Re: Fixing Clobbered MBR -- the real message

See below.

"Norm Dresner" <ndrez@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:YVbci.84791$Sa4.59098@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sorry for hitting the wrong key and posting an incomplete message.
Anyway,
the scene is my wife's laptop. Previously I had a WinXP Pro and Linux
dual
boot setup. The goal was to remove the Linux installation and reclaim the
desk space for WinXP.

1. Using Norton Partition Magic, I deleted the Linux partitions. So far
everything's okay, machine still boots.

2. Then I used Partition Magic to move the WinXP partition forward on the
disk to where the Linux Partition was so I could later extend it
backwards.
OOPS! Having moved windows stuff into the space that Linux occupied, I
overwrote the Linux loader (LILO) and could no longer boot.

I know that I have to restore the MBR to fix the problem.

3. I booted the Windows XP installation CD to the recovery console and
discovered that I had no idea what the administrator password was set to.
I've tried about 15 variants of the passwords we usually use (including
blank) with no success.

QUESTIONS:

I have about a half-dozen computers here ranging from Win98 to Win2K to
WinXP. I have complete access to all of the hardware.

A. Is there any way I could attach the hard disk from laptop to another
computer and reset the MBR that way?

*** As you observe correctly in your subsequent answer, you can
*** use an adapter to connect your laptop disk to a desktop IDE cable.
*** However, there is no need to: Simply boot the laptop with a Win98
*** boot disk (www.bootdisk.com), then type this command:
*** fdisk /mbr
*** The command is insensitive to the partition type (FAT/NTFS).

B. Could I attach the hard disk from the laptop to another computer and
"reset" the administrator password that way?

*** Again a boot disk will fix this:
*** http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html
*** It would be an excellent idea to create a second admin account,
*** same as you probably have two sets of keys for your car, for
*** obvious reasons . . .

B. Would purchasing a USB floppy and booting a, say, MS-DOS or Win98 (or
better) floppy and running FDISK work?

*** Great idea, except that DOS won't recognise USB disks.

C. What else is there that I can do?

Thanks in Advance
Norm



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