hi i'm having problems installing Red Hat Linux 5.2 on my laptop...first of all HOW DO I FORMAT WINDOWS XP?!?!? i cant get into dos-prompt since Windows XP WONT ALLOW ME (that means rebooting or going into setup), neither can i start/run/cmd or anything so is there somehow i can format from the redhat 5.2 CD or is there a way to remove XP without CD's or violence?

There should be a tool to format the harddrive on your redhat cd. I havent used 5.2 so i dont know what the install is like but if it comes up with a command prompt try using fdisk or cfdisk

yeah theres a fdisk and when i push the edit button it goes DOS-mode like this:

This is the fdisk program for partitioning your drive. It is

running on /dev/hda.

Command (m for help): m

Command action

a Toggle a bootable flag
b Edit bsd disklabel
c toggle the dos compatibility flag
d delete a partition (yes ive tryed and i dont get it)
l list known partition types
m print this menu
n add a new partition
o create a new empty DOS partition table
p print the partition table
q quit without saving changes
t change a partitions system id
u change display/entry units
v verify the partition table
w write table to disk and exit
x extra functionality (experts only)

this is where im trapped...any suggestions or should i go with d?

when i press d it asks me Partition number (1-5) ...i dont get it so i just push every number untill it says

Warning partition 1 has empty type
Warning partition 2 has empty type
Warning partition 3 has empty type
Warning partition 4 has empty type
Warning partition 5 has empty type

and thats the only thing i could do

guess im stuck on windows...again.........

Are you able to use cfdisk? its a lot easier. If not then press n to create a new partition, choose primary partition then choose 1 if you have nothing else on there then choose your size, probably easier just to go with defaults for now.

Why are you using such an ancient distro anyhow? RH 5.2 dates from October 1998, so it's not going to recognize modern hardware. Unless you have a specific reason for wanting a distro that old, you should probably do yourself a favor and download a newer one -- the install programs are much nicer anyhow.

can u not reboot using a floppy.....u can use any boot updisk to format including win95 or win98 boot up disks ( u can create one of the from an image on the site www.putergeek.com) these still allow ur pc to boot with cdrom support.
Also as btmiller advises why not use a more recent distro of linux cos methinks u will have a big headache trying to get RH 5.2 to recognize ur hardware.
U can d/load the updated versions of most distros free (including rh9) from the relevant websites.