How to remove an old Windows MBR?

[trillian]

I have to hard disks, one with Windows XP (C) and another one that has some files on it (D). I tried to install Suse 10 OSS to the other one (D), but the disk's MBR tries to start Windows 2000 which has been previously on the disk.

So do I have to format the whole disk to get the MBR formatted so it doesn't look for the Windows 2000? Or can I format just the MBR to get the grub working?

[sbrunix]

Try

1. Boot 98 boot disk

2. a:\FDISK /MBR

3. Reboot

[budman7]

The "fdisk /mbr" command will replace a Windows bootloader.
During the install you will be given the oppurtunity to install grub to the MBR or the root partition, select MBR.
If you have already gone through the installation, just bring up the installation options again, Suse will detect that it has already been installed, and will offer you some options, select to repair, and just repair grub.

[oz]

The Knoppix Live-CD comes with various MBR tools, too.

[trillian]

I couldn't figure out how to install the grub on the hdb's MBR and not on the hda's, so I just gave up and installed it on a floppy disk.. At least now it's working fine, I just need the floppy to get the SUSE running.

[Nerderello]

to install grub on a mbr , once you are in Linux:-

1) Open a terminal / console window
2) Make yourself root (aka superuser, aka admin user) by entering su - followed, when prompted, with the root password. You'll know it worked as the last character of the command prompt will change to a # . Adn yes, the "-" after the su is meant to be there. ie. "su" followed by a space followed by "-" .
3) Enter grub-install /dev/hdb

This will put grub onto the mbr of the slave hard disk on the first IDE cable.

Master on first IDE cable = /dev/hda
Slave on first IDE cable = /dev/hdb
Master on second IDE cable = /dev/hdc
Slave on second IDE cable = /dev/hdd

Of course, once you have grub on the mbr of the hard disk of your choice, then you will need to make sure that the BIOS points at this first, in its list of boot devices (within the advancved options in most BIOSs).

have fun

Nerderello