HI, this is my first question
And i am really sorry if i made some mistake/s
But this IS a really serious problem for me.
I had 4 partitions on my brother's compaq laptop and each was about 40 gb in the 160 gb HDD
Now i decided to give fedora 9 [hey dat was mah first time wid linux]a try and as his hdd was new i wasnt concerned about losing stuff so i 'tried' to install fedora in 1 partition which totally backfired and now fedora is occupying entire cd.
Now he obviously wanted xp back. [he'z in 9th grade :-) ]
Now the problem is i cant just install XP!!!
I boot from the windows cd .
The windows installer says inspecting your hardware, then the screen goes blank and nothing happens.
Just blank till eternity .
Windows xp had been running fine for months before the problem in the old hdd.
This only occured after fedora was installed :-( :-(
Please reply asap..
Thanks!

I had this problem recently. All I did was boot up with knoppix and format the hard drive with fat32 and it went back to normal. Or just search for a 98 boot disk on the internet and just use it to get to fdisk and blow away the foreign partition.

I think you have used entire hd for your fedora !!!


Now .. grep a 98 bootable CD

run fdisk

perform a format

build your partitions and leave sufficient space unpartitioned for fedora or unix based OS

Once you are done with W$ndows OS insert fedora cd and then choose

"use free space for installation"

and install fedora and enjoy both operating systems


Cheers!!

And yeah one more thing...

Don't install Fedora first...

If you do this, after installing xp after fedora, your mbr will be overwritten and you'll not have an option to switch b/w xp and fedora by default..

To get fedora back again in action:-) you will have to reinstall MBR using linux rescue which is a bit difficult for a newbie like you and me..

Cheers!!!

yeah thanks a ton
but i dont know a thing about fdisk and d 98 thing u are talking about
and i only want XP now
i am jus pissed off wid fedora
i am a total n00b..
can u please guide me step by step :-)

is this the 98 boot?
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

and how to run fdisk?

Hi:
This is what you have to do:
1. Download Parted Magic iso from here. The first iso is fine.
2. Burn iso image to CD
3. Boot your computer from this CD.
4. A menu will come, choose the first and wait until Parted Magic (from now on PM) loads.
5. When PM loads, in the bottom of the screen you will see some buttons on a panel. Choose GParted (maybe there's a shortcut on the desktop)
6. When GParted starts, wait until it scans your partitions, and then you will see a screen similar to this. The partitions are listed and are shown in a visual way. You can right-click on each row (partitions).
7. If you want to delete all partitions (and all data of course) right-click on each drive and select "Delete". Now you have only unallocated space on your HDD.
8. Go to the "Partition" menu and click "New". In the "New Size" section set how big you want your partition. And here's the important thing: Set the "Filesystem" to "FAT32" or "NTFS"! Don't select anything else, because WinXP installer won't recognize any other than these. (The "Primary partition" setting in "Create as" is good, don't change it)
9. Click "Add" button
10. If you want to have multiple partitions (you didn't use all the available space for this partition), repeat step 8. and 9.
11. When you feel that your new partitioning is perfect, just apply the settings with the tick button in the toolbar or with "Apply" in the "Edit" menu.
12. Wait until GParted finishes, and now you can reboot your PC with a completely new partitioning.
13. Put in WinXP installer CD, and go on...

Attention!: when you get to the winxp partitioner tool in the installing process, remember to make a FULL format (on all newly created partitions) and NOT a quick format. It will take some time, but you want to do this if you want to have a proper NTFS filesystem (use this instead of the outdated inferior FAT32) and a more stable environment.

Attention No.2!: Backup all your personal data before doing anything of this!!

Good luck!

hey thanks a ton!
I am downloading the iso
Will take 2 hrs or so :-)
it 2:49 am in INDIA!!
It seems the wait may have just paid off!

i booted from cd
it shows missing operating system
i also tried booting from xp
but screen goes blank as usual :-(

from (the link was broken into parts, reassemble in browser URL window):

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...roduct=3213867

"Restore the PC to original condition with the HP Recovery Manager
Follow the steps below to use HP Recovery Manager to return your notebook to its baseline factory condition, then allow the PC to run all the setup programs.
Press the power button to turn on the PC, and press F11 on the keyboard immediately while the computer is starting up. The HP Backup and Recovery Manager window will appear.
Click Advanced options , select the System recovery option, and then click Next .
If the Recovery Manager can access the hard drive it displays a prompt to backup up user files before continuing the recovery. You may either backup your files, or skip the backup and recover the operating system.
If the Recovery Manager cannot access the hard drive to fix the system errors, use the set of Recovery disks that you created to recover the hard drive to its original condition.
After the hard drive is returned to its original condition, restart the PC and allow the PC to run all the setup programs.
Related links
For more information on using HP Recovery Manager, see HP Notebook PCs - Using HP Recovery Manager ."

Have you tried this?
Do you have recovery cd's?

hey thanks a lot
but mah y laptop is not hp its cubit
and i finally installed windows!!
after giving the entire hdd to fedora i was damm stuck
heres the entire story

then after all methods i found this the best effective and the most n00bish one
->i just installed ubuntu over fedora []and gave the entire hdd to it fedora does let us install ubuntu
and then i installed xp !
->the cd booted and the blue screen came up miraculouly ! i was sooo happy on seeing the blue screen..

so here i am
stuck wid windows
partly happy partly sad.. but its mah bro's so hez happie atleast!

ps .
for all linux lovers!
'twaz was a pirated version so i didnt owe a single penny to mr. gates!!!!! :P