I want to install Windows XP Pro alongside my Fedora Core 4 installation. I was wondering where I can find documentation on this as my MBR is changed so I cant just stick the windows disk in the drive.

follow this

http://fedoranews.org/contributors/bob_kashani/grub/

regards

My problem isnt that I want to restore the linux MBR. I can do that with the rescue disk. My problem is that I want the Windows MBR restored so I can reinstall Windows!!!! it wont boot from the Windows disk correctly so that I can install on from boot. It says its booted then it checks my hardware configuration and then it just blanks out!

the boot from win98 CD and run

fdisk /mbr

or

from XP/2000 cd
go to recovery mode then

run

fixmbr

regards

Almost, except that I have no Windows installation. Can I run the fix MBR command in Linux? Somehow this seems highly unlikely. I dont know anyone with a Win 98 CD.. I dont have a floppy drive so I cant just run a rescue floppy. Thanks for all your help thus far!

Also, I try booting from winXP disk and it freezes after it checks my hardware configuration. How will it be any differrent with win98 cd?

hi there

u can do that by using a rescue floppy in win98

also don't u have an entry for windows in grub
if u have windows installed make an entry for that in the bootloader or else why do u want to remove grub?

if u boot from the CD and install windows then that will overwrite grub

regards

I really appreciate your help but you must pay close attention to my situation.

My goal is to install Windows on my laptop along side my linux installation.

A. I currently have no installation of Windows on my Laptop. Just simply Fedora Core 4 test 2 Linux.
B. I have no Windows 98 CD, or any means to get one.
C. I have no floppy disk drive in my Laptop.
D. When I put the Windows XP CD in my drive and have it boot from CD it freezes after saying "Checking Hardware Configuration..."
E. This freezing makes it so I cannot install Windows XP.

Why does it freeze? Am I going about installing Windows wrong? Help please! I thought it might have to do with the boot loader configuration, prehaps I am wrong.

hi there

it has nothing to do with ur bootloader

maybe ur partiton table has corrupted or it is stuck on some device

give it some time when it is stuck

regards

Windows install did same thing with me.Comes up checking hardware then goes to blank screen.How did I get it to work right.The only way I got it to install right was to dump linux and the linux partions.Yeah pain in the ass having to install windows and linux over again.But no matter what I did wouldn't work until partions were gone then worked fine.I have put windows on before after linux and worked fine but yeah anymore unless I dump linux partions it doesn't work.

I had the same problem with windows and FC3. It seems that (for me at least) the changes FC3 does to the partition table and the mbr are not understood by windows. I had to clean both the mbr and the partition table Here's what I did. But if you do it you will loose all the data on your hard drive. You also could find a way to install the boot loader on fedora's boot partition instead of the mbr and install xosl as your boot loader. In this way you can have both windows and FC on the same hard drive.

Well, Microsoft tells you how to do it, quickly: (they want you back on MS Win)
To remove Linux from your computer and install Windows XP, follow these steps:
1. Remove the native, swap, and boot partitions used by Linux:
a. Start your computer with the Linux Setup floppy disk, type fdisk at the command prompt, and then press ENTER.

NOTE: For help with using the Fdisk tool, type m at the command prompt, and then press ENTER.
b. Type p at the command prompt, and then press ENTER to display partition information. The first item listed is hard disk 1, partition 1 information, and the second item listed is hard disk 1, partition 2 information.
c. Type d at the command prompt, and then press ENTER. You are then prompted for the partition number that you want to delete. Type 1, and then press ENTER to delete partition number 1. Repeat this step until all the partitions have been deleted.
d. Type w, and then press ENTER to write this information to the partition table. Some error messages may be generated (because information is written to the partition table), but they should not be significant at this point because the next step is to restart the computer and then install the new operating system.
e. Type q at the command prompt, and then press ENTER to quit the Fdisk tool.
f. Insert either a bootable floppy disk or the bootable Windows XP CD-ROM, and then press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to restart your computer.
2. Follow the instructions on the screen to install Windows XP.

The installation process assists you in creating the appropriate partitions on your computer.

Is your problem that you don't have a partition on the HD that windows recognises!!!
It doesn't know anything about ext3, so if you only have linux partitions, it thinks the HD's full.
You need to create some free space, I think windows CD should be able to format it to ntfs or fat32, if it's unformated.

Wow, been a while since I started this thread.

The MBR is the first few bytes on a disk. To erase this part of the disk I normally use knoppix. Booting from knoppix and using Fdisk, dd, and other commands come to mind. Many different ways to tackle this one.

If you completely erased the disk, Windows shouldn't have a problem picking it up and writing an MBR to the first portion.

Do you have to format it as a fat32 partition with the Knoppix cd, for windows to see the partition?