Greetings all -

My wife got a laptop from a friend who was given a new one for Christmas. This laptop has Linux installed on it but she wants Windows since she doesn't know anything about Linux. I tried putting in Windows XP install CD and rebooting.

Laptop boots, gives me message "Press any key to boot from CD" and after pressing a key, system flashes screen saying "Windows is checking your system configuration" and then appears to proceed but nothing happens. It freezes at this point every time I reboot.

I looked online and found a few suggestions about using fdisk to delete partition and re-create as a W95 FAT32 partition but system freezes at exact same point on reboot.

Any suggestions on what I can try now? Appears I have hit a roadblock and my brain is stumped. I am a relative newbie to Linux myself and can usually get it working on fresh installs but not installing over.

Thanks!!

it should work test your cd for scratches

CD looks good. No scratches or dust or anything. I tried some more stuff with fdisk but still nothing.

Am I missing something with fdisk? Most of the online articles I am reading about it say when you use it you are formatting the hard drive. If this is correct how am I booting back up to the Linux OS? Am I forgetting something when trying to configure with fdisk?

im stumped

but give linux a try its really just second nature once your used to it

Do not delete Linux! Use vmware man. You can download vmware server for free from this link. ALso get the serial key from the same site by registering; it is free of cost. If your HardWare configuration is good enough, create a Virtual Machine and enjoy! I use vmware and run Windows XP on Debian GNU/Linux OS!

Well it is for my wife and she doesn't want to get too confused. So she wants the Linux off and XP back on. So I am trying to get it done for her. If she's not happy no one is happy.

Something new happened - on my last reboot the system would not come back up. It still gets to the hardware configuration screen and then freezes again! When I reboot without a CD it goes to a prompt saying grub> and boots no further.

I just got a haircut but this is making me pull out what's left of my hair! It is confusing!

If you are trying to format the entire Hard disk, it should be an easy go. But if you are trying to retain Linux and to install Windows on a separate partition, check for the Logical/Primary partition conflicts. I do not know if this is a kind of HW problem, as this is the first of its kind that I am coming across. Also try using a Linux CD/DVD to boot. If you are able to do so, your Windows CD has problems.

A good Windows XP Installation CD should not care what is currently on your hard drive or at least will be fully capable of re-formatting it and installing Windows. Your problem does sound like a problem with the CD or a hardware problem. Is this an official Microsoft install CD?

I suppose another option is to boot from a Live CD such as Knoppix and use it to check your hard drive. If you can boot from a Linux Live CD, that pretty much leaves the Windows CD as the most likely problem.

You can boot from a Linux live CD, delete the partitions on the hard disk, then re-boot with the Windows XP CD and run the installer.

what model and make of laptop?..

if it has a sata drive, xp wont boot from a standard disc...
you may have to make an xp install disc with the required drivers on it...

one app to use for this is nlite..
it will allow you to add sp2 then add the drivers for your laptop...
then crate and burn the iso...

this will give you a install disc for the laptop...

I've got the Linux CD that was used for the install (it came with the laptop). How would I go about using that to delete the partitions? I tried going through it myself and did not see anywhere to delete the existing partitions. I found the place during the install where it created the partitions for the OS but nowhere to delete existing partitions.

Thanks!

Didn't her friend read what OS was on the laptop before hand.

Anyway, it's not the friend's fault, most people are accustom to seeing windows on desktops and laptops preinstalled.

You can do so (to delete and create new partitions) by inserting a bootable Linux CD/DVD and making the necessary changes, using the GUI front end for the installation. After this, click next and wait for the partitions to be formatted etc. Then, just remove your CD/DVD from the drive. Do not allow the OS to be installed. I mean, you should be very quick to remove the CD/DVD before it shows the installation status.

This didn't work. I have the disc for Fedora 8 and I get to the point where it says "Formatting / File System" and after that it says "Initiating Install Process" so I removed the Fedora CD and put in my XP Pro CD and the system started the CD drive like it was reading the disk and then stopped and did nothing.

Is there a way to create a CD version of XP Pro boot disks? I am working with an old IBM ThinkPad and it does not have a floopy drive. So if there was a way I could create a boot disc on CD that I could try...it might help.