Exactly ^ Go to any linux forum and you'll see they all say the same, windows then linux, or just windows because windows cannot operate well on a BCD that isn't on the MBR. Now they have alternative setups but it's more complicated than just running an installer and that's not what the OP wants to deal with =P
That's not been my experience.
Recently I removed the first primary partition on a drive -- and the drive STILL booted fine. That's because I had Vista installed to the second partition on the drive -- and the BMR pointed to THAT partition for booting.
So, I'll say it again --- the MBR is NOT part of any partition on the drive. It's the first few bytes on the drive (I think 512, but I'm not sure about that) and it lives OUTSIDE of any of the partitions.
correct! It is NOT part of the primary partitions.
The Master Boot Record (MBR) and What it Does
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record
I am aware that the MBR does not reside on a partition. It resides immediately before the primary partition at the beginning of the disc. My earlier comments on the MBR are incorrect - I should have referred to the partition table and not the MBR. The MBR will always be in place, but it may be damaged to due virus, corruption, etc. It's been my experience that removing all partitions will cause any bootloader to simply stop working, since there is no active partition to be found (and why your Vista partition was able to boot properly - the first active partition found had its boot sector copied into memory and the MBR jumped to that same location, enabling Vista to boot). It's also been my experience that Windows will always overwrite GRUB (or lilo, for anyone that used Linux prior to when GUI took over - but a LiNuX n00b like me wouldn't know anything about that...) when installed after Linux.
I apologize for my previous errors on the subject.
Hi there
just download GPARTED, boot and clean the hard disk - it should fix the MBR which is the problem --not GRUB per se.
GParted -- Live CD/USB/PXE/HD
Now do your W7 install
Cheers
jimbo.
I dont understand why nobody is willing to give a shorter way and the regular way of resolving this issue:
Shorter way:
1. Open the back panel of the laptop, remove the hard disk and place it in a case (can be bought from market)
2. Attach this hard disk as external hard disk to any computer and perform format.
Regular way:
1. Boot with bootable disk or USB
2. Perform the fdisk, remove partition and then formatting.
BIOS formatting:
1. This feature use to be in earlier laptops where full formatting was allowed from bios.
2. If not available in new then simply boot with any DOS disk and then perform the above steps.
ERD Commander Boot:
1. This software is available free online, which looks like windows and runs from bootable USB very fast.
2. Desktop look and feel are exactly as windows, where you can perform formatting
Multiple options should be provided to people instead of discussing same thing in thread.
You are commenting in a thread from 2009! Since then we have helped tens of thousands of people do this successfully.
Delete all partitions during a booted Clean Reinstall Windows 7.
There is no reason to remove the hard drive or do anything special other than if necessary to Troubleshoot Windows 7 Installation Failures - Windows 7 Help Forums
I always wondered what happens or if it survives a format if in Linux you chose to encrypt the home folder on it's install,
Yep 2009 wow that a tour to the past
Seems the forum search or google search works well
Quote