Removing GRUB4DOS mbr?

[HardDriv'n]

I seem to be having a problem with using Grub4dos to make a flash pen drive bootable. I initially used the grub installer, with the gui, to install Grub4dos to a 1GB flash pen drive.

I installed Grub4dos using the folowing option throught the grubinstaller:

1.) I checked the "Disk" option then selected the correct drive.

2.) Under the "Part List" option, I refreshed then selected the "Whole Disk MBR".

3.) I clicked on the "Install" button, and waited for the confirmation.

I then copied the contents of a bootable disc to the flash drive along with the "menu.lst" and "grldr" files from the grub4dos distribution. I booted the PC with the flash drive , and it worked correctly, as far as I could tell.

The problem is...

I reformatted the same flash drive, and went through the same steps as above. This time I copied a "different bootable disc's" (Xubuntu) contents to the drive, but when the Grub4dos menu appears, it only has the options from the "first disc" (Windows ME) I had used to flash drive to load.

Now I'm pretty new to partitioning/multi-booting, but I'm thinking this has something to do with the MBR I intially installed to the flash drive. Is there a way I can remove it from the flash drive, or is it possible I installed Grub4dos's MBR elsewhere?

[jaclaz]

Now I'm pretty new to partitioning/multi-booting, but I'm thinking this has something to do with the MBR I intially installed to the flash drive. Is there a way I can remove it from the flash drive, or is it possible I installed Grub4dos's MBR elsewhere?

Everything is possible, however, unless you edited grldr, the choices are in menu.lst, and in menu.lst ONLY.

If I were you I would (in this order):

• study a bit the grub4dos guide:
  http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=5187
  http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/Grub4dos.htm
  
• wipe the first 100 sectors of the stick:
  http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...=4015&st=21
  
• use the grub4dos toolbox:
  http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=7328
  

jaclaz

[HardDriv'n]

Thanks for all the material Jaclaz. It seems the grub4dos toolbox method requires that you need to enter the boot parameters manually, but I am interested in getting it to run an iso directly instead of extracting the image beforehand. I guess I have some reading to do.

The grub4dos tutorial doesn't seem cover usb booting though, and I'm not interested in installing grub4dos to my hard drive.

I also didn't understand how to use the DSFOK to scrub USB flash drives, but thanks anyway.

[jaclaz]

I guess I have some reading to do.

The grub4dos tutorial doesn't seem cover usb booting though, and I'm not interested in installing grub4dos to my hard drive.

Yes, you need to.

For all that matters to grub4dos, an USB stick (a partitioned one, I hope you are not using a superfloppy one ) is a hard disk.

Take your time reading in the grub4dos Forum:

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showforum=66

What did you use to partition/format it?

Use RMPREPUSB:

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showforum=95

or any of the other ones listed here:

http://www.msfn.org/board/4gb-iso-file-siz...93-page-17.html

I also didn't understand how to use the DSFOK to scrub USB flash drives, but thanks anyway.

Are you familiar with command line apps?

The post explains the 4 simple steps:

1. download
   
2. extract from .zip archive
   
3. run fsz with given parameters
   
4. run dsfi with appropriate parameters
   

Which one is a problem?

Making sure of the number of physical drive?

jaclaz

Edited October 5, 2009 by jaclaz

[HardDriv'n]

What did you use to partition/format it?

I didn't know you needed a tool, but on a couple of tries I had used an utility named just "usb format".

Which one is a problem?

Making sure of the number of physical drive?

jaclaz

The irony of my chosen user name is not lost, but ... yes.

How do I tell what drives are recognized as what?

[jaclaz]

Use either Hdhacker or beeblebrox.

Links/instructions here:

http://www.msfn.org/board/screwed-up-usb-drive-t137990.html

beeblebrox is offline right now, get it through The Wayback Machine:

http://web.archive.org/web/20080423005903/...byu.edu/~codyb/

http://web.archive.org/web/20060223003044/...broxntsetup.zip

Basically you run any of the two program without the USB stick inserted and check which drives you have available.

Then you re-run it with the USB stick attached and the added drive # is the one you need to use.

jaclaz