Hi, I installed Mandriva linux in my laptop HD. I want to unstall it and then install winxp first and then the linux. However, I am having troubles unstalling ths linux. The following is what I did.

(1) use mandriva linux CD to enter the rescue mode.
(2) type: fdisk /dev/hda
(3) type: d; type: 6; type: d; type: 5; type: d; type: 2;
type: d; type: 1; type w
(4) put in winxp CD and reboot the laptop

After rebooting, the computer still entered the original linux OS, and froze there. Any ideas to help me unstall the linux? Thank you!

hi!

i suppose the problem you are facing is that... you formatted the harddisk but the bootlader (LILO, the Mandriva default) is still located in the MBR (Master Boot Record) Formatting with Mandriva may not remove this... i had some problems with formatting MBR with Mandrake 10... maybe its fixed now... i dont know..

but why doesnt your machine search the cdrom for the windows cd and boot from it... that would suggest that your BIOS is not set to check from cd before hardrive while booting... you should change this... and set the boot order to check the cdrom first and then the harddrive... then using the windows disk formatting and partitioning tools delete all partition tables and start afresh... creating your windows partition ... leaving enough space for your Mandriva installation... yes, i know the windows tools look like they were written written in the early stone age compared to Mandriva :-P

dont tell windows to take over the whole harddrive... create a partition of the size you want... and tell it to install there... this is because windows does write to the hardisk like a 2 yr old eating... ie very messy... Mandriva can only resize NTFS partitions to the last point on the existing partition that windows has written to... so lets say windows ignores the whole harddisk and writes to a point on the hardisk 10mb before the end... Mandriva will only be able to reduce the size that partition by 10mb... its happened to me ...

then after installing windows you can install Mandriva using the unpartitioned space in the rest of your hardrive...

a tip... you will most likely have to reinstall windows before you have to reinstall Mandriva... then you will run into the same problem... my solution when i used to dual boot was to install Mandriva's bootloader to a floppy disk... this you can choose at the end of the Mandriva installation... when it gets to the installation summary... where you can setup up monitor, language, network, etc,... and the last one i think should be bootloader.. tell it to install to fd0... pop in your floppy... and that should be done... then you should also change your BIOS settings so that it looks to boot from your floppy drive before your harddrive...

then when u want windows just boot normally... when you want Mandriva pop in the floppy to which you installed the bootloader... and thats it.. u have mandriva... reinstalling windows wont take you into bootloader problems...

hope i helped... ask if you need more clarification... if i can i will be glad to help...

lib.

1 members found this post helpful.

I don't have much experience with linux formatting other the handy tool that Kubuntu gives a the beginning of the install cycle...BUT....I have gotten stuck with a partition on a hard drive after XP crashed. I could not get rid of it using the XP install CD (although you would guess that you could). What I discovered is that by using an old win 98 boot floppy, I can use the fdisk tool to totally wipe that sucker! Even if it formats is fat32, I can still blow that out with the Kubuntu formatting phase and re-format as ext3 (or what ever linux uses).

Try it! If you have a crapped up hard drive, you don't have much to loose.

Once you are back in the XP install mode after booting from CD (after telling your bios to boot form CD first) you can create partitions... DO create partitions. I recommend running you r XP operating system on a 6-gig partition, and then create a partition for your valuable files and another partition for your linux fun and games. After awhile you may just get rid of XP altogether and use all partition s for linux stuff. With this arrangement, if XP craps up, you should be able to re-format the 6-gig partition it was on without touching any of your valuable files, your linux partition. It would be even better to have 2 hard drives. I just got a 10 gig for my desktop computer that I am going to put XP on by itself (until it learns to play nice with others). I still maintain a 30 gig with all my valuables. I am running my laptop with one hard drive a 6-gig partition, a 44-gig partition and a 10 gig for linux stuff.

Cheers

1 members found this post helpful.

That must have been years ago, or you used an old Mandriva. Mandriva uses ntfsresize which can resize to anything without data loss, safely moving around whatever is needed. This is true since the beginning of 2004, but indeed not beforehand http://mlf.linux.rulez.org/mlf/ezaz/ntfsresize.html

Thanks for you guys help. I posted my reply yesterday, but something was wrong, so I will post what I ahve now. I used win98 Dos boot disk and do: fdisk \mbr. I set my boot order to be CD-Rom, Floopy Disk, and then HD. Finally, I reboot the laptop and got a msg saying no operating system found.

The next thing I did was use my winxp CD to install the OS. But, the CD was not read. However, my laptop can still read other Linux CD's and win98 boot disk. Please help.

The cd was not read? Hmmm, never had that happen. fingers prints?

lol I cleaned my winxp CD, so no finger prints. I also tried to install windows under Dos mode and the following combination to fix my problem...
(1) win98 boot floppy + winXP CD => booted from floppy, changed to E: drive, but can't install winXP under Dos mode
(2) winXP boot floppy + winXP CD => booted from floppy, but since cannot change to E: drive, I cannot install winXP
(3) Win98 boot floppy + winXP CD => booted from floppy, changed to E: drive. However, after I typed: setup to run the windows installer , I got the following msg and then froze:
scanning system registry...
Windows Setup requires

It's weird to see "Window Setup requires" after I ran the installer.

Well, I hope yo are like me and this is a project that you can fool around with and not your main machine. I have never not been able to install from the XP CD. If your bios is looking for a boot record from the CD first, then it should just fire right up. Without knowing anything else. I recently had a bad hard drive, so I almost want to suspect that , but since the computer itself won't boot from the CD, maybe you need another CD. I had to go through a couple of those before I got a good one too. You can go to a hack site and download the iso of the xp setup CD, and as long as you still have a legal registration # number at home, you can burn the image to disk and install from that.

Sometimes these local computer shops have spare Cd' s that they will give you.. It's no skin off their teeth since they are not providing you with an illegal reg #. I have only one copy of a good install for XP, but I have since purchased extra REG #'s for other machines. (then I started getting interested in Linux....!)

1 members found this post helpful.

I am sure you have thought of this, but the CDROM drive may be flakey. That happened to me on a real old computer. The problem was intermittant, so it was hard to figure out. Borrowing a CDROM drive from another machine to do the install worked.

Good luck.

C

Thanks for all your help. I did find out that my XP CD does not always boot in my laptop. However, it booted every time in my desktops.

Anyway, after reading phazon's response, I tried a win2000 CD, and it booted!! Problem solved! Yeah!

you are most probably right... unlike windows... linux does advance... and i havent had windows on my machine since july 2004...