INTEL Boot Agent question

[OldLadyWho]

I don't know if this is a question for the Win2K forum or the Linux one...but here goes...

I have an older, hand-me-down, Compaq Armada laptop with Win2K loaded on it. However, the drive was partitioned to dual boot Mandrake. The W2K Disk managment tool shows 3 additional partitions besides the NTFS drive.

I would like to get rid of those partitions & Mandrake (I have a new version of SuSe on my other computer now) to give that little laptop more hard drive space, but I don't want to destroy the exisiting W2K setup. (I know there are no guarantees, but would like to make that my goal, at least)

The disk managment tool seems to do a pretty good job of re-partitioning and formatting of partitions (so far), but I don't know how to deal with the INTEL Boot Agent. If I take Mandrake off and let W2K format those partitions to NTFS, will it also get rid of the boot agent? Or do I need to uninstall that myself? There seems little point in having it when there are no longer two OSs on that computer.

Any ideas, or advice of how to do this? (Thanks ahead of time :O) OldLadyWho

 

[JohnWill]

You should be able to use Disk Manager to delete all the other partitions, assuming that W2K is installed on the C: partition. To repair the boot loader, try booting the CD and doing a FIXBOOT, it should get you back to the W2K loader.

 

[OldLadyWho]

Yes, the W2K is on the C: partition. I have used the Disk Manager a time or two on other computers and it seems to be a fairly easy and reliable tool.

What I don't understand is "where" the INTEL Boot Agent resides...

...I would like to get rid of it completely, rather than "repair it".

I guess I don't know if it resides on one of the partitions that I am going to clean off...if so, will it just be eliminated along with the Mandrake partition (thereby curing my dilemma)? Or is it a program that resides somewhere on the W2K drive that I can find and uninstall? (so far I haven't found it)

Is it part of Win2K itself?

If I leave it on there, will I always have to reboot in order to access the newly formatted partitions?

Or can it be left on the computer, but disabled somehow, so that Windows will go ahead and just boot without stopping at the Boot Agent Window first?

The only disk I have for the laptop is a Compaq "restore" disk...if I were to "explore" it and find the FIXBOOT on there, how will that help to get rid of the boot agent from the laptop?

The system was already set up when I got it, so I don't know how the dual-boot setup was done. I have a computer with SuSe on it (which I'm just learning...very slowly), but it doesn't share its hard drive with any other OS...

Any ideas? ((and thank you VERY much for helping)) OLW

 

[OldLadyWho]

The light bulb over my dim little head finally "lit up", and a most humble OLW apologises for being TOO dense today...I re-read the advice given to me by johnwill and realized that I had missed his point...and didn't think it thru before I answered.

Sorry...

What can I say? So many things to learn...so few brain cells...

Your suggestion worked...I am slow, but did get it figured out..

Thank you so much for helping...

OldLadyWho (apparently needs rest)

 

[JohnWill]

I guess I did forget to mention that the "fix" was actually nuking the boot loader in question.

 

[OldLadyWho]

johnwill, I am just happy that you gave me another direction to look. It helped...I did get it figured out and that's what counts, right?

Thank you for helping, you did a good job. I now have an extra 4GB of room on my little Compaq's hard drive, which was the goal to begin with.

So, all's well. You guys are great on this web site...

OLW