Uninstalling the boot manager Boot-US
The boot manager Boot-US can be uninstalled by any of the following three methods:
- command Bootmanager / Remove... in the configuration program Boot-US (GUI)
- command bootusc bootmanager remove in the command-line version of the configuration program Boot-US
- command Uninstall boot manager directy in the boot manager
All three methods are equivalent. The same operations are performed in all three cases.
In short, the boot loader in the MBR is restored, a potentially created partition for the boot manager is deleted and
the former active partition is reactivated. Additionally all hidden partitions are made visible.
Uninstalling a boot manager manually
Sometimes it might be necessary to uninstall a boot manager by standard tools, especially when
the accompanying uninstallation program is not available. As explained you should never
face such a situation with the boot manager of Boot-US. However with respect to other boot managers
it might be useful to know how to remove them by standard tools.
The necessary steps depend mainly on the location where the boot manager is installed.
Boot manager in separate primary partition
This type of installation is very easy to remove with standard tools.
It is sufficient to boot from a DOS diskette and deactivate the boot manager
partition with any partition manaer and activate another partition.
Examples for this type of installation are the OS/2 boot manager or the boot
manager Boot-US when installed on a separate partition.
Boot manager in MBR
This type of installation can also be removed with standard tools.
Again a DOS boot diskette with the standard FDISK program is needed. By
the command fdisk /mbr a standard boot loader code is written to the MBR.
The purpose of the standard boot loader code is to search the partition table
for a partition marked as active and to boot that partition. After that by a
partition manager an appropriate partition has to be marked as active. Alternatively by issuing
the command bootusc repair_mbr an equivalent standard boot loader code can
be written to the MBR. In the latter case the first partition is activated
automatically. An example for this type of installation is the boot manager
of Boot-US when installed on the MBR.
Boot manager in operating system
Here the boot manager is integrated into the operating system.
Naturally there is no general rule for removing such a boot manager.
It might even be impossible to remove such a boot manager.
The boot manager becomes active only after the operating system has been started.
It must be removed by the means offered by the corresponding operating system.
An example for this type of installation is the file "boot.ini" of Windows NT/2000/XP/2003.
This boot manager cannot be removed since it is necessary for starting Windows NT/2000/XP/2003.
Hidden partitions
When the boot manager is removed by the configuration program Boot-US then
all hidden partitions will be made visible during the uninstallation process.
However if the boot manager is removed "manually" hidden partitions will
remain hidden. Usually the hex number 10h is added to the partition ID to
hide a partition. This way of hiding a partition is used, for example, by
Boot-US and the OS/2 boot manager. In these cases the partitions can be made
visible simply by issuing the command bootusc unhide. Some boot managers
also change the boot sector when hiding partitions. Such
partitions cannot be made visible by standard tools. The original program used
for hiding the partition must be employed for unhiding them.
During the test of a boot manager it might happen that partitions are hid --
-- intentionally or unintentionally. Meanwhile this can be easily repaired directly
in the boot manager, see Miscellaneous tip 2.
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