GRUB messed up my MBR

ok, I'll admit I did something stupid. I installed XP, assigned a new partition and installed SUSE, then decided that I'd rather have all 20GB dedicated to XP and so I deleted the SUSE partition... GRUB was deleted, comp can't find the MBR.

For the last 2 weeks I've just replaced my D: with A: and made a dodgy boot.ini so that the computer defaults to C:\windows. This all works fine except I'd rather have the MBR fixed than take the side door.

So my question is: will overwriting the MBR corrupt my hard drive? And if not, how do I go about doing that?

boot into the windows xp cd, choose recovery mode, type fixmbr then reboot your computer. It should be fixed.

OP here, Windows XP CD:

-> Install Windows XP
-> Install optional Windows components
-> Perform additional tasks
----> Set up Remote Desktop Connection
----> Set up a home or small office network
----> Transfer files and settings
----> Browse this CD
----> View the release notes
----> Install .NET Framework
-> Check system compatibility
----> Check my system automatically
----> Visit the compatibility Web site

How do I get into recovery mode?

Put the cd into your cd drive then reboot your computer. If you have a typical BIOS setup it should say something like "press any key to boot from cd".

I wish it was that simple, but I've tried that already; for some reason it doesn't recognise the XP CD when booting (tried with both default BIOS settings, and forcing it to check D: first), hence the A: solution in the first place.

no. reinstal windows

This is just proof that Linux sucks ass.

What does an operating system kernel have to do with a fault in the Master Boot Record of a hard drive?

www.oprah.com

umm...dos can fix mbr dummy.

fdisk (both linux and dos ones): fixing ur mbr since 1987