Hi, i just got a used laptop that has fedora installed on it. I dont think that linux will be compatible with most of the programs i want to run, so i'm attempting to uninstall linux and install windows. you cant do this with the windows boot up disk, the screen just goes blank when you choose to boot from disk. i read forums that said this is because the windows disk cannot recognize the linux partitions. SO they say you have to use another utility, such as the linux setup disk. the problem is i do not have this, and i do not have a floppy drive in the computer. I do have a cdr/rw, but as of yet it does not recognize the blank cds i put in. anybody know any other utilities i can use to delete linux? programs? any other way?
thanks alot.

Boot from Windows installation CD. Select Install, when it gets to the partition section select the "unknown partition" and delete it. Install windows on your system

There is no need for a separate program or utility to remove windows and install win2k or winXP, the windows CD can do everything you need.

http://www.windows2000.windowsreinst...dhdd/index.htm

I thought OP could not boot from CD...

If you can't boot from CD, then that has nothing to do with what OS is installed on the Hard drive.
Exactly where in the process does this happen??

well, you start up and it gets to the point where it says: "boot from cd press any key.." then if you press any key in the next few seconds, words appear that say "setup is checking your hardware configuration" for a second or two, then the screen goes blank. i hear the cd drive working, but the screen remains blank. i noticed someone else had mentioned this happening to them in a similar situation, i will look for that and see if i can get any more info.

Try formatting some space over the disk(you might have some free ) into a FAT32(supported out of box in fedora) or NTFS(need some drivers..can easily be found)
and then boot from wondows CD.Even though i dint try this i hope it should work.

sorry, but i'm relativley amateur when it comes to computers.. can you help explain how i would do this?

I just had EXACTLY the same problem. I called up my computer company and luckily they had a Linux expert working there and they put me in touch with him. There is no easy way to uninstall Linux. He had me doing all kinds of stuff but what it boils down to is that we deleted Linux's partitions. This allowed Windows to not see strange partitions and after that the Windows boot/setup disk worked properly. I now have a dual booting computer, the trick is you have to install Windows first. I don't know if there is a utility that can help you. That guy that helped me told me EVERYthing to type. Good luck.

I suspect this will be pretty simple to fix. Issue the following from a terminal session, and post the results(that's a lowercase ell)

holy smokes guys uninstalling is a non-issue.. the problem is your PC isn't booting from the CD properly...

to remove linux all you need to do is wipe the partition info from the drive, easily done with a tool such as Dariks boot and nuke http://dban.sourceforge.net/ or the Windows Install CD as I mentioned earlier..

If your machine is failing to boot from the windows CD completely that has nothing to do with Linux being installed on the hard drive. Since the machine is booting from the CD it is not even accessing the hard drive, that early in the process. they are giving you bad info by claiming that Linux breing installed is causingg the CD to not boot. that is B.S. plain and simple.

I'd be more apt to think theres something wrong with either the CDROM drive, the RAM in the PC, or the CD itself is damaged (dirty or scratched) and that is what is causing the boot process to fail. since you did say That means the boot process has started on the CD. after it started it failed for some reason possibly one of the ones I mentioned above.

You can try the dban disk I mentioned above, I would also download memtest + and check the RAM in the PC/Laptop
http://www.memtest.org/

These are bootable iso image downloads you will need to burn them to a CD to use them, have a friend give you a hand if you are unfamiliar with how to do this..

you could even boot into linux, su- to root and issue the following command.. # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1 that will zero out the MBR and wipe the partition table.. reboot the laptop and Neither linux or windows will see any partitions on the laptop , they will both believe the drive is completely blank.

- the CD *is* booting fine ...
- the problem *is* (probably) something done from Linux ...
- the "dd" command *will* (probably) fix the problem, and you'll never know why.
Which is why I didn't recommend it.

I'd be willing to bet there is no hardware issue involved.

This is a perfect solution if you have a Windows 2000 installation CD.
Boot the pc from that cd(it will definitely boot).Then upgrade the pc with winxp cd.
This is the thing i always do with my dual boot machine.

Iam quite sure that there isn't any hard ware problem.

if you dont have that win 2000 cd,the solution of erasing the MBR is good one to follow.

I'm the guy who wrote yesterday that we basically had to wipe out Linux's partitions. That guy who told you that the Windows disk was booting alright and that you probably had a bad CD player or bad memory or a bad disk was giving you bad info. I had EXACTLY the same problem. And that guy who told you, you could delete the partitions as part of Windows setup; that's your whole problem: You can't get to that point. Anyway, I'd say your best bet is (if it will work in Linux) that utility "dban". Good luck again, you're in a bad situation not made better by oversimplifications.

But it was my understanding that you don't want to muck around with /dev/hda. You could access the low level formatting and possibly FUBAR it(low level formatting) making the whole issue null and void by forcing the purchase of a new hard drive.

I'm wanting to say that I gleaned that info in Running Linux from O'Reilly or maybe a Unix book from Sybex, but I'm not for sure. And I don't wanna learn from a mistake on that one.

No, that is the point of what you are trying to do,
you want to acsess the low level formating and remove it,
you cant FUBAR a drive taht easialy, sure you can make it totally blank and unreadable, but here that is what is desired

windose dousent like old hard drives that allready have somthing on.

my method woule be to download SLAX (www.slax.org)
burn teh CD,
boot from it
run cfdisk and delete all existing partitions,
write the partitioon table, then retrry the windows installation
it shoudl see the hDD as being totally blank as if it was new.

the problem might not be with the HDD though
sometimes auto-probing for hardware can cause a crash
if i try to probe for printers on linux i get a full system hang :-(
windose being full of bugs is more likly to cause this!

its a pity windows dousent have a boot: prompt when you install to pass it parameters, but then again it dounst have a proper kernal to pass anything to