CLARIFICATION: Re: remove linux, and then install Windows XP

[Jerry Feldman]

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 <gaf at blu.org>
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