Fedora vs. XP driving me nuts
 

Can someone please help me? I am trying to get Windows XP back onto my laptop. It's an HP Omnibook XE3. It previously had Windows XP on it. I - in order to try something new decided to put Kubuntu 7.04 on it. Then I put Fedora 7 on it. Later I tried to put Windows XP back on it. I could not. I tried putting Kubuntu back on it, and after I did, then I was able to put XP back. I recently put Fedora back on, after having Windows on it for some time. Now, I am trying to put Windows XP on it again (for software compatibility issues). I cannot even put Kubuntu back on. When I try, an error box comes up with something like "I/O Error, Cannot read disk" and had a "Reboot" button as the only option. When I try booting the Win XP (Home Edition SP2) disk, after I push any key to boot from the cd, it says setup is inspecting the computer's hardware configuration, then it does absolutely nothing else at all.

All of the many, many general linux/xp forum that discuss a matter similar to this are way too far over my head. Please, please help me in the most basic way possible. Thanks.

I am guessing you routinely delete and recreate partitions to accomodate the different OSs. Probably this has somehow corrupted the partition table. Try using the Fedora CD to delete partitions and create new ones or restore an earlier partition table. The tools to do this are shown during the installation process.

Or wipe your disc first
 

If you can't fix your boot sector as described above, or windows still fails to install you can wipe your HDD using Darik's Boot & Nuke:
http://dban.sourceforge.net/

Copy this tiny utility to a boot floppy or CD, boot from it and follow the instructions.

If you have more than one drive make sure you wipe the correct one. There's no going back.

what a trouble you have done !!!
 

what a trouble you have done !!!

Use Gparted cd or a Fedora installation cd or a Fedora rescue cd to delete all the Linux partitions you have made,reboot with the Xp cd,install Xp,then reboot with the Xp cd,access the Recovery console.type:

fixmbr

fixboot

then reboot and load Fedora installation cd,make a swap partition and a / partition with EXT3-DON'T USE XFS FOR HOME IN FEDORA BECAUSE FEDORA,MANDRIVA AND MAYBE OPENSUSE TOO-BUT FOR OPENSUSE I'M NOT SURE-CAN'T HANDLE IT OR YOUR PC WILL NO BOOT ANYMORE !-MAYBE THIS COULD BE YOUR ERROR

(others distros like PCLOS and Mint can use XFS for / too without problems and infact i use XFS with them while in -fedora i've always used EXT3 )


then follow the installation instructions and you will not have any more problems

I'VE FOUND A TRICK TO FIX FEDORA'S GRUB BOOTING PROBLEMS IN MULTIPLE BOOTS WHEN GRUB IS LOST AFTER MBR RECOVER AND I'M GONNA WRITE AN HOW-TO FOR THIS IN THE NEXT HOURS,STAY TUNED..


Good luck..let me know how it goes !