How to get rid of a Linux installation?

pastymuncher · 25 Jan 2007 at 10:15

Hi guys, i just built a little pc to use for internet, word processing etc and decided to give Linux a go. Big mistake. I downloaded Fedora 6 and burnt the iso to dvd then installed it on the new pc. Install went fine and have been using it for a couple of weeks. However, i absolutely hate it, and on top of that i booted up yesterday and the poxy password does'nt work anymore. Linux is not for me.

So i change the boot order so the the dvdrw is the first boot device and stick in a brand new, unused version of XP Pro and reboot with the intention of formatting the drive and sticking Windows on it. Booted from cd and got to the bit where it says "windows is scanning your hardware" or similar. Anyway that's as far as it get's. Take out that cd and put in my old copy of XP Home. Same story. It seems like Fedora is stopping it from going any further.

So i take out the hdd and connect it up to my main pc so that i can format it. 160gb hdd shows up as 148gb. Strange i thought. Anyway i formatted it to NTFS and stuck it back into it's proper pc. Boots up again and bloody Fedora loads. What the hell is going on? How can i get rid of Linux so that i can install windows. Fedora's website is useless and gives no answers to this problem.

Pc spec is:-
A64 3200+,
1GB Crucial pc3200,
Foxconn 6150K8MD-8KRS Socket 939 ONBOARD 6150 GFX / PCI-E x16 / TV OUT / Gb LAN / DUAL CH DDR / SATA RAID / mATX MOTHERBOARD,
Onboard 6150 graphics,
Samsung Spinpoint 160gb Sata 2 hdd,
Samsung 18x dvdrw.

Any suggestions shall be much appreciated otherwise i will have to buy another new hdd.

Cheers guys.

gumbald · 25 Jan 2007 at 10:47

What did you use to format it? Did you remove ALL partitions from the disk? If you used Windows to format, it won't have recognised the ext2/3 and swap partitions.

Dj_Jestar · 25 Jan 2007 at 11:12

The windows formatting tool (that comes with windows CD's) is not the best around, but it should have been able to cope with formatting the partitions (they will read as 'unknown' as opposed to 'unused')

However, an alternative is to use a Linux LiveCD variant, which I'm sure Fedora will have a version of, which will then allow you to use the fdisk function which is much more robust.

Or instead of a livecd use the ultimate boot cd, found at: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com

Which has many formatting tools.

pastymuncher · 25 Jan 2007 at 11:17

gumbald said:
What did you use to format it? Did you remove ALL partitions from the disk? If you used Windows to format, it won't have recognised the ext2/3 and swap partitions.

Hi, windows formatting program and it only found the one partition. It was in RAW format.

I will give the ultimate boot cd a go.

dirtydog · 25 Jan 2007 at 11:18

160 gig probably is unformatted capacity, not to be confused with formatted capacity so 148 is probably correct.

Don't worry, you won't have to buy another HDD

It should be easily sorted so you can install Windows.

Use the Disc Management tool (Start... Run... diskmgmt.msc) to see what partitions are on the disk.

What you probably did was format one partition, rather than the whole disk. The above tool will allow you to delete non-Windows partitions.

(I keep a bootable CD-ROM for times like this, containing amongst other things the DOS version of FDISK. That would be the easiest way of fixing this problem. You might want to make such a disc for future use

)

pastymuncher · 25 Jan 2007 at 11:27

Ok, cheer's. Just downloaded UBCD and now burning it to disk. I will let you know how i get on.

pastymuncher · 25 Jan 2007 at 15:48

That sorted it guy's. Thanks very much.

Pc is now up and running with XP Pro and everything is up to date already.

That UBCD is a gem of a disk and i shall always keep a copy now. By the way, 160gb the hdd is now showing it's true 152 and a bit gig of formatted space.

Once again............................Thanks.

Dj_Jestar · 25 Jan 2007 at 16:12

No probs.

Shoseki · 25 Jan 2007 at 16:22

Fedora is not the only linux distribution. I have been using Ubuntu as my first, and I love it.

Windows is pants compared to it, extremely unstable (crashing actually crashes the desktop) and user interface, is over the top. Plus I don't have issues with viruses, malware, having to run adaware etc every other day. Most of the best applications for windows are already available for free on linux (take Open Office, Firefox, thunderbird, VLC player, Blender and the GIMP for starters). You know exactly what is running on your PC, as opposed to the dodgy cacheing / "optimization" of windows (based on your personal info). And the user interface is just as, if not more, customizable than even the new Windows VISTA operating system.

Not to mention, that I am able to play my main games on Wine (World of Warcraft, amongst others) with far greater stability and loading times, and no problems switching between the game and desktop either.

So really, no need to ever use anything but Ubuntu atm... most professional windows software can be run on wine (photoshop if you really need it)... and ofc if you are like me and need to run AMP, ofc L is the perfect prefix

Spider · 26 Jan 2007 at 16:49

Shoseki said:
Fedora is not the only linux distribution. I have been using Ubuntu as my first, and I love it.

Windows is pants compared to it, extremely unstable (crashing actually crashes the desktop) and user interface, is over the top. Plus I don't have issues with viruses, malware, having to run adaware etc every other day. Most of the best applications for windows are already available for free on linux (take Open Office, Firefox, thunderbird, VLC player, Blender and the GIMP for starters). You know exactly what is running on your PC, as opposed to the dodgy cacheing / "optimization" of windows (based on your personal info). And the user interface is just as, if not more, customizable than even the new Windows VISTA operating system.

Not to mention, that I am able to play my main games on Wine (World of Warcraft, amongst others) with far greater stability and loading times, and no problems switching between the game and desktop either.

So really, no need to ever use anything but Ubuntu atm... most professional windows software can be run on wine (photoshop if you really need it)... and ofc if you are like me and need to run AMP, ofc L is the perfect prefix

Works both ways, I have tried both ubuntu and kUbuntu and had terrible stability problems with partially supported hardware and poorly written software. Meanwhile the same hardware works flawlessly in windows. Debian I have found to have the better stability (understandable given its background).

This is from a linux user, not a Windows lover....