so i pop in a windows xp boot disk, restart my computer and type "format c:" but i get "Invalid drive specification"

so i type fdisk and deleted everything but: "Partion 1 EXT DOS Usage 95%"

i've deleted the partitions i could but when i go to delete the extended dos partition it says i can't while logical drives exist.. but from everything i can see.. none do! im totally stumped and would just like to get windows on this computer for now, thanks for your time!

If you have a Linux live CD of some sort (like Knoppix) you can zero out the MBR(which includes the partition table) by executing

try
fdisk /mbr

usually the fdisk has a "delete non-dos partition"

By your title and your post, you are trying to get rid of Linux and install Windows XP.

Why don't you just start the Windows XP installation and let it format the HDD (hard disk drive, not hdd) for you. It will give you the disk partitioning options where you can delete any partitions currently on your computer. After you decide you have what you want Windows will format the C:\ for you. That's the only partition I usually create during the installation. I create the other ones (D:\, E:\, ...) while already logged on.

You don't need to run fdisk before installing Win XP.

Why are you migrating to Windows XP anyways?

ian

Like said above the "fdisk /mbr" command after booting with a bootdisk (ex win 98se bootdisk) will do the trick. a regular harddisk format using Xp installation wont work, i had the ame thing a while ago when i installed the bootmanager (grub) into the master boot record of the harddisk.

humf!? alright... I stand corrected. I usually just wipe the thing clean.

'fdisk /mbr' has nothing to do with the partition table.

i did fdsik /mbr and it didn't do anything. made some noise.. then back to the a:\. when i went into fdisk to see if i could delete the "logical drives" that prevent me from deleting the extended dos partition it said none existed.

format c isn't it. Get C: drive prompt then type FORMAT - then you get prompted are you sure and hit y enter

if you had redhat on your machine, thats the problem...it creates the extended /logical drive monster that tells you there are logical drives, but when you check..there realy aren't...you need to use "parted" from your linux boot cd, and remove them that way...

This has happened to me a couple of times. It's really annoying.

My only solution was to get a utility from the hard drive maker to completely wipe the drive. On my maxtor drive it was called Max-Blast. It was the CD and floppy that came with the drive, actually. I think I also downloaded some utility from Hitachi once for this purpose.

However, if this happens again though, I will first try the dd command as mentioned above.

Good luck...

the dd command will always work. if it's too late to boot linux, boot the first linux cdrom, and pick rescue or anything like that. get to a terminal and do it. it writes zero's over the area of the disk that has the partition table and master boot record on it. if you want to wipe the whole drive, dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda and just let it run. it will stop when it get's to the end of the disk.

Windows just can't handle the pressure??


You would think that xp could wipe a harddrive by now. If you can get a windows 95 boot floppy it can do it.

there's an old, old, utility from the NT 3.51 resource kit that's perfect for the job. Delpart. You can get it here: http://www.juliatexas.com/delpart/delpart.htm

it's pretty easy but it should be run from a dos bootdisk. I've used this succesfully to remove all sorts of partitions including linux, novell, etc.