AFTER MESSING AROUND WITH MANDRAKE 9.2 ON MY ATHLON MACHINE AND DEVELOPING PROBLEMS, I DECIDED TO DO A CLEAN REINSTALL. AT ONE SCREEN MANDRAKE ASKS IF YOU WANT TO INSTALL AND I SAID YES, THINKING THAT IT WILL NICELY AND CLEANLY OVERWRITE EVERYTHING. TO MY SURPRISE THERE SEEMS TO BE STUFF LEFT FROM BEFORE (UPDATE SAYS : MY SYSTEM IN UPDATED ,BUT IT DID NOT DOWLOAD ANYTHING. NOW , HERE IS MY QUESTION : WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO COMPLETELY GET RID OF MY OLD MESS AND HAVE A FRESH MANDRAKE (RE)-INSTALLED
THANKS
ALSO , FINALLY I FOUD OUT THERE LOSING MENU ITEMS IS DUE TO A BUG AND THERE IS A FIX FOR IT

I'M SORRY....WE CAN'T HEAR YOU

format the partitions, then reinstall again.

Wow, that hurt my eyes. But yeah, fdisk is your friend. Caps Lock isn't.
http://maddox.xmission.com/hatemail.cgi?p=1#CAPSLOCK

i just joined linuxquestions. org. using uppercases for posting was unintentional and did not know i was offending . it in no way meant to be screaming for help.
anyhow ,thanks for responses, but i should mention that i do not know too much about windows either. so fuller details are appreciated. details also would help newcomers onboard and strengthen the linux community
meantime , if low formatting cleans up both windows and linux , please let me know
thanks again

low level formatting clears absolutely everything

but, if you say you dont' know much about windows nor linux, then i assume you definetaly dont' know much about low level formatting ... unless your using an old AT drive that is 504MB (528MB) which can be done more so without problems ...

i would not suggest that you even attempt doing that .... and it may be just a mistake by you saying that, but if it isn't then dont' do it unless your absolutely sure .. and make sure you use the proper utility supplied by the manufacturor of the drive ...

in the end i just wanted to clearify this with you, but it could be just a typing mistake and you may of actually meant to say high level formatting sometimes called OS formatting ...

thanks DrOzz. it was more of a technical question for the future. in the past with thehelp of a friend i did do a low formatting os a western digital hard drive with the floppy with low formatting program on it(off the w. d. site). i had installed mandrake on the top of windows xp (mandrake taking care of everything)
i guess my concerns as follows
1)ability to totally and cleanly uninstall both windows and linux
2) same as above but with windows
3) same as number one but with linux
by the way, i wish i could EASILY type math notation and do basic stuff in algebra usin linux os
thanks again

thanks again