From linux to windows

h3ndu

So I have this computer. It has linux on it - fedora core something - and I'd like to put windows xp pro back on this thing - promblem is it's not doing it - I start up the computer with the windows cd in, it says "press any key to boot from CD..." I press any key - it then says "setup is inspecting your computers hardware configuration" and then it does nothing. So yeah. I have little to no experiance with Linux (this was an experiment of my friends that he lost interest in) so if you do give me instructions please make them incredibly clear because honestly I have no idea what to do.

supabeast

This doesn't sound like a Linux issue, it sounds like your Windows disc doesn't like the hardware, or is corrupt. See if a different Windows disc, or a different version of windows, will work.

h3ndu

Roger.

h3ndu

Same problem.

Daedalus

The Windows XP install disc, being made by brain-damanged monkeys, crashes at that stage if you have anything even slightly weird going on with your partition table. You'll need to use fdisk from a bootable Linux disc to wipe the partition table clean and start over.

That kind of thing has happened to me like twice. I think the Vista install disc fixed this problem but I'm not sure so don't take my word for it.

h3ndu

so yeah...

fdisk.

What is fdisk?

and doing some research on my own I found this. Could it be exactly what I need?

h3ndu

Ok Ok I struggle; Now in the command promt I type out fdisk and it bring up this
usage: fdisk [-1] [-b SSZ] [-u] device
E.g.: fdisk /dev/hda (for the first IDE disk)
or: fdisk /dev/sdc (for the third SDDI disk)
or: fdisk /dev/eda (for the first PS/2 ESDI drive)
or fdisk /dev/rd/c0d0 or: fdisk /dev/ida/c0d0 (for RAID devices)

now for each one do I enter into the command promt fdisk/dev/whatever and then enter in d to delete the partition? Am I on the right track here or am I fucked?

h3ndu

Oh man. I feel smart. Thanks for the help. This one wrapped up nicely.