I installed Fedora Core 3 on my Toshiba Tecra 8100 a few months ago. The dumb ass I am, I didn't partition and I am sorry to say that this specific laptop has been rendered useless since then. I am not very technical at all, and I was amazed by the technical prowess required to use Linux.

What I want to do now is simply reinstall WinXP on my Tecra 8100. This too has become a monumental challenge. At start up, I press F2 and attempt to boot from CDROM, where the WinXP CD is. I get a message saying that Setup is verifying my hard drive configuration... and disappears. Nothing else happens after that.

I know most of you think I am an idiot for doing this, but I need to use my laptop. Please help!

if u are stuck there

then format ur whole hdd and make new partitions

for formatting if u do not ahve tools get then from

ultimatebootcd.com

u can use Fdisk from here
delete ur partitions and make new ones

regards

I think this is a case of Fedora Core 3 messing up the geometry of the HD. What could fix the problem is issuing the following command from command line (possibly from a live-cd Linux distro, like DSL):

Do you know how to install Windows? I suggest using Partiton Magic if you have it. I f not use FDISK you will have to boot the disc or disk pending if it is a floppy or cd you use. I don't think that fdisk can properly destroy all logical partitions created by Linux. You may have to do a mid level format of the drive. This is also called writing zeros to the harddrive. Best way is to search you laptop or if know the manufacturer of the harddrive and got to that site and download a zerofill program. They are usually combined in a utility and will be called drive fitness test utility or datalifeguard or something crazy like that.

Youmay be able to use fdisk but I think I had problems with it. You will definately have to create a partition and filesystem somehow.

all the above mentioned programs can be found in one cd here

ultimatebootcd.com

The "dd" command can be a very dangerous tool if you don't know how to use it. I personally would not.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I would guess that the Windows install disk was made to be able to install to an untouched (ie: unpartitioned) disk. In which case you would simply need to delete all the old linux partitions on the drive before installing to it.

If that is not the case, then you can use various tools to make the drive one big ntfs partition before you install.

Available tools for the job would be any number of partitioners you can buy (Partition Magic, Acronis Partition Expert, etc...), or there is also a set of free linux tools, for which I would recommend downloading the KNOPPIX live cd.

The knoppix live cd has a program on it called QtParted, which will be able to do everything you are needing and is very similar in look/usability to the proprietary partitioners I listed above. Simply boot it, find qtparted, and go to work. Should be quick and easy.

i downladed a huge file from ultimatebootcd, burnt it on a cd and put it in the Tecra 8100 with Linux. there are tons of files in there. which file is the one i need to run?

which file did u download
can u give the link???

aslo u can go to fifsuytem menu and go to partiton tools and use "freefdisk"

regards

downloaded the zip version from planetmirror.com. i also read a bit more about rebooting from CDROM on Toshiba's site. whether the laptop is going to reboot from the CDROM depends on the speed in which the boot code is written to the CD and how fast the CDROM reads it. the faster it reads it the better, the slower it is written on to the disk the better. i re-burned the CD at the slowest speed available on my burner, but the laptop still boots from the HDD after i specified in the BIOS to boot from the CDROM first. i have formated this laptop a few times before, and i have never had this problem before. if i told it to boot from CDROM first, it did that. since i installed linux on it, it has a mind of its own! i will check out the 'freedisk' option and let you know how it works out. at the meantime, i appreciate any help and insight you can provide. thanks!