heard there was some recovery thing on the Vista CD, if you have one.

Actually I have an Acer which doesn't have any DVDs/CDs. The re-installation data is on separate partition. Actually I was able to access the windows vista partition but I'm un-able to uninstall LILO. Is there a way to run the fixmbr from the active partition?

[stretchedthin]

Actually I have an Acer which doesn't have any DVDs/CDs. The re-installation data is on separate partition.

If doing a factory recovery is an option for you, (meaning you don't have any data stored you can not afford to lose), then you can lauch the recovery partition by hitting alt+f10 at boot up.
Or is it alt+f11.  Well it's one of those two. Just make sure your pressing the combo at boot-up well before the windows screen launches.

[The Headacher]

Actually I have an Acer which doesn't have any DVDs/CDs. The re-installation data is on separate partition.

Lots of manufacturers nowadays are too cheap to include recovery CD's (and it works for them, because we all want to buy the fastest computers for the least amount of money right?). However, quite a couple of them do include a utility to create a recovery dvd from Vista, and I recommend doing that as one of the first things you do when you get a new computer. I know I will. Something else that might be worth keeping in mind for the next time is to make a backup of your MBR before installing Linux.

I had to remove it since I'm have to send my new laptop to the manufactuing company so that they can check it because it just shuts downs for now reason.

Please be careful with removing stuff for this reason... I had to send my old Asus z92k in 4 times, and I lost quite some valuable data when a backup failed. Checking if a backup worked ok before removing anything is always a good idea.... here's some stuff I wrote about backing up quite some time ago: http://forum.vectorlinux.com/index.php?topic=4005.msg26336#msg26336

Next time I'll just send it in with Linux installed. I might change lilo to "all black" and to default to Windows in .1 second, but I'll never take Linux off again just because the hardware is faulty.

[uelsk8s]

When  lilo  writes  a new boot sector, it preserves the former
              contents  of  the  sector  in  a  file,   named   by   default
              /boot/boot.NNNN,  where NNNN is the hexadecimal representation
              of the major and minor device numbers of the  drive/partition.

-u [device-name]
              Uninstall  lilo  by  copying  the saved boot sector back.  The
              '-s' and '-C' switches may be  used  with  this  option.   The
              device-name is optional.  A time-stamp is checked.

[wcs]

Hey, I didn't know that, uelsk8s.
Very cool.

Does that mean that by doing lilo -u, you get it as it as before?
What if you make changes to lilo, will it revert to the previous state or to the "pre-lilo" state?

[warpman]

Guys, thank you all for all your replies and information. But I got my laptop back to normal. Here is how I did it. I hope this helps someone.

I got a CD copy of Ultimate Boot CD V4.1.1 and I run the following steps:
- Boot computer with Ultimate Boot CD
- Goto Filesystem Tools
- Goto Boot Managers
- Goto GAG V4.8
- Run 4: Install GAG
- Reboot the PC with out the CD
- Reboot the PC with the Ultimate Boot CD
- Follow all the steps until you get to the menu and take option 5: Uninstall GAG (Restore MBR)
- Reboot PC without the CD

This fix my MBR problem and everything is back to normal.
Thanks for your help.