[FIXED]: remove linux, and then install Windows XP
Hi, It turned out the culprit of my booting problem is nothing but a non-functional Windows XP installer CD, which is suspected by some kind souls here. With a working XP CD, no problem whatsoever in terms of booting into XP installation mode. Before I found out XP CD is what to be blamed, I did both of following: First, dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1 when booted into Fedora rescue mode. After this, the system didn't show missing operating system message whenever the machine was restarted. Then, I did fdisk /mbr when booted from floppy. But after this, the system did show missing operating system whenever the machine was restarted. Isn't is true that fdisk /mbr and dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1 are supposed to achieve same purpose? If that's the case, why did they seem to have different consequence in terms of the message generated? So now I'm back to the same old Windows. Next step I plan to install Fedora or Ubuntu, depending on which can enable me to use USB device. (I know they both are supposed to be able to automatically support USB device) One more observation: Now whenever the system boots up, there is always 2 lines of message: unknown flash type boot from CD: What does unknown flash type refer to? Thank you for all your helpful solutions. Zhao ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: [FIXED]: remove linux, and then install Windows XP
Zhao Peng wrote: Then, I did fdisk /mbr when booted from floppy. But after this, the system did show missing operating system whenever the machine was restarted. Isn't is true that fdisk /mbr and dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1 are supposed to achieve same purpose? Both commands got rid of grub, the linux boot loader that was trying to load the system you had deleted. But they're doing two different things to accomplish that. fdisk /mbr overwrites the MBR with the MS Windows boot loader code. dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1 overwrites the MBR with 512 bytes that are all zero. It's the MS Windows boot loader that's reporting missing operating system. -- John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux Unix ICQ 28611923 / AIM abreauj / JABBER [EMAIL PROTECTED] / YAHOO abreauj Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] / WWW http://www.abreau.net / PGP-Key-ID 0xD5C7B5D9 PGP-Key-Fingerprint 72 FB 39 4F 3C 3B D6 5B E0 C8 5A 6E F1 2C BE 99 ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: remove linux, and then install Windows XP
Zhao Peng [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: The article says that I need to use Linux Setup floppy disk to use fdisk to delete linux partition. The article is most likely wrong. Installing Windows from media has (historically speaking) always been woefully arrogant in it's belief that it will be the only OS installed, and just blown away any partition tables it's found. -- Seeya, Paul ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: remove linux, and then install Windows XP
One Google answer suggested that I can use fdisk /mbr to wipe the boot record clean, but in rescue mode of Fedora Core 5, this (/mbr) seemed aninvalid option.Now, what should I do?I can think of 3 options to wipe the MBR:1) Boot from the XP CD into umm recover mode? F8? You get to a prompt and can run fdisk /mbr 2) If you have a DOS boot floppy, you can run fdisk /mbr on that. freedos.com (.org?) should have some downloadable floppy images that could be used.3) I think on the linux rescue you can also do something like: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=2048 count=1You may have to up the count.-- A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures. - Daniel Webster
Re: remove linux, and then install Windows XP
On Wednesday 26 April 2006 9:10 am, Tom Buskey wrote: 3) I think on the linux rescue you can also do something like: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=2048 count=1 Please correct me if I am wrong, but the MBR is 512 so the command should be: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1 -- Jerry Feldman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Boston Linux and Unix user group http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9 PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9 ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: remove linux, and then install Windows XP
On Tue, 2006-04-25 at 23:45 -0400, Zhao Peng wrote: One Google answer suggested that I can use fdisk /mbr to wipe the boot record clean, but in rescue mode of Fedora Core 5, this (/mbr) seemed an invalid option. Now, what should I do? You need a windows boot floppy with the windows fdisk. Boot into windows and use fdisk /mbr to install the windows master boot record. (You may also need to run sys to copy boot files to the hard disk. However, my windows knowledge is getting pretty obsolete, so do *NOT* run sys unless you've exhausted better ideas, or someone who knows better agrees.) -- Lloyd Kvam Venix Corp ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: remove linux, and then install Windows XP
I think you're right... and I also think that just past the MBR is the partition table, so if you do 2048, you'll blow away the partition table too. - Chris On Apr 26, 2006, at 9:28 AM, Jerry Feldman wrote: On Wednesday 26 April 2006 9:10 am, Tom Buskey wrote: 3) I think on the linux rescue you can also do something like: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=2048 count=1 Please correct me if I am wrong, but the MBR is 512 so the command should be: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1 -- Jerry Feldman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Boston Linux and Unix user group http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9 PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9 ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: remove linux, and then install Windows XP
On Wednesday 26 April 2006 9:29 am, Python wrote: You need a windows boot floppy with the windows fdisk. Boot into windows and use fdisk /mbr to install the windows master boot record. Please refer to the previous posts. The Windows (or DOS) fdisk /mbr may beed to be executed a couple of times. I have found that on some occasions it failed to clear the MBR. Not a biggie. Today however, some PCs do not even have floppy drives. (You may also need to run sys to copy boot files to the hard disk. However, my windows knowledge is getting pretty obsolete, so do *NOT* run sys unless you've exhausted better ideas, or someone who knows better agrees.) AFAIK, the sys command is a Windows 95 command and does not apply to Windows NT variants. The following Linux command will clear the MBR (leaving the partition table alone) dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=446 count=1 But, you can back up the MBR also: dd if=/dev/hda of=file name bs=512 count=1 Note that the partition table is in the last 66 bytes of the MBR. There is a good discussion of the MBR here: http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/mbr.htm -- Jerry Feldman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Boston Linux and Unix user group http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9 PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9 ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: remove linux, and then install Windows XP
On Wednesday 26 April 2006 9:37 am, Chris Linstid wrote: I think you're right... and I also think that just past the MBR is the partition table, so if you do 2048, you'll blow away the partition table too. True, and part of partition 0. In any case, the bs should be 446 if you want to avoind the partition table. -- Jerry Feldman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Boston Linux and Unix user group http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9 PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9 ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: remove linux, and then install Windows XP
I could be wrong, but I think he already got Windows reinstalled, but he still has grub installed in the MBR and grub is looking for his / boot partition (which he already blew away)... thus the grub error. - Chris On Apr 26, 2006, at 10:34 AM, Neil Schelly wrote: It seems you're getting a lot of help with the MBR, but that isn't what you're looking for. You have/had Linux on there and want to install Windows over it instead. As far as I know, you just have to boot from the Windows install disc and it will be more than happy to just take over the hard disk regardless of whether or not your MBR or partition tables are clear. In your case, you said that instead of booting from the Windows installer disc, you saw a GRUB message instead of the Windows bootup. That would indicate to me that your BIOS is set to boot from the hard disk before the CD-ROM. So clearing your MBR will probably make the BIOS try and boot from the hard disk, fail, and then boot from the CD-ROM. But you may find it a whole lot easier to tell your BIOS to look to the CD-ROM first. -N ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
CLARIFICATION: Re: remove linux, and then install Windows XP
Hi, First I wanted to thank you all for your help. The list is so great. When I said Then I put in Windows XP installation CD and restarted computer in my original post, I really meant that I booted the machine from Windows XP installation CD. The CD/DVD drive is the 1st bootable drive. I double checked and verified it in BIOS setting. So my problem, at this point, is that I can't boot into Windows installation process, with that the CD drive set as the first bootable drive and the Windows XP installation CD is there. BUT, if I put into Fedora Core 5 installation DVD in the CD/DVD drive, the machine can get into Fedora installation mode. Please let me know if my description is not clear enough. P.S. Whenever I put Fedora Core 5 DVD in the CD/DVD drive, the machine always boot into Fedora installation mode, which I believe, means that The CD/DVD drive is 1st bootable drive. (well, could it be possible that Hard drive is the 1st bootable drive but can't boot from it?), Correct me if I'm wrong, please. Thank you again. BTW, Chris, I've NOT yet got Windows installed. Chris Linstid wrote: I could be wrong, but I think he already got Windows reinstalled, but he still has grub installed in the MBR and grub is looking for his /boot partition (which he already blew away)... thus the grub error. - Chris On Apr 26, 2006, at 10:34 AM, Neil Schelly wrote: It seems you're getting a lot of help with the MBR, but that isn't what you're looking for. You have/had Linux on there and want to install Windows over it instead. As far as I know, you just have to boot from the Windows install disc and it will be more than happy to just take over the hard disk regardless of whether or not your MBR or partition tables are clear. In your case, you said that instead of booting from the Windows installer disc, you saw a GRUB message instead of the Windows bootup. That would indicate to me that your BIOS is set to boot from the hard disk before the CD-ROM. So clearing your MBR will probably make the BIOS try and boot from the hard disk, fail, and then boot from the CD-ROM. But you may find it a whole lot easier to tell your BIOS to look to the CD-ROM first. -N ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: remove linux, and then install Windows XP
I'll go slightly off-topic, if at least tangential. Every now and then I have a user that has WinXP installed or pre-installed and wants to have Linux on the system as well. Some distros allow you to resize NTFS partitions during the install process, but FC* doesn't, which gets me peeved. The later Knoppix CDs don't work well resizing NTFS either. But there's another way. The gparted gang have a 27MB live CD that will resize NTFS partitions for you very nicely. The only thing you need to do is make sure that your NTFS filesystem is consistent (i.e. make sure that you shutdown XP cleanly). http://gparted.sourceforge.net/ -Mark signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: CLARIFICATION: Re: remove linux, and then install Windows XP
Oops. :) - Chris On Apr 26, 2006, at 11:13 AM, Zhao Peng wrote: BTW, Chris, I've NOT yet got Windows installed. Chris Linstid wrote: I could be wrong, but I think he already got Windows reinstalled, but he still has grub installed in the MBR and grub is looking for his /boot partition (which he already blew away)... thus the grub error. - Chris On Apr 26, 2006, at 10:34 AM, Neil Schelly wrote: It seems you're getting a lot of help with the MBR, but that isn't what you're looking for. You have/had Linux on there and want to install Windows over it instead. As far as I know, you just have to boot from the Windows install disc and it will be more than happy to just take over the hard disk regardless of whether or not your MBR or partition tables are clear. In your case, you said that instead of booting from the Windows installer disc, you saw a GRUB message instead of the Windows bootup. That would indicate to me that your BIOS is set to boot from the hard disk before the CD-ROM. So clearing your MBR will probably make the BIOS try and boot from the hard disk, fail, and then boot from the CD-ROM. But you may find it a whole lot easier to tell your BIOS to look to the CD-ROM first. -N ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: remove linux, and then install Windows XP
Tom, How can I find an correct number to put into count=? Thanks, Zhao Tom Buskey wrote: 3) I think on the linux rescue you can also do something like: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=2048 count=1 You may have to up the count. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: CLARIFICATION: Re: remove linux, and then install Windows XP
Neil, That's a good suggestion, Thank you. I will try Windows installer disc on another machine when I get home tonight to see if it's in fact a good disc. Zhao Neil Schelly wrote: That would seem to indicate to me then that there's a problem with your Windows CD. Because GRUB was installed on your hard disk, it's still there (until Windows wipes it). But since you're seeing it with the Windows disc in the drive, that suggests your BIOS is giving up on finding a bootable image on that disc and is falling back to the next available boot method, your hard disk. Have you tried that Windows installer disc in another machine to verify that it is in fact a good disc? -N On Wednesday 26 April 2006 11:13 am, Zhao Peng wrote: Hi, First I wanted to thank you all for your help. The list is so great. When I said Then I put in Windows XP installation CD and restarted computer in my original post, I really meant that I booted the machine from Windows XP installation CD. The CD/DVD drive is the 1st bootable drive. I double checked and verified it in BIOS setting. So my problem, at this point, is that I can't boot into Windows installation process, with that the CD drive set as the first bootable drive and the Windows XP installation CD is there. BUT, if I put into Fedora Core 5 installation DVD in the CD/DVD drive, the machine can get into Fedora installation mode. Please let me know if my description is not clear enough. P.S. Whenever I put Fedora Core 5 DVD in the CD/DVD drive, the machine always boot into Fedora installation mode, which I believe, means that The CD/DVD drive is 1st bootable drive. (well, could it be possible that Hard drive is the 1st bootable drive but can't boot from it?), Correct me if I'm wrong, please. Thank you again. BTW, Chris, I've NOT yet got Windows installed. Chris Linstid wrote: I could be wrong, but I think he already got Windows reinstalled, but he still has grub installed in the MBR and grub is looking for his /boot partition (which he already blew away)... thus the grub error. - Chris On Apr 26, 2006, at 10:34 AM, Neil Schelly wrote: It seems you're getting a lot of help with the MBR, but that isn't what you're looking for. You have/had Linux on there and want to install Windows over it instead. As far as I know, you just have to boot from the Windows install disc and it will be more than happy to just take over the hard disk regardless of whether or not your MBR or partition tables are clear. In your case, you said that instead of booting from the Windows installer disc, you saw a GRUB message instead of the Windows bootup. That would indicate to me that your BIOS is set to boot from the hard disk before the CD-ROM. So clearing your MBR will probably make the BIOS try and boot from the hard disk, fail, and then boot from the CD-ROM. But you may find it a whole lot easier to tell your BIOS to look to the CD-ROM first. -N ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: remove linux, and then install Windows XP
On Wednesday 26 April 2006 11:17 am, Mark Komarinski wrote: I'll go slightly off-topic, if at least tangential. Every now and then I have a user that has WinXP installed or pre-installed and wants to have Linux on the system as well. Some distros allow you to resize NTFS partitions during the install process, but FC* doesn't, which gets me peeved. The later Knoppix CDs don't work well resizing NTFS either. But there's another way. The gparted gang have a 27MB live CD that will resize NTFS partitions for you very nicely. The only thing you need to do is make sure that your NTFS filesystem is consistent (i.e. make sure that you shutdown XP cleanly). http://gparted.sourceforge.net/ qtparted on the Knoppix disk will do this. It uses the GNU parted libraries. I've done this a number of times. Note that the NTFS partition also should have been previously defragged. -- Jerry Feldman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Boston Linux and Unix user group http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9 PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9 ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: CLARIFICATION: Re: remove linux, and then install Windows XP
On Wednesday 26 April 2006 11:13 am, Zhao Peng wrote: Hi, First I wanted to thank you all for your help. The list is so great. When I said Then I put in Windows XP installation CD and restarted computer in my original post, I really meant that I booted the machine from Windows XP installation CD. The CD/DVD drive is the 1st bootable drive. I double checked and verified it in BIOS setting. So my problem, at this point, is that I can't boot into Windows installation process, with that the CD drive set as the first bootable drive and the Windows XP installation CD is there. BUT, if I put into Fedora Core 5 installation DVD in the CD/DVD drive, the machine can get into Fedora installation mode. Please let me know if my description is not clear enough. Yes. I have seen this before. There is nothing wrong with your Windows Installation disk. I have seen this problem a couple of times with Windows NT (or 2000). The problem, if I recall, is that the Windows setup detects that a version of Windows exists on your system. The solution, is to free up the Windows partition. Youu can do this with nearly every partitioning tool, whether on Fedora, Knoppix, or Partition Magic. Boot the Knoppix CD. Bring up a terminal window, su to root. (Knoppix comes up by default as a regular user. Su does not prompt for a password. Then run qtparted /dev/hda This will bring up a partition manager graphically. If you delete the Windows partition, you should be able to install Windows XP from the media. Note that qtparted requires that you explicitly tell it to perform the action. I've exited from it a number of times without it performing its tasks. -- Jerry Feldman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Boston Linux and Unix user group http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9 PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9 ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: remove linux, and then install Windows XP
On Wednesday 26 April 2006 11:19 am, Zhao Peng wrote: Tom, How can I find an correct number to put into count=? The count is 1, the size of the MBR is 512. If you zero the entire MBR, you also will wipe out the partition table, which may also solve your rpoblem. -- Jerry Feldman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Boston Linux and Unix user group http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9 PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9 ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: remove linux, and then install Windows XP
On 4/26/06, Jerry Feldman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The following Linux command will clear the MBR (leaving the partition tablealone)dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=446 count=1But, you can back up the MBR also:dd if=/dev/hda of=file name bs=512 count=1 Note that the partition table is in the last 66 bytes of the MBR.There is a good discussion of the MBR here:http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/mbr.htm Yes, that's it. I couldn't remember if it was 512 or 2048 and I must've gotten the CD-ROM blocksize in solaris vs the rest of the world mixed up.-- A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures. - Daniel Webster
Re: remove linux, and then install Windows XP
On Wednesday 26 April 2006 12:52 pm, Tom Buskey wrote: Yes, that's it. I couldn't remember if it was 512 or 2048 and I must've gotten the CD-ROM blocksize in solaris vs the rest of the world mixed up. Scott is on his way out, Jonathan Schwartz is taking over until Darl McBride can free himself from SCO. -- Jerry Feldman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Boston Linux and Unix user group http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9 PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9 ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: remove linux, and then install Windows XP
On Wed, 2006-04-26 at 10:34 -0400, Neil Schelly wrote: As far as I know, you just have to boot from the Windows install disc and it will be more than happy to just take over the hard disk regardless of whether or not your MBR or partition tables are clear. I installed Win98 onto an old PC to get my taxes done. My Win98 install CD was *not* bootable. My old win98 boot floppies no longer worked. I had to scramble to get a bootable win98 floppy image to get things off the ground. In my case I need both a:fdisk /mbr a:sys c: to get windows to boot. -- Lloyd Kvam Venix Corp ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: remove linux, and then install Windows XP
Jerry Feldman wrote: http://gparted.sourceforge.net/ qtparted on the Knoppix disk will do this. It uses the GNU parted libraries. I've done this a number of times. Note that the NTFS partition also should have been previously defragged. When is the best time to run this? I tried this a couple months back on a brand new laptop, figuring it would be best to resize the partitions before even booting Windows for the first time, but when I did, Windows thought it still had the whole drive, and I ended up having to reinstall Windows. Would it work better if I let XP configure itself first, then defrag, then resize? -- John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux Unix ICQ 28611923 / AIM abreauj / JABBER [EMAIL PROTECTED] / YAHOO abreauj Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] / WWW http://www.abreau.net / PGP-Key-ID 0xD5C7B5D9 PGP-Key-Fingerprint 72 FB 39 4F 3C 3B D6 5B E0 C8 5A 6E F1 2C BE 99 ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: remove linux, and then install Windows XP
On Wednesday 26 April 2006 4:32 pm, John Abreau wrote: Jerry Feldman wrote: http://gparted.sourceforge.net/ qtparted on the Knoppix disk will do this. It uses the GNU parted libraries. I've done this a number of times. Note that the NTFS partition also should have been previously defragged. When is the best time to run this? I tried this a couple months back on a brand new laptop, figuring it would be best to resize the partitions before even booting Windows for the first time, but when I did, Windows thought it still had the whole drive, and I ended up having to reinstall Windows. Would it work better if I let XP configure itself first, then defrag, then resize? Windows likes to own the world. It would be my advice to install Windows, defrag, then resize and install Linux. I've never installed Windows on a system where Linux was already installed on the same drive. -- Jerry Feldman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Boston Linux and Unix user group http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9 PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9 ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: remove linux, and then install Windows XP
Tom Buskey [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: One Google answer suggested that I can use fdisk /mbr to wipe the boot record clean, but in rescue mode of Fedora Core 5, this (/mbr) seemed an invalid option. 3) I think on the linux rescue you can also do something like: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=2048 count=1 Just to wipe the MBR you simply need to do: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1 We actually have a script called 'refai' which does this, then issues 'reboot'. since all the BIOSes are configured to fail-over into PXE boot, this will in fact, automagically re-install a machine via FAI :) -- Seeya, Paul ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
remove linux, and then install Windows XP
Hi, With either Fedora Core 4 or Ubuntu 5.10, none of my USB device (flashdrive, usb mouse, usb external harddrive, etc...) works. So I decided to remove linux then install Windows XP, and then install linux to have a dual-boot system. The 1st link of Google results of install windows linux is on Microsoft website: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314458 The article says that I need to use Linux Setup floppy disk to use fdisk to delete linux partition. I am not sure what Linux Setup floppy disk meant, so I googled. The 2nd link of Google results of Linux Setup floppy disk is on Redhat website: https://www.redhat.com/archives/redhat-list/2005-March/msg00587.html One of 2 methods the thread suggested is to boot into rescue mode from linux installation CD. So I used Fedora Core 5 installation DVD and got into rescue mode by F5 Then I followed the steps listed on M$ article mentioned above, and deleted all linux partitions. Then I put in Windows XP installation CD and restarted computer. Sigh then I ended up with the following error message: GRUB Loading stage 1.5 GRUB loading, please wait... Error 22 ** The machine just hang there forever. One Google answer suggested that I can use fdisk /mbr to wipe the boot record clean, but in rescue mode of Fedora Core 5, this (/mbr) seemed an invalid option. Now, what should I do? I can't help but feel completely pathetic now, which is in part due to that I found out I have to assemble the bike I bought online from Costco. Gee, why couldn't they just ship me a ready-to-ride bike??? (of course this paragraph is apparently off-topic, so I'd better stop here). Thank you all in advance for the cures. Zhao ** ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
