Uninstalling FC3 w/out losing XP
 

Hi, I'm running an Inspiron 1100 with a 20 gig hardrive that's partitioned into Fedora Core 3 and Windows XP. I've never had to uninstall Linux before but now, due to space issues and some internet things, I have to get rid of it.
I want to uninstall Fedora and add it's space to my current windows partition without losing all the data on XP right now.
If this isn't possible I'd like to know how to wipe the thing clean, unpartition it, then I'll just install WinXP from scratch.

Thanks much,
Matt

you are all turned around
 

No, no, no! You've got it backwards. You want to reclaim that ntfs partition as ext3 and then mount it under fedora as /no_longer_a_waste_of_space. Or, if you like things backwards you can do the following...

You should be able to run fdisk from windows to remove and reformat the ext3 partitions into one big ntfs partition. Once that partition is formatted ntfs I think Windows will detect the new partition and you will find it under D: or E: or Z: or whatever. Of course I have never something crazy like this.

Be sure to backup all your data because anytime you go mucking about with your partition table you run the risk of screwing up!

good luck with windows, you'll need it!

Uh.. what?
 

Understood nothing at all about "You want to reclaim that ntfs partition as ext3 and then mount it under fedora as /no_longer_a_waste_of_space."

And what in the nine hells is "fdisk"?

Re: Uh.. what?
 

ya know, people have been saying that to me when trying to help me....

and i still dont know!

lol........it's the windows way of spelling cfdisk.
just use a windows boot floppy to format the FC partition as fat.
if you installed the bootloader to the MBR ,then boot from your XP disk (assuming you have one) and select the repair option.enter "fixmbr" at the prompt and let it run.
reboot to XP and format the new partition as ntfs.
*or you can just use cfdisk and format the partition as ntfs and be done in 2 steps*

I have had to do something similar before... Though it was removing Gentoo for a while before installing Ubuntu. So here is what I would do.

Go to Start, click run.
Type "compmgmt.msc" in the open line.
Click run.

A window titled "Computer Management" will pop up.
In that window, click "Disk Management " in the left pane.
In the right pane two new panes will show up showing your partitions.
In the bottom pane your linux partitions will be labled "Unknown".
You can right click on them and delete them, then you can do some more right clicking and reformat them as ntfs.

Once that is done all your linux stuff will be gone. So you will want to back up everything on those partitions you want to save first.

If you installed lilo or grub on your mbr(master boot record) you will want to get rid of it.
Just boot to a windows startup disk or cd, and type in the commandline: fdisk /mbr That will reset your mbr to it's default.

Hope that helps!

Uh.. what?
 

Dude... do you see the word 'Newbie' at the top?
No clue what cfdisk is, and only vaguely aware that a FAT or NTFS is a type or drive format. Also. I'm running a notebook, no floppy drive. Also, don't know what 'FC' is.

fdisk is a dos partitioning program. It runs in a text based mode. Hard to use if you don't know what you are doing. That is why I posted the windows based instructions.

The fdisk /mbr is only if you want to remove the boot manager. All you have to do for that is boot into dos, a windows cd should work for that, and type fdisk /mbr hit enter and it will be done.

Thanks much
 

Thanks Jerrac.

I just deleted the linux partition and reformated it as an extended drive. I'm hoping I won't have to fuck with the MBR (I do happen to know what that is) but that much I can figure out. :)

You're welcome! :D

fc3 removal
 

hello. just use the disk manager function of xp to reclaim the partition for ntfs.

Uh..
 

Already got it, slicky. Thanks anyway

Uninstall FC3
 

Hi,

Boot with a boot floppy dsik win98. Skip cdrom support and just type at prompt A:
A:>fdisk /mbr

Reboot. And have a fun ... :D

I know you already got it figured out but if you need to do anything else with partitions, check out "Paragon Partition Manager" or PartitionMagic." These both run underwindows and gives you awsome control over your partitions. Both trials are useless as far as i know but you can download a full version via emule or bittorrent (as long as you delete it right away).