Best way to remove Mandrake 9.1 for reinstall?

d-fi.nz · 10-01-2003, 11:32 PM

Hi everyone

I'm still real new to linux and learning, so hope you can help me out with a problem or two

i added a cd burner to go with my dvd-rom on my system and mandrake 9.1 seems to be doing funny things ever since i installed the drive. I've heard that Linux does'nt react to new hardware very well (although a cd-rom is a fairly simple device) so i thought it might be a good idea to reinstall.

Now since i have a chance to reinstall i thought i might try a copy of SUSE 8.1 and see how it is compared to Mandrake.

Now i'm running a duel boot with win98 the problem i have is how do i remove the boot manager for mandrake?

do i need to remove it?

Can i use Fdisk to clear the linux partition? (still more comfortible with windows at the moment) or would there be a better alternative to clear the Partition.

Any help you could give would be great
Thanks

nakkaya · 10-01-2003, 11:48 PM

fdisk /mbr from a dos boot disk or most major dist will delete it and install thier boot loader there(or delete and reinstall it) no need to worry..

dalek · 10-01-2003, 11:56 PM

When the CD boots, hit F1 and type in expert. You will likely need to say no to the RAID/SCSI driver question. Use the arrow keys. It will then ask if you want to upgrade or install. Select install and redo the partitions the way you want. You need to wait for the other distro though. Mandrake will try to use any other partitions.

You may want to save the /home directory if you set it up as a seperate partition. That will save a lot of preferences you have.

You can make the SUSE partitions from Mandrake once booted. Just don't change the Mandrake parts. They will be mounted and you wil likely be disappointed.

You don't need to remove the bootloader. Mandrake will take care of that for you. It will basically just redo it for you.

Good luck. I need to try SUSE.

harakiri · 10-02-2003, 09:24 AM

You does not have to worry about the boot loader.
When you install a linux like Redhat,Suse or Mandrake,you will get
the boot loader of the new os.In some cases,you`ll have to erase the old linux drives before installing.Just a tips,in some distros,you have to mount "fat" drive(s),then it may be easier to just choose mountpoint under the instalation.

I don`t know if this is at any help,but you did make the installing of Mandrake,so I guess it`s no problem.
Anyway:about suse,this is not always a easy os to install.