From Linux back to Windows

feifeifei · 10-01-2002, 09:53 AM

Dear All,

My friend installed Redhat Linux on a machine. Now he wants to go back to Windows. I set up to boot from the CD-rom. However, it still went to Linux interface. How can I do to re-install Windows on this machine?

Thanks a lot.

jmcneese · 10-01-2002, 11:04 AM

c:\> fdisk /mbr

dotwebbie · 10-01-2002, 03:06 PM

Dang it, beat me to it!

At any rate, yes, that's right.

jetnet · 10-02-2002, 11:24 PM

Am i the only one who read this post? He siad that he had windows, went to linux, and now wants to go back to windows. Where in linux do you have a c:\ prompt. I havent found one on mine yet. I would suggest that your friend find a really large text file, like /var/log/messages and cat it to his hda0, or what ever his boot drive is. To find that our, just type in df, and you will see something to the effect of /dev/hda1 blah blah blah /boot. That means that hda is the boot drive. Then just type in

cat /var/log/messages > /dev/hda0

That will overwrite his Master boot record on his boot drive, and should make it so that he can boot off of the CD.

jmcneese · 10-03-2002, 04:05 AM

uh, ever heard of a rescue disk?

furthermore, whether your machine boots off the CD or not has nothing to do with what is on the harddrive, it is solely controlled via the BIOS.

jetnet · 10-03-2002, 10:24 AM

Well, if you want to give him the bios information that he needs to get in there and make that change with, by all means, go right ahead. And besides, I have been in his shoes before, and I know what he is going through. I am sure that he has already checked the bios, and for some strange reason, it is going right past the cd. Dont ask me why, I have just seen it before. For the love of GOD I could not get my windows 2000 cd to boot up on this computer. No matter what I did, it went right past the boot up screen for the cd, and went to the booting of linux. Now if that was a feature of linux or not, I do not know. I just could not make it work. So I had to go ask my local linux guru and he told me how to get past it. Thats all I am doing is passing on the knowledge..

BTW, did you mention anything about using a diskette? If so, I just read right past that part. Im sorry, didnt mean to overstep my boundries.