Posted: 8/26/2002 10:32:07 PM EDT
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I am having a major problem, A "helpful" friend installed linux on my computer for me, killing my windows. He thought I would like it, I do not But I cannot make the partitions die so that I can reinstal windows, I have treid and I have to install Linux again, nothing else will work. I really miss windows, anyone know how to destry the partitions and make this normal again? Thank you |
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You should be able to put in the disk that came with your computer I.E the restore CD drive. That should auto-load when it is inserted and the computer is turned on. From their you should be able to set the partitions. But If I am wrong try going out to DOS and type FDISK and change them that way. RS |
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no, tried normal format, tried FDISK I had been running Win ME, and if he had done a dual boot system I would have something to fall back to, but he formatted then installed.... I have treid to install win 95, 98, 2K, and ME not having a fun couple of days, this sucks for surfing and gaming (I only had the disks because I run it on my server).... |
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Where is your friend in all this? Call him back and have him repartition the drive for Windows. If you can't format it, you'll need some software like Maxblast to repartition. If you don't have an install disk or CD for windows, you're SOL unless you have someone else's to borrow. |
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How is fdisk not working? Fdisk should see the Linux partition(s) and be able to remove them. It'll see them as non-DOS, but you should be able to delete them. If they're logical partitions inside of an extended partition, you'll need to delte the logicals before removing the extended one. I've been using Linux and BSD's for 8 years now, and have never seen a Linux distro that could keep low-level tools from wiping it out. Remember the Alamo, and God Bless Texas... |
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FDISK will not funciton on a boot drive when booted FROM that drive. Have a buddy with DOS or Win9x make you a boot disk (DOS command - format a: /s) and add: FORMAT.COM FDISK.EXE If you can get it from Win98, you should also be able to get FAT32 support, which will allow you to put more than 2.0Gb in a single partition (IIRC, the theoretical limit for disk size with FAT32 is up around 200Gb!) Boot from the floppy, and type in FDISK. Select "Show Partition Information" to make sure you don't miss anything, I believe the Linux partition will show as "Non-DOS." Go back to main menu, select "Delete Partition" or its equivalent (I'm not looking at an FDISK screen right now...) Select "Delete Non-DOS partition." Select the Linux partition you verified earlier, and confirm. Exit FDISK and reboot after partition delete. Enter FDISK. To "Do you wish to enable large disk support?" enter Y Select "Create Primary DOS Partition" Use entire disk for partition When compleat, exit FDISK. Reboot from floppy. Enter "Format C:" Grab a sandwich, this can take a while. When compleat, start installing Windoze. I added a couple extra reboots above and beyond what is minimally necessary, experience has taught me that they don't hurt anything and have saved hours of frustration in other cases (sometimes the changes you make with FDISK don't commit until reboot. System-by-system variation...) Also, if you have a bootable recovery disk, it is not strictly necessary to format, but I do suggest creating the partition anyhow. Some systems actually split the drive into two (or more!) logical drives when restored, and this is sometimes overidden when the drive is already partitioned. I do not recommend splitting the boot drive into partitions, do that with "slave" drives when you need to do some heavy data sorting. Keeping the boot drive a single logical drive actually keeps seek times down and saves wear on the drive servo mechanisms, which extends MTBF. FFZ |
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Fdisk should defiantly do the job for you. The one thing I see that no one mentioned is that after you remove all the Linux partions you may rewrite the master boot record to remove Lilo or Grub (two common linux boot loaders). There is a little known fdisk command to remove the Linux bootloader. I you run "fdisk /mbr" that will take care of it. I've had some installs of windows not take care of the MBR. |
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Thank you all, I finall figured a way to do it, I rebooted off of the linux disk. Once in I used th elinux format command to enter it's disk management tool (DiskDrake I thin it was called) I deleted the partitions, like I had done before, but normally it would still not install, then I made it FAT32, normally I would still have probs trying to boot my disk and install windows. So I manually entered the boot commands, after that, it installed easily, I am back on good old fashioned Windows ME As for my friend, he ducked out and was not taking calls. I will give him a good tlaking to for mucking around with what he should not. I lie Linux for my servers, but not for my workstations, it is not useful enough for my Games :) Thank you all |
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Yeah, despite the hype... *nix has no place in the home or the corporation; unless it's a web server. M$ does it better in nearly every aspect. *nix just doesn't have the bulky GUI. Tell your friend he(she)'s a MAROON. BTW, If you run XP install, and format - It'll whack any other bootloader/partitions. Linux...LOL, just wait till they grow up[:D](Rebels without a cause) |
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make no mistake, I LOVE linux, but not on a Game or work machine, it is not user friendsly enough for most of my friends who use my workstations [:)] I do not have XP right now, was thinking of buying a copy, but decided that buying myself my first "non crap" AR as a B-day gift was more important (Actually building it myself, assuming I can [;)]) if it looks nice enough after I have finished it, pics will fo course be posted, well, in a few months after I have nit picked and scrinched pennies to build it [:P] Once again, thanks all for the help |