removing linux
 

how do I remove linux so I can install windows xp?

you shouldnt have to, the windows xp install disk should let you remove the partitions, and already automatically overwrites the MBR, so in theory just insert good old xp install disk and fire away

though being that you are asking a linux forum i have to ask why you want to do this?

Sometimes the installer of Windows XP can be confused, if there is a Linux partition/-bootloader on a hard-disk. To get rid of this behavior you can boot into Linux and do the following:

Do not do this on your machine, if you don't want to get rid of your data. Be aware that, according to your quantity of hard-disks, you may have to adapt the command.This will overwrite the partition table and bootloader.

reinstall xp
 

Dear X,
your xp disk might be KO'd, 3 strikes and you are out, or so I'm told. If you are confident, or use another hard drive, repartition using a gparted disk and start again, preferably using GNU/Linux.

Fred.

What is XP?

From the LQ Rules:

Why do you want to remove Linux? Maybe it's a solvable issue.

And even if you switch to XP, you can still play around with Linux using software like VirtualBox, with no risk to your system and not have to shut down Windows.

Assuming you don't want to keep any of the existing stuff. This will delete everything currently on the hard drive.

The simple answer is, you don't. Just boot to the Windows XP installation CD and install Window XP. Follow the instructions.

If someone came here asking how to install SuSE 7.1, they'd soon get advised not to install a ten year old operating system. So, right there is a good reason not to install Windows XP. Choose an up-to-date operating system that will work well on your hardware. If you're having trouble getting a current flavour of Linux to work, well this is LinuxQuestions...

Windows XP is getting security updates, Suse 7.1 is not, so you can't compare that.

OK,so from the security updates point of view XP is less deprecated than SuSE 7.1. None the less, although part of it, that's not the whole story. I'm sure neither you nor I would want to install and use a ten year old Linux distro even if it did still get updates. If someone came here asking about installing Red Hat 4, they'd get a similar response to my previous comparison.

May be you are right here, but Windows XP has got 3 major updates, so I would even consider it a 10 years old OS. SP3 was released in 2008, and so you could say that XP is an OS with longterm support and its last point release was at this time. And it is still supported till 2014 with security updates, that is longer than Debian 5 and the same time that RHEL 5 will become EOL.

But anyways, I wonder about the hardware of the OP, maybe he can only run XP on it.

Now let us not go more offtopic, I wonder where the OP is and if he could install Windows on his machine.

Hi and welcome to LQ,if you dont know how to do that then you certainly dont know how to use linux...

If I were you I would get myself a copy of the free Parted magic CD then zero the drive out,then cut it in half and install XP on the first half leaving the second half empty for when you realise Linux is wonderful...while using your XP you can try loads of live Linux systems until you find one that really likes your particular hardware,then you can install it to your second partition after making it extended with some logical partitions.

ps going back to XP is in my opinion going in the wrong direction. good luck !

at least use windows 7 if your machine supports it . as others have said , xp is old , and i guess it is the most popular target for viruses in the windows world.

and 7 is a good os ;)

@ brianpburich

If you want to go back to windows, that's your business.

If you want to try linux again. I suggest using wubi, vmware or virtualbox and run linux as a guest. That way, you can remove linux with a few mouse clicks.

I do hope you give linux another try in the future.