Re: Removing grub *WITHOUT* using other OS'es. Was: ...RemovingGrub (Again)

[Grant Edwards]

On Thu, Apr 04, 2002 at 03:57:39PM -0600, RD Lawrence wrote:

> Right.  It puts back what was there before.  What we need is
>
> 1) a facility for saving the MBRs and PBRs prior to grub
>    installation;

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

> 2) a facility for restoring a vanilla MBR and PBR if necessary,
>    without overwriting the partition table; and 

Don't know what "a vanilla MBR and PBR" means.  Assuming you've
got one in a file named vanillaBootloader:

  dd if=/dev/hda of=/tmp/foo bs=512 count=1                   # grab current 
boot sector
  cp vanillaBootloader /tmp/bar                               # working copy of 
"vanilla"
  dd if=/tmp/foo of=/tmp/bar bs=1 skip=446 seek=446 count=66  # copy current 
partition table
  dd if=/tmp/bar of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1                   # install it

> 3) a facility for restoring former MBRs and PBRs that have been saved.

  dd if=backupBootSector of=/dev/hda1 bs=512 count=1

> And this really ought to be done within the linux environment,
> without falling back on that unmentionable M$ stuff (even the
> free versions). :-)

dd is your friend.

WARNING:  I haven't tested any of the above.  There may be
          typos...