I installed Mandriva on my windows PC and one of the linux partitions currupted. I now want to reinstall, but don't want to muck up windows. Given mandriva bootloader handles which OS is booted at startup, can I safely delete existing linux partitions and start again without risking issues with loading windows? Any help much appreciated. Right now I have the mandriva bootloader giving me option to boot to linux- which fails, or to windows. I really want to revert to auto boot to windows before deleting the linux partitions and starting the linux install again.

Welcome aboard!

Also see your other post here in case people reply to both questions

You don't need to delete your partitions before reinstalling. When you reinstall, it will give you the option of whether to completely wipe the drive and start from scratch (bad) or reuse the existing partitions (good). Then you will be able to choose how to setup the partitions, which ones to (re)format, and so on.

However, if you're saying the linux partition is "corrupt", then it could be a problem with the hard drive itself - see if you can run some checks on it to make sure it's ok.

thanks- much appreciated. I will give it a go! Found my other post- different advise there, but seems this one is the easier route to go.