How do I remove a MBR on USB Drive

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01-09-2006, 02:45 AM
jotruelove

How do I remove a MBR on USB Drive

Greetings all! I used syslinux to make my USB 1.0 GB stick bootable in am effort to put Knoppix 4.0 CD version on the drive. I was unsuccessful in the effort, and want to resize the drive with different partitions, but I am unable to "undo" what syslinux had done. Is there any way to remove the MBR and give me full access to the stick?

Thanks for the help :)

Jim
01-09-2006, 03:19 PM
SiKing

I'm not sure if this is going to be of any help to you, but I don't believe you can actually remove / delete an MBR from any disk. You can, however, overwrite it. :) Select the program that you would like to use: Windows loader, GRUB, LILO, etc. and follow the instruction that came with it to install it to the MBR.
As for resizing / changing partitions: try qtparted that comes with Knoppix. Wonderful tool, I use it all the time.
HTH.
02-08-2006, 10:19 AM
jjmac

Quote:

Originally Posted by SiKing

I'm not sure if this is going to be of any help to you, but I don't believe you can actually remove / delete an MBR from any disk. You can, however, overwrite it. :) Select the program that you would like to use: Windows loader, GRUB, LILO, etc. and follow the instruction that came with it to install it to the MBR.
As for resizing / changing partitions: try qtparted that comes with Knoppix. Wonderful tool, I use it all the time.
HTH.

Ohhh, (grin)., It's quite easy to remove an MBR, i do it occasionally, though, usually by accident.

If the device has a device file associated with it (/dev/file-name) then you can point "dd" at it.

Very useful for backing up an MBR/table or othe disk boot sector, and for restoration.

And if your thinking of using "dd", read up on its' manual first, very well so, it's not a toy. It is a powerfull tool that can wipe out whole partitions with a single key press.

jm