Hi,

I have windows xp and linux fedora core 4 dual boot on my HP Pavillion laptop with grub loader. My windows crashed recently probably due to deletion of some OS file. Linux works good, but I cannot connect to the internet. I tried to repair windows xp with my Windows XP CD, but when I try to boot from the CD nothing happens and the CD just keeps on running. I feel it couldn't find the start address of win XP as I have Grub loader at start. I feel a solution is to format linux and the grub loader. Then the winxp cd will detect the winxp installed on the hard drive and will be able to repair it. Can anyone help me format linux and the grub loader so that I do not loose any information in winxp.

Thanks in advance,
Kiran.

PS: I have a separate FAT32 partition used to share files between winxp and linux.

well if you use a windows 98 boot disk, or a bootable CD of some description then you can startup fdisk, this will show you all the partitions on the Hard drive just delete the partitions with Linux on them. They should show up as non-ms dos based partitions, but come to think about it so will the NTFS partitions on your windows machine. so choose carfully what partitions you want to delete!! the next step is while you are in MS-dos run fdisk /mbr that will wipe grub out and then you can go from there. although i'm not sure that what your saying will work.

if your really unsure of what partitions hold windows on it then just run the fdisk /mbr, that will get rid of grub and try your windows XP CD then.

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. My laptop doesn't have a floppy drive. The windows xp cd which I have is a bootable cd. Shouldn't I get the prompt with that CD to type "fdisk /mbr". Else how can I create a bootable CD.


Thanks,
-Kiran.

i know nero has a bootable CD option. it's pretty easy just go out of the wizard say you want to burn a bootable CD with win98 emulation.

http://www.bootdisk.com/nero.htm

you might want to look around www.bootdisk.com for some other ideas if this one isn't what you want.