[plug] blowing away WindowsME

[Steve Grasso]

And if you want to save the MBR before blowing it away (with the option of 
restoring it again) try this little Linux boot disk, designed to do just that:

http://plug.linux.org.au/~steve/mbr.html

BTW blowing away an MBR, Windows or otherwise is easy. Boot from a Linux boot 
disk - any will do eg. the one mentioned above, Toms Root Boot etc. At the 
prompt type: 

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1

This writes zero's over the first 512 bytes (the MBR) of the first hard disk 
on IDE channel 1 ie. hda

Incidently, when I'm replacing any OS with another on any HDD, I do this as a 
matter of course after saving the original MBR first. It's not so important 
with Win9x, but I've found it necessary for WinME/NT/2k/XP. I also usually 
switch the BIOS boot virus checker off first. YMMV

Regards,
Steve

On Saturday 29 December 2001 18:48, navarre at plug.linux.org.au wrote:
> Assuming by what you have said that windows or its DOS component is still
> available and will boot then use fdisk to destroy the windows partition
> and leave no partition table on the hard drive for the windows virus to
> live in.
>
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Original Message <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
>
> On 12/29/01, 4:08:32 PM, Sol <solhanna at dingoblue.net.au> wrote regarding
>
> Re: [plug] blowing away WindowsME:
> > > Is there an anti-virus flag in CMOS that needs to be turned off at
> > > Setup to write the MBR ?
> > >
> > > H
> >
> > No. It's not even an option, strangely enough. Thanks for the input
>
> though.
>
> > I'm just trying out rawritewin from a Mandrake CD I found floating about.
> >
> > Sol