Linux Partition Removal

[slinky]

Evening all.. I need help!

I need to basically format my hdd and start again.. Having had a brief journey through FC5 I'm finding too many limitations and need to return to the dark side... Yes, I want to re-install WinXP..

My trouble being, I don't have the FC5 installation disks any more, and the XP installation doesn't seem to do a fat lot bar spinning up the CD..

So, I need to format the HDD and start again.. I could really do with a link to a utility, in an .iso format that I can burn to CD, boot from and clean everything up..

Any ideas folks?? I could really do with sorting this tonight!!!

Cheers,

slinky

[Plotloss]

www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/cdrom/

And fill it with a DOS floppy downloaded from bootdisk.com and use fdisk

Or if you still have a floppy drive, boot from that, flatten the disk and install XP.

[fredf]

Download Knoppix and burn to a CD or even just TOMSRTBT (floppy disk if you have any)

Open up a terminal
run fdisk /dev/hda
h (help)
d (delete partition)
w (write back to disk)

[slinky]

Turned my brain on and realised that an attempt to delete the kernel's active partition wouldn't occur until reboot..

Job done, now posting from windows!

slinky

[Bodo]

slinky said:

Evening all.. I need help!

I need to basically format my hdd and start again.. Having had a brief journey through FC5 I'm finding too many limitations and need to return to the dark side... Yes, I want to re-install WinXP..

Out of interest - what are the limitations you experienced with Linux?

[slinky]

Bodo said:

slinky said:

Evening all.. I need help!

I need to basically format my hdd and start again.. Having had a brief journey through FC5 I'm finding too many limitations and need to return to the dark side... Yes, I want to re-install WinXP..

Out of interest - what are the limitations you experienced with Linux?

Firstly, me being lazy..

Secondly, driver support for my display adaptor, nightmare at getting firefox to work with all of the plugins required to visit streetfire et al... Ipod support.. etc etc..

and other reasons...

slinky

[xiphias]

OS X!

[aldi]

slinky said:

Bodo said:

slinky said:

Evening all.. I need help!

I need to basically format my hdd and start again.. Having had a brief journey through FC5 I'm finding too many limitations and need to return to the dark side... Yes, I want to re-install WinXP..

Out of interest - what are the limitations you experienced with Linux?

Firstly, me being lazy..

Secondly, driver support for my display adaptor, nightmare at getting firefox to work with all of the plugins required to visit streetfire et al... Ipod support.. etc etc..

and other reasons...

slinky

All true ATI and nvidia are better than before, but getting all the variuous codecs and plugins to work after an install is still an arse. Apparently though theres a new distro appearing with all that stuff built in... begins with an L but can't think of it right now?

Then there's tha games issue...

Linux is good for servers and work machines, but not 100% there yet for play...

[Bodo]

Slinky - it's a bit of nerding around when you know Windows, and expect the same from Linux. People I know, don't like it because the choice for state-of-the-art games isn't that good. Bad indeed.

I was brought up with UNIX (I didn't have a computer before going to uni), and Linux felt very multimedia when I assembled my first own computer in '99 , so I got used to Linux from then on. I'm still no computer expert though.

[slinky]

Bodo said:

Slinky - it's a bit of nerding around when you know Windows, and expect the same from Linux. People I know, don't like it because the choice for state-of-the-art games isn't that good. Bad indeed.

I was brought up with UNIX (I didn't have a computer before going to uni), and Linux felt very multimedia when I assembled my first own computer in '99 , so I got used to Linux from then on. I'm still no computer expert though.

I too used to use UNIX, and am quite profficient when it comes to using linux as a server O/S, but the trouble comes when attempting to utilise it as a desktop O/S, doing normal "desktopy" things that unfortunately XP does so well..

Much as I would love to have carried on on the linux side of things.. I just couldn't! not for my main machine anyway..

slinky

[Bodo]

In my experience, people that have no experience with computers whatsoever, have not more difficulties to adapt a KDE desktop than getting used to a windows desktop. They don't have expectations on how something should work, and they don't install software or do any hacking on the machine.

I've checked that on my parents; they have become frequent Linux (KDE-) users over the years, and they use average desktop features (email, browser, text processor, spreadsheet, imaging and audio software). Probably 2% of all features offered - just like the average desktop user does.

There are still two downsides:
- you need someone for support on usage questions especially for Linux (no prob for my parents, because I'm available);
- and you need to review hardware for compability before you buy. Often, you will have a smaller choice than the windows user.

Still, there is nearly no work on security issues other than automatic updates for software. The machines are running for years on 2.4 kernels, because there's no urge for fiddleing to a later spec.

[slinky]

crap... my issue is now attempting to read an ext3 partition within xp... oh bugger..

[Pigeon]

For me, one of the attractions of Linux is that you're not forced to use all the desktop stuff. Generally anything that doesn't require a graphical app I do in an xterm or a console window.

[thepassenger]

slinky said:

crap... my issue is now attempting to read an ext3 partition within xp... oh bugger..

Not possible locally. Windows speaks FAT, FAT32 and NTFS.

Now something like Partition Magic *MIGHT* be able to convert ext3 to NTFS, however it's doubtful if the data would remain intact.

Best bet is to get a Knoppix CD, boot it and write the data on that partition somewhere else (USB key, FAT32 partition, etc.)