Lilo

[Xanex]

I would love to mess around with Mandrake 9.1 and install it on my XP machine i have.

I have heard that Lilo ( and other bootloaders) replace the bootloader XP uses, so even if you uninstall mandrake you still have lilo on there.

How do you revert back to the xp(win) bootloader.

Xan

[beeboy]

You could boot from your xp cd and use recovery console and run FIXMBR. That should overwrite lilo.

[Xanex]

FIXMBR - this will give me back the old windows boot loader will it fantastic.

Cheers

[cosmosis]

I dont think LILO replaces the Win bootloader. It just stands in front of it. If you choose DOS from LILO, it will take you to the normal windows OS choice menu. The best thing to do is not to touch your MBR. Instead, make a bootdisk at the end of the linux installation. That way, you can try different distros till you find one that suites your needs and taste, then you can install LILO or GRUB. This way, you just have to install other distros on top of the previous ones.
HTH

[beeboy]

I never knew that. So you have lilo and the windows boot loader in the mbr. So which one shows first when you boot, lilo or windows? Do you get a choice? I'm presently dual booting but I do not see the windows boot loader anywhere. How do I get to it?

[deanrantala]

On mandrake, Lilo WILL replace your windows boot loader.

An interesting note is that the NT loader does not reside on the MBR. It is on the boot partition with windows itself. All it does is creat a boot strap on the MBR to the loader wich is on the boot partition.

To restore this boot strap, use any Windows boot disk and type this at the DOS prompt

fdisk /mbr

that will restore the windows master boot record - for Win 9x - XP