So I tried to install redhat 9 (kernel 2.4.20-6) on my computer for the first time ever in my life, and lo and behold, I run into problems. I can't get a connection to the internet through my onboard lan even after installing the driver for that kernel offered by the manufacturers website.
I need more access to the internet to solve this problem (and future problems that I will no doubt run into) but as of right now, the only time I have access to the internet is when I am at work (not much time at all).
So, I decided that I would be better off, uninstalling redhat 9, installing a windows platform (since I am more familiar with windows) and then assigning a specific partition for linux and reinstalling redhat on that seperate partition so that if something goes wrong, then at least I'll know windows is running fine (which is something I should have done in the first place).
The problem with this is that I don't know how to uninstall linux, and my entire hard drive (all 120gigs) is in ext3 format. When I boot from my win98se or winxp CD, it says that the disk is in a non ms-dos format, and when I try and get it to format it back into fat or vfat, it says theres an error and it can't do it. I'm stuck with a completely foreign platform and constantly find myself wishing I could just type fdisk or something dos related so that I could feel at home in my own computer.
Can someone please (PLEASE) tell me how I can format my hardrive so that I can install windows on it again? or please tell me how to troubleshoot my lan card so that I can get access the internet. My ultimate goal here is to have two OS's (XP or 98 and linux) on my computer, but right now I'd be happy with just being able to connect to the internet.

my mobo is the ABIT NF7-S V2.0.
and btw, the OS recognizes my onboard lan, it just can't establish a connection to the internet. If its of any relevance, I'm also using linksys router, and I'm on a dhcp server.

first off you're not a dumb noob. we were all there once.

secondly, you can boot from your boot disk or even install cd and use 'cfdisk' to format the whole drive back to fat32.

thanks a lot for your help - what a simple answer. I'll give that a shot, and then once everythings set up properly, I'll give RH9 a shot again too. I guess I'm just frustrated because the OS is so new to me.

I recomend you trying fedora core 2 (It can get kind of buggy) or Mandrake (most people don't have problems with it). Red Hat 8 was my first linux distro but I had a dard time configuring it. It almost made me give up linux. Then I switch to red hat 9 (I didn't like it it seemed like it didn't have enough drivers), then I switch to fedora core 1 (ok but very buggy) Now I'm using fedora core 2 and loving it. My computer cam with a intergrated ethernet card but I bought a new one with awesome driver support. I'd recomend you buy a netgear fA11 if your using RedHat. They work perfectly. Try download the nforce drivers from nvidia they should work too. when I had redhat 9 they worked for me. You have a reallu good motherboard, and don't feel stupid because on my first linux distro I did some stupid stuff. I had the hardest time figuring out how to even partition my hardrive, The first thing I tried to install on my harddrive was minux (never again)! I killed my masterboot record because I could remember the way linux names harddrives.

Try thr nvida site -------------->http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_nforce_1.0-0274

that link take you to the nforce driver download page.

Thanks mate i just made a post looking for these drivers

Regards Deagle