Can't reinstall windows after RedHat Fedora core 3

[Eskhellion]

Hello,

I was trying to dual boot my computer between windows xp and fedora core 3. I had three partitions on the drive. One was NTFS at 50 gigs for the Windows XP install, a second was a FAT 32 10 gig section for transferring files between Windows and Fedora and the third was a 60 gig Fedora core 3 partition.

I installed windows and it worked. I installed Fedora and after a bit of fiddling, it worked. Then I couldn't load windows. It would just crash and hang on boot up. I tried a repair install on windows and it wouldn't work. It wouldn't load into Safe Mode, and after a couple of days of reading forums and trying to solve this, I got fed up and deleted all of the partitions. I tried to reformat it all as ntfs and just install Windows XP back on the drive. Windows XP will not install. It just hangs. THe drive has been formatted dozens of times - low level, quick formats, everything. It simply will not work again.

What is wrong with this?

I would like to have a dual boot system, but Linux is starting to look like much to big a problem for it's functionality.

What is the REAL way of fixing this problem and possibly actually getting a working dual boot system going? I only have 1 computer and I desperately need Linux on there for some of my classes and Windows for the rest.

Thanks,
Alina.

[s7p9a2m4]

Xp and linux installs and boots very nicely.

I suspect you may have hardware problems. Check your ram with memtest. Check your hard drive with a diagnostic tool from the hard drive manufacturer. A bad/failing power supply will also cause heartache.

Make sure to remove the side cover of your machine and clean it out with compressed air. Check to make sure all fans are operating and clean.

Get back to us.

[peterxparker]

I formatted my machine to try out fedora core 3 and then gave up on it after a few days as I can't run yum or up2date. I was extremely frustrated to find out that I can't re-install windows xp on my machine. My system will boot to the wondows disc, it will start to analyze my hardware and then the screen will go blank and my system just hangs there. I'm lost. Fedora runs great (besides the updates) and I can get other discs to boot on my system. I know my xp disc is good, also, because it boots and works on my other system. I'm lost and don't know what to do. It's not a memory or power supply issue (the hard drive wouldn't be able to cause this problem anyways).

[s7p9a2m4]

Two almost identical issues with fedora.

All I can suggest at this point is to totally erase the windows partition with boot and nuke and try again. Try to 'hide' the fedora partition if you have partitioning software installed before you attempt another install. I have seen people foiled by left over files from a reformat. Have you checked out the fedora forum for help?

http://dban.sourceforge.net/
www.linuxquestions.org

[jskuby]

I'm pretty much a noob at linux, so I don't know exactly why this worked, I'll just let you know. I have an HP nx9600 and had the same problem, Window Setup locking to a black screen and stalling with Fedora 4. I'm pretty sure Windows XP is hanging trying to read the MBR on the hard drive, something flakey with Fedoras GRUB prolly. Anyway, I downloaded the Debian network install iso (I'm pretty sure others will work too, non-Fedora) which was about 110MB, ran that setup and overwrote everything including MBR, let that finish then rebooted. I tried the Windows XP setup disk and BAM, loaded into the setup environment no problem. Hope this might help you out.

[Timnelly]

Originally Posted by peterxparker

I formatted my machine to try out fedora core 3 and then gave up on it after a few days as I can't run yum or up2date. I was extremely frustrated to find out that I can't re-install windows xp on my machine. My system will boot to the wondows disc, it will start to analyze my hardware and then the screen will go blank and my system just hangs there. I'm lost. Fedora runs great (besides the updates) and I can get other discs to boot on my system. I know my xp disc is good, also, because it boots and works on my other system. I'm lost and don't know what to do. It's not a memory or power supply issue (the hard drive wouldn't be able to cause this problem anyways).

I have the exact same problem, I think Fedora Core 3 messes the computers up somehow, I am trying to find a way to resolve this issue.

[thedon57]

Hi guys reading through a mag and found this on linux, about Red Hat Fedora2, but this is for uninstalling if any of you are getting troubles.

It is possible to remove Linux from your computer but it is important that you do it the right way to avoid creating more problems. The menu that you see when your computer starts is called LILO(Linus Loader) and this allows you to choose between Linux and Windows when you start your computer. If you just delete the Linux part of your hard disk this menu will stop working and prevent you from accessing Windows.

Start your computer and select Red Hat Fedora. When you are logged into Linux, start a Terminal session. Every version of Linux is slightly different but there should be an entry in the start menu called System and another within it called Terminals. Select any of the entries in this list. Type su and then enter the password for the 'root' user account when prompted. Type 'lilo-u/dev/hda' without the speech marks and press enter. Restart your computer and Windows will start automatically without prompting for Linux.

You will need a separate program such as Partition Magic to reclaim the space taken up by Linux back into your C: partition. An easier and cost free alternative is to create a second partition using Windows.
Click on the Start button, right click on my Computer and select Manage from the menu that appears. Click on the Disk Management option on the left-hand side of the screen to see a reprentation of all the disks on your computer. The WINDOWS part of your computer will be shown as a bar along the bottom of the screen with a blue strip along the top. There will be several sections the right labelled Healthy (Unknown) and this is the section of your hard disk taken up by Linux. Right-click on each one and select Delete Partition in turn. Once this section of the disk is empty, right-click on it and select New Partition. Follow the wizard, selecting a Primary partition, all the free space available and the default settings for a drive letter and the file system options. Click on Finish and Windows will format the disk.
For more info about changing LILO see http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx? scid=kb;en-us;171611.

I dont know this will help but found it anyway.

[Faron]

This is a little late but for people who are want keep windows and have linux. Should put windows first. If you want linux u don't have to even install. Many linux distro' s have live cd you pop it into the computer and the os just boots.
and when you take it and boot windows it's perefectly fine. So I guess u could uninstall fedora core. I find a different linux distro that has a live cd.

In this case if you want too keeep fedora just erase like in the post above me and INSTALL WINDOWS FIRST.

[ZaraByte]

Hmm... well would i do is make a Windows 98 Boot Disk reboot the system and do the press Shift + F5 teh for A:/>fdisk and it will take you to the part to ceate a partition ect.. pick number 4 after it deletes that partition go and create a new partition and then reboot make sure you put in your Windows Operating System before you reboot. not sure if anyone has told you this or if you have tryed this already but it's what i do to remove a partition a Windows 98 boot disk will remove a linux partition.

[darwin]

Hiya

Im running Win XP Pro & Linux Linspire 5.0. Im going to assume that Fedora Core 3 works on the same priciple for installing as Linspire.

I basically found that I needed three Linux partitions to install properly, and only found out the hard way.

I had to create -
1 x /root (8 Gigs)
1 x /User or /home (8 Gigs)
1 x /swap (Linux suggests this is double the memory installed on your machine)

I was then able to install and dual boot perfectly.
The size of the root or user depends on what extra software you install, if you install the very basic, just to get the system running, then something like 5-6 gigs should do. But the more you choose to install, then the more space you need.

Hope this helps

[darwin]

Originally Posted by darwin

Hiya

Im running Win XP Pro & Linux Linspire 5.0. Im going to assume that Fedora Core 3 works on the same priciple for installing as Linspire.

I basically found that I needed three Linux partitions to install properly, and only found out the hard way.

I had to create -
1 x /root (8 Gigs)
1 x /User or /home (8 Gigs)
1 x /swap (Linux suggests this is double the memory installed on your machine)

I was then able to install and dual boot perfectly.
The size of the root or user depends on what extra software you install, if you install the very basic, just to get the system running, then something like 5-6 gigs should do. But the more you choose to install, then the more space you need.

Hope this helps

What I should have said was. If you boot off the win cd, after you have repartitioned and formated, you should be able to reinstall windows, otherwise you might need to download software from your HDD manufactorer, which would include the option to partition your HDD to fat16 / fat 32 etc, and from dos

[Overclocked Doc]

You might want to check the date of the original post and that there have been no further inquerries.

To add to what everyone says above: He needs to remove any and all traces of the previous installations before proceeding. Formatting alone will not do that. Only "zeroing" the hard drive will (using the hard drive mfg's tool).

[blitzkreig]

Hi people!
I am new to this forum.
I was just checking this forum to find answer to my own problem and while going through the forum i found this thread. I think you dont need to delete ur partitions for solving this problem. It is called dual boot problem of xp. This is not a problem with fedora core 3 alone. I have experienced this problem with redhat 9 and suse. As far as i have seen it is a problem with maxtor harddisk & linux. The problem is that while installing linux mistakes the disk geometry. ( I am not sure about this).
If you know the disk geometry (fdisk -l or sfdisk will give you that) of ur HDD, boot with a live cd (you can get live ubuntu cds on the net freely) and fix the disk geometry manually (If you dont know the disk geometry you can get it from internet if you know the exact name of ur harddisk). By the way maxtor HDD doesnt have Linux in their supported OS list.

[Overclocked Doc]

Although you may be correct, the original poster does state the he infact "deleted all partitions" and then attempted to reinstall XP. XP would not install and that's were he left off, hence the answer I gave.

[mshah007]

boot using windows boot disk. type Fdisk /mbr c: - check this command line!
You should now be able to reinstall windows. Linux alters the boot sector of your hard disk.

If you are going to install Linux ever again backup your MBR. Linux provides utilities for this e.g. GRUB