I need help, i have mandriva 2008.1 power pack on my pc but im trying to re install xp and everytime i try i boot from windows cd it loads all of the drives than says staring windows and then i get the error message on the screen i even tried switching harddrives and that doesnt help....

Please read the following:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/...Ask_a_Question

1. Make an informative title. I know you need help, or you would not be posting here. You will get appropriate help sooner by putting the problem in the title.
2. When you get an error message - tell us what the error message is.
3. Do write proper sentences - and punctuate. Anything which makes you question easier to read will help you get decent results.
4. Please take the trouble to edit your profile to show your location and distro in the sidebar. Possibly English is not your first language?

From what you did write, you are trying to install XP and the process is not working.

This suggests there is a problem with your XP disk. You may need to remaster it from a backup. Without the error, I cannot really be more exact. Certainly there is nothing Mandriva can do to prevent an install.

The usual workaround is to throw the XP disk away and never look back.
Happy hacking.

@peer: use the search function
It is good to post to an existing thread.
It is very bad if the thread has nothing to do with your question.

I wish it was possible for n00bs not to be able to post a thread for week or so. Give them a week to READ other threads and FAQ's on the site. It might avoid a lot (some) of these "I need help" or Urgent" threads.

There seems to be a plague of exclamation marks breaking out. Quite a few newbie threads are infected.

There is a forum for such wishful thinking, which will produce lots of really old members telling you why that's a bad idea.

Note: these "I need help" and "urgent" titles are because that is how you ask for help face-to-face. If you just walked up to someone and started describing your problems without this sort of preamble, that would be rude - I mean, just imagine it.

Now imagine you've just approached someone with "I could use a hand here" and they turn on you with "Just tell me the problem dummy!" ... You'd be a little confused no?

Trouble is, online has the opposite rules from face-to-face. When you aren't used to it, that's counter-intuitive. It doesn't help that there are copious boards which are relaxed about this sort of thing.


It's the OT reply that's frustrating - Posting to an existing thread is one of the advices we give out. Posting to a relevant thread would be a sign of intellegence. Meantime, OP gets an email notification with an unrelated question instead of anything remotely like an answer... will we see that worthy again?

Tune in tomorrow - same bat-time, same bat-thread...

i30sleeper, what error message do you get?

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/15...ying-reinstall

Perhaps when you installed mandrake, you formatted the entire hard drive as something like /ext3. Then when you try to reinstall XP, it won't see the hard drive. But unless you did something similar to the other hard drive you mention, I wouldn't understand why it doesn't work there:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=917159

The other possibility is, as was mentioned, your XP installation CD is bad.

Is it also possible that this is a Microsoft activation code sort of problem?

peer, perhaps this will help:

http://www.howtoforge.com/forums/arc...p/t-22006.html

can you run it as root/super user? That might provide more information. If you try to start it from the command line, instead of selecting from the desktop, does it work? If not, what error does it supply?

Moved: This thread is more suitable in <GENERAL> and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

I know what you are talking about. I have had the problem as well. You try to install windows but it simply refuses too as long as it detects anything linux on your pc, even if it is on a different drive than the one you will be installing to. So I simply disconnected all drives except the one I needed and then the install went through. If this is not an option, you may want to try making an ntfs partition using gparted; I think this should be enough to get the install cd to cooperate (but I do recommend, if possible, to re-format that partition during install as I am not sure whether open source ntfs is 100% compatible).

use a 98se boot disk and try
fdisk /mbr
to clean out the master boot record.

generally works for me