how do i uninstall linux? or even format the drive?

If you are formatting to put another OS on, and the drive contains a single partition you'll need to do it during the install of the new OS.

If you have a spare HD, and you are just trying to get linux off of it from within another linux distro you can format the partitions, or make/remove them. To make/remove them:
fdisk /dev/hdx
where /dev/hdx is the partition
To format on this drive after you've partitioned it as you'd like use:
mke2fs -j /dev/hdx
to create an ext3 partition.

Please be more specific on what you need.

Linux is an OS, you don't necessarily "uninstall" it. You format over the top of it.



Cool

ok, a little more spacifically, i want to put another OS on my computer. so, i need to format the computer, i have nothing of use, so i want to get rid of it all, then put the new OS on...

Usually when you install a new os it will give you the chance to partition and format as part of the setup anyway.

i dont want to partition, i want to format the drive. how do i do this? when i run the new OS, theres something wrong with Nautilus, and it wont start the setup for the new OS

mke2fs -j /dev/hdx

Use fdisk to remove all your partitions then that command to "format" the drive.

Cool

Hasn't your question been answered? As part of the install of a new operating system, you will be offered the option to format your HDD ( or partition)....which OS are you planning to use? If it is a linux distro and you have problems, we can help you here. If it's something else...we can probably help you but please be specific.

Try mkfs then.

In order to format. You need to make a parition first. The parition called primary can be the whole drive or part of the drive. Then you can format to what ever filesystem that you want. Since you have Mandrake, insert the CD, make a parition, format the parition, and exit.

OneDragonWon, the people that have posted are correct.

Make sure that your BIOS is set to boot from the cd drive first, then reboot the system with the OS install CD in the drive.

MasterC wrote (post #2):


As I am new to this forum, I don't know what the etiquette is around here (and I couldn't find anything about it except for the standard list one gets when one signs up), but since this thread doesn't seem to be otherwise active and my questions are similar to those of "OneDragonWon", I'll ask them here. Someone will, of course, tell me if I should start a separate thread.

And I can be a lot more specific than that person.


The situation:

I have been trying to install SuSE 8.2 (professional) on a dual-hard disk PC with an AMD Pentium-2-level processor 128 MB of RAM.

The primary hard disk is an IBM-DTLA-307045 42.9 GB. The secondary hard disk is a Western Digital WDC WD100AA 0-1291 9.3 GB.

The personal edition of SuSE 7.2 is already installed on the entire harddisk of this same computer, but I want to completely overwrite it. I gave up last time I bought and installed SuSE and just let the automatic install procedure do its thing, but I don't want to do that ever again.

This PC is used (for the moment) solely as a PC for scholarly work (including textprocssing, DOSEMU for old programs (once I learn how to use it), printing, and OCR scanning). When I can afford the service, I will also want to connect to the Internet.

The goal:

I want to install SuSE 8.2 Linux on only half (or maybe a little more) of the space of the first hard disk. I want the other half (or so) left free for the installation of FreeBSD, which should control the booting. The second hard drive will basically be used for backup storage of data.

I want to end up with a dual-boot of SUSE Linux 8.2 (professional) and the latest version of FreeBSD (which I haven't used in a while) on it. If I could get a thumbnail sketch of multi-OS installation and booting, I'd be mighty thankful.

I am told by a Windows person that I should leave the second hard disk basically for the backup of data, so I guess I'll want to do that.


My problem:

Using YAST, I started the partitioning process with the "new-installation" option that promised to overwrite the old system entirely, yet when I try the custom partitioning, the system makes what it calls a (small) "linux-native partition" and then I make a swap file, but I can't seem to get it do anything else except make a further large linux partition taking up the whole remaining harddisk. When I try to resize (shrink) this huge partition, the system tells me there will be insufficient space for the basic minimal Linux OS to operate. (On 20-25GB of a 40+GB harddisk???) Despite some of the numbers I type in to size the partitions, the system seems to have a mind of its own and does what it wants without any explanation. I used to be able to size these things within the partitions that I'd already established. Now, it seems, I only end up having to make more partitions, and I need that fourth space for FreeBSD.

So, will I be able to install FreeBSD on space left unused on the disk from the linux partitioning and installation or am I going to have to put FreeBSD on an extended logical partition? If the latter, that's a big change from the way it used to work (if I remember correctly).

I have tried getting answers through SuSE's "knowledge base", through the manuals that come with the SuSE 8.2 professional edition, and through SuSE's ridiculously useless, turdy software-installation "help" by e-mail---all utterly useless.


Here's what the SuSE nudnik wrote in response to my detailled inquiry:

Well, duh! to the last part. Why did I even bother?

I've successfully installed both Linux and FreeBSD in the past (even triple-booted with Windows for a while, before I got the new, larger hard disk) using simple instructions. Is it my imagination or did SuSE do something to its system that complicated things greatly from version 7.0 on? After that I've never been able to install the system the way I've wanted it.

Rather than putt around with this thing forever, I'm instead appealing for advice and instruction here so that I can get this over with and get down to the real business that I'm about. The SuSE company itself is a dead-end.


Thanks.