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Zero-Out Hard Drive vs. Uninstall OS

I have been running Fedora Core 3 for about a year and a half now and want to go back to running a Windows OS, then have the ability to partition the drive and put linux on in the future. However, I have a dilemma: I can't install Windows XP.

I have two choices:

1) Uninstall Fedora
-I don't know how to do this
-is this even possible?

2) Zero-Out/Wipe my hard drive
-This is what comes up when I do fdisk

Code:

[root@localhost ~]# fdisk -l



Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes



  Device Boot      Start        End      Blocks  Id  System

/dev/sda1  *          1          17      136521  83  Linux

/dev/sda2              18        4369    34957440  83  Linux

/dev/sda3            4370        9468    40957717+  83  Linux

/dev/sda4            9469        9729    2096482+  5  Extended

/dev/sda5            9469        9729    2096451  82  Linux swap

-i have thought of doing

Code:

[root@localhost ~]# dd if=/dev/zero bs=1024 block=80000 of=/dev/sda

but I din't know if that would work or get through some parts of my drive, stop, and I have a half empty/half full drive

Any help would really be appreciated.

Get a live cd like SystemRescueCD which contains qtparted. Delete your partitions and create a new ntfs partition (and leave some space for your next linux install :))

There is a doc on the M$oft support site that provides all the gory details.

Okay, I deleted all the partitions, but now XP is telling me I don't have a hard drive when the computer startup tells me I do. If I startup without the cd, I boot from HD; the HD still has an imprint of Fedora, I guess, and comes up with "grub>". You guys have any clue what to do?

You need to fix the MBR. An old 98 boot disk would do it with fdisk /mbr

Or just install linux again :)

I stuck in an old Windows 98 recovery disk, got the prompt, and did fdisk /mbr. Then, to make sure I had no partitions or anything, I did fdisk and checked: no partitions. I inserted the XP disk, restarted, and viola, the same thing happens as before.

Windows XP tells me it cannot detect my hard drive disk and make sure it is connected and the stuff on it is "correct." Well, there is nothing on it. I do the recovery disk again and make a DOS partition. Then try installing XP; same problem. I try deleting the DOS partition; error. I use fdisk /mbr this time and still an error when I try to install XP.

Why is it that my computer and the old disks (98 or my fedora rescue thingy) see that I do indeed have a hard drive, but XP doesn't? How do I fix this?
(if it helps, the only new thing is that I cannot boot anything from the hard drive, not even grub; I now require a disk)

PS - thanks for what you guys have said so far, it has worked up to this point.

Unfortunately 'intelligent' and 'easy to use' OSes like windows aren't always very clever or simple.

fdisk /mbr will only wipe the mbr, not the partition table.

Did you use 'format' to format the partition? windows will not see it untill it is formatted.

Did you install the sata drivers for your drives? Just a thought.

Partition info must still be in a state that windows doesn't like. You might have to zero it out with a linux boot cd, or try ranish disk partitioner or something...