How do you uninstall Fedora Core 4 ?

JohnnioM · 04-03-2006, 02:57 PM

How do you uninstall Fedora Core 4, because I want a fresh hard drive to install Windows XP on. I am not dual booting Linux so the hard drive just has linux on it, ill show you what is there when I type fdisk -l :

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 14 2432 19430617+ 8e Linux LVM

Much help appreciated,
John

macemoneta · 04-03-2006, 03:01 PM

Boot up linux, then as root:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=16

This will make your drive unbootable and unmountable (even from a rescue CD) until you install an OS, so make sure you don't need to boot or access the drive again.

Shutdown and boot the Windows install CD.

JohnnioM · 04-03-2006, 03:10 PM

ok, hopefully this works and thanks for the fast reply

JohnnioM · 04-03-2006, 03:13 PM

sorry for double posting but will this 100% work, cause I dont want to fuck up my hd cause im on a laptop which means I only have 1 hd

Nylex · 04-03-2006, 03:20 PM

What's wrong with just booting from the Windows CD and proceeding with installation? You should be able to delete the Linux partitions (which may show up as "unknown") and create new ones for use with Windows.

JohnnioM · 04-03-2006, 03:22 PM

I have tried that, it boots up to the Windows XP cd and then says "Windows is now inspecting your systems hardware, please wait..." and then just shows a black screen, so thats why that doesnt work for me.

and on other sites I see this - dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1
but on this threads reply it says - dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=16

What one is right ?

macemoneta · 04-03-2006, 03:22 PM

What this command does is zero out the first 16 sectors on the hard drive. That includes the volume label, the master boot record (which probably contained lilo or grub), the partition table, and any additional metadata from LVM/software RAID (if you had them installed).

When you run the installer for an OS, it will find that it need to partition and format the drive, since all the data is gone. The OS will assign its default label to the drive.

JohnnioM · 04-03-2006, 03:27 PM

oh, ok, so this means it will actually pass the hardware inspection stage and successfully partition and format the hd then go on its way to install Windows XP, and the reason why I am uninstalling Linux is because my family needs to use the laptop as well so XP will be better.

JohnnioM · 04-03-2006, 03:29 PM

so let me get this straight, here is what I will do:
1. Boot up into Linux and log on as 'root'
2. Start up Terminal
3. Type into the terminal: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=16
4. Shutdown and start the laptop up and boot into the Windows XP disk
5. Follow the instructions to install Windows XP

So is that what you do ?

macemoneta · 04-03-2006, 03:30 PM

For those interested, the Windows XP installer is particularly brain-dead. I've had it refuse to install/hang/blue screen when finding data it thought it recognized in the these sectors. I've even had it fail when formatting an NTFS filesystem during installation if it finds a bad sector in the wrong location (formatting with Linux corrects that too). To work around these problems, I usually boot a Linux rescue disk, zap the sectors as above.

macemoneta · 04-03-2006, 03:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnnioM

so let me get this straight, here is what I will do:
1. Boot up into Linux and log on as 'root'
2. Start up Terminal
3. Type into the terminal: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=16
4. Shutdown and start the laptop up and boot into the Windows XP disk
5. Follow the instructions to install Windows XP

So is that what you do ?

It's what I've done to correct problems with the Windows installation for others. Personally, I and my extended family run Linux.