Fedora
- Thread starter Punk
- Start date
The fast way will require a cd writer! One great and free tool that will wipe a Linux partition off and even create an NTFS partition or multiple partitions in preparation for Windows is GParted. In addition to the cd writer you will need a software like the free version of BurnON found at http://www.burnworld.com/burnoncddvd/
The Gnome Partition Editor or often seen as GParted live for cd is downloaded in an iso disk image from http://sourceforge.net/projects/gparted/
The alternate option since it would generally take a Linux tool like cfdisk or GParted to remove that type of primary and/or secondary partitions is known as Active Killdisk that simply writes binary "0s" to the drive. That wipes everything. http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm
The three tools mentioned here will completely remove any Linux partition with GParted being able to remove Fat32 and NTFS partitions as well. The cfdisk and Active Killdisk utilities will work from a boot floppy if there is no cd writer available. http://packages.debian.org/stable/base/cfdisk-utf8 The one thing to note here is that most sites where Linux distros are found will have a version of cfdisk available there under drive tools.
The Gnome Partition Editor or often seen as GParted live for cd is downloaded in an iso disk image from http://sourceforge.net/projects/gparted/
The alternate option since it would generally take a Linux tool like cfdisk or GParted to remove that type of primary and/or secondary partitions is known as Active Killdisk that simply writes binary "0s" to the drive. That wipes everything. http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm
The three tools mentioned here will completely remove any Linux partition with GParted being able to remove Fat32 and NTFS partitions as well. The cfdisk and Active Killdisk utilities will work from a boot floppy if there is no cd writer available. http://packages.debian.org/stable/base/cfdisk-utf8 The one thing to note here is that most sites where Linux distros are found will have a version of cfdisk available there under drive tools.
tlarkin
VIP Member
If there is no boot loader installed in the MBR simply boot off a windows xp cd and format and reinstall windows.
If there is an mbr all you need is to boot from a dos or freedos disk and use the fdisk /mbr command to wipe it out. After that the windows installer can do the rest
If there is an mbr all you need is to boot from a dos or freedos disk and use the fdisk /mbr command to wipe it out. After that the windows installer can do the rest
The Windows installer and Linux partitions don't mix. You first have to remove the Linux partition and then allow either the XP installer or another program to create the new primary for XP to install onto. What you missed there is that the XP installer can't see Linux or VFat12 partitions by itself.
tlarkin
VIP Member
Wrong, it sees it as an unidentified partition, you just use the installer to wipe and reload. Done it before countless times.
Fedora is a little different then other distros being a Red Hat version. The XP installer can run into problems there. Sometimes on removing and repartitioning a drive with an older version of Windows you can see a bad install of XP later. GParted is one for not only removal but creating new partitions even for dual OSing a drive.
After creating a new primary for XP with it the installer will then format the NTFS partition created by GParted. If your friend later decides to run both Windows and a Linux distro GParted will be a good tool to have onhand.
After creating a new primary for XP with it the installer will then format the NTFS partition created by GParted. If your friend later decides to run both Windows and a Linux distro GParted will be a good tool to have onhand.