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how to uninstall Mandriva? :huh: [solved]


Guest spouting lava
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Guest spouting lava

Hi, please give me some help to uninstall my Mandriva Linux in my laptop. Mandriva is the only OS in my HD. I used windows boot disk and removed all the partitions, included \mbr. Currently, when I turn on my laptop with and without a winxp CD, I get a message telling me that there is no OS. However, the laptopn can read from my Linux CD's and MS-Dos boot disk. Any help, pelase?

 

 

[moved from Hardware - arctic]

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I'm wondering if your Windows CD is either not bootable or corrupt in some way which is why you can't boot it. If you can boot your Linux CD's, then this would suggest that the BIOS is configured correctly.

 

You might be worthwhile going into the BIOS and making sure that the boot order has the CD-ROM before the hard disk. This will make sure that your BIOS checks the CD first before the hard disk, and then see if the Windows disk will not boot.

 

If not, then boot from the Linux CD, and choose "linux rescue" to boot rescue mode. Once completed, make sure you choose option to get to the hard disk prompt.

 

Then type:

 

fdisk -l

 

this will list all partitions on any hard disks in the system. Hopefully it should report that /dev/hda or whatever your hard disk is, as being empty. If not, then do this next:

 

fdisk /dev/hda

 

and it'll launch a program to partition your disk. Press "p" when in here and it will list the partitions. Press "d" to delete a partition and choose it's number, whether "1", "2" and so on. Then when everything is deleted, press "p" once more to verify it's empty. Then press "w" to write the disk changes, and then type "reboot" to restart your system, and try the Windows disk once more.

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If you do not have a bootable XP cd, you can boot by using a boot floppy (DOS), allways worked for me. You can download it from MS site (once it was possible...).

Also, you can create your own boot/rescue floppy on any Windows running PC, i think it is safer than downloading...

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If your DOS/Win floppy boots and has the win version of fdisk it should be possible to do a

fdisk /mbr

 

this should overwrite the boot record with the windows one however if your WinCD doesn't boot this looks more likel a faulty or non bootable CD ... you should be able to remove the HDD and still boot the disk (obviously won't work but should boot)

 

You might try carefully cleaning the CD...

 

If you are sure its bootable AND have another PC you can use you could try duplicating the CD on a very low write speed and allow error correction.

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Guest spouting lava

Thanks for everyone's prompt reply! I appreciate it!

Now, here is the problem.....

I booted my laptop with win98 boot disk and my winxp CD is also inside the CD-Rom. The following are some msg I saw on the screen:

…The diagnostic tools were successfully loaded to driv D…

…Drive E: = Driver MSCD001 unit 0…

So, I was guessing my laptop did see the winxp CD, but I don’t know how to run the winxp installer under Dos.

Also, I lost my recovery disks for the laptop, but I will try to download a copy of it.

 

Furthermore, I checked my boot order in BIOS, and the CD-Rom boots before hdd. There is no partitions in my hdd , either. In addition, I used Mandriva to enter the rescue mode, but cannot do it since mandriva is not installed in my laptop now. I will install it later when I am done with my current work. In the mean time, any other suggestions to help me uninstall the hdd? What about wiping the hdd? Thanks!

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Good question for any OS on a hard disk.

How to get it back to what the disk

looked like when it was delivered from

the factory.

 

The best and easiest utility I have found

is:

 

http://www.killdisk.com

 

Careful though. Virtually every bit from

the first sector first track to the last

sector last track is set to "0". There

is nothing left.

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…The diagnostic tools were successfully loaded to driv D…

…Drive E: = Driver MSCD001 unit 0…

So, I was guessing my laptop did see the winxp CD, but I don’t know how to run the winxp installer under Dos.

 

Well, 'Drive E: = Driver MSCD001 unit 0' is your CD-rom drive.

To install XP boot with your disc, it'll take some time. Then type 'e:' hit enter. Now you are in your CD-rom drive. Type 'dir' - you'll see the content of a XP disc. Type 'setup.exe' - the installer should begin. The installer probably will ask you to format your HD, becouse it can't recognize Linux' partitions.

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Guest spouting lava

I tried to install windows under Dos mode and the following combination to fix my problem...

(1) win98 boot floppy + winXP CD => booted from floppy, changed to E: drive, but can't install winXP under Dos mode

(2) winXP boot floppy + winXP CD => booted from floppy, but since cannot change to E: drive, I cannot install winXP

(3) Win98 boot floppy + winXP CD => booted from floppy, changed to E: drive. However, after I typed: setup to run the windows installer , I got the following msg and then froze:

scanning system registry...

Windows Setup requires

 

.....It's weird to see "Window Setup requires" after I ran the installer.

 

Do you know what's wrong?

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If by saying "winXP boot floppy" you mean the one which can be created inside windowsXP, then it's nothing more than a normal DOS boot floppy, totally unsuitable for booting the XP CD properly. Any such floppy loads an environment which isn't any good for the XP setup routine, because the latter is pure 32-bit code, while DOS is 16-bit only.

The full floppy set for Windows XP is SIX floppies, but for starting the setup you need just one floppy ( MS Windows XP System setup disk).

More info here:

http://freepctech.com/pc/002/files010.shtml

Edited by scarecrow
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If your Windows XP disk is trashed, maybe you can get a free replacement from Microsoft, or at least a small surcharge to cover the disk and postage perhaps :unsure:

 

Of course, you'd have to phone them and ask, because that sounds like bad media to me. Installing from DOS is not really a great option. I've tried this with Windows NT and 2000 in the past, and it takes absolutely ages because it wants to copy all the data to the hard disk first, and plus since it's in DOS mode, it's so much slower than actually getting the machine to boot from the CD in the first place.

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If by saying "winXP boot floppy" you mean the one which can be created inside windowsXP, then it's nothing more than a normal DOS boot floppy, totally unsuitable for booting the XP CD properly. Any such floppy loads an environment which isn't any good for the XP setup routine, because the latter is pure 32-bit code, while DOS is 16-bit only.

The full floppy set for Windows XP is SIX floppies, but for starting the setup you need just one floppy ( MS Windows XP System setup disk).

More info here:

http://freepctech.com/pc/002/files010.shtml

 

Right, DOS doesn't suit, but boot floppy created in My Computer (wich is somehow modified DOS) is 100% working, did it myself thousend times.

Edited by ilia_kr
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Actually, I never liked XP, espetially its stupid installer. I had hurd times with it too...

I prefer Win98 Second Edition - its lighter, fuster, more intuitive and relatively bug-free (well, close to).

What i'm tring to say, is that you may install 98 instead, if you can't setup XP, there is nothing XP can do that 98 can not.

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Right, DOS doesn't suit, but boot floppy created in My Computer (wich is somehow modified DOS) is 100% working, did it myself thousend times.

 

Curious to learn how- because it does NOT work for me, and in theory it shouldn't (it's just a modded MS-DOS 6.22 boot floppy). On the other hand, the floppy on the link I passed does work, as happens with Bart's boot floppies.

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