Help with Deleting Linux
 

Alright here is my problem.

I have a laptop im trying to install windows xp on.

I have the bios set to boot from cd first

I turn on the machine and it loads the cd and goes straight to lilo boot menu and i can only select linux as an option.

I do not have a linux boot disc, what can i do?

Also i have no knowledge of linux (hence why im trying to change to windows)

If all that you want is uninstall linux and install win xp, boot with win xp CD and delete the partition where you installed linux and format with ntfs/fat32 and proceed with normal win xp installation.

If you have linux on the hd and it boots into lilo then it's not booting from cd deleteing linux (installing windows will do this anyways) will not help. It's either not trying to boot the cd or it's trying and failing because of a bad drive/cd. does it give any error messanges? Are you sure you want to give up? I actualy find XP is a major pain in the ass to use; it's total crap (my opinion yes, but it's one I think many share)

A computer will boot from CD if:
1. It is set to boot from CD drive,
2. The CD inserted into drive is bootable.
In case these conditions are not met it falls back into next bootable device - which is HDD with Lilo in your case,

Edit: one minute late :)

Well im sure the cd works as i actually got so frustrated i tried it in another computer. ive been trying to do this since last night i have no idea what im doing in linux.

the bios is set up for booting from the windows xp cd but it just pulls up the lilo boot menu

from lilo only thing i can do is select linux as a boot option or go into the lilo kernel mode

try another bootable cd like emerson said if it was booting from the cd you wouldn't get lilo at all. it's booting from the hard drive 'cause something went wrong

Hi,
Don't know if this will help but I think the problem might be similar.
I had an old system which had linux installed and I wanted to install Windows so that I could do my taxes with a proprietary tax program. No matter what I tried, I could not instal windows as the 2nd O.S. Finally, after hours of frustration, I deleted Linux, installed windows just fine and then re-installed Linux....problem solved. It seems that Windows has to be first.. or something.
Matthew

Not relevant----OP's problem is that the system will not boot from CD.

As other posters have said, the system cannot get to LILO on the Harddrive unless booting from the CD fails.
I assume there is no floppy in the drive.....
Before going any farther, verify that the machine can boot from **some** CD.

Heya guys thanks for the input.

All in All i got it fixed. The problem was my cd-rom had crashed and was just skipping right to the lilo boot program from the Harddrive. I sat and thought about what the hell was going on and the text was too quick for me to read why it wasnt loading from the cd. After i switched out my cd-rom just out of curiosity it booted from the cd no problem :)

thanks again everyone

Hmm... still don't want to try Linux? :)

Maybe quite a few of your frustrations with "Linux" were actually being caused by a drive?

Yep, just keep it as a second OS. I had linux on every pc for the last 5 jears. When Suse10 was released, and everything seemed to work I decided to switch.

It's always nice to have an alternative at hand.

That's usually how people actually learn Linux -- at least when I started (about 3-4 years ago) it was pretty difficult to drop Windows cold-turkey. Keeping Linux around will give you a nice alternative to Windows, particularly if you're interested in development. I know a few people who HATE Linux, but can't stand to do development work in Windows. As drmjh said, Windows insists on being the primary OS, but I would consider reinstalling Linux as a secondary OS. If you don't use it, just delete it later with Partition Magic or something similar.