Remove Linux / Debian / Gnome?
Hi my mother in law has got Linux on her dell and only Linux. And she has asked me to reinstall windows XP back on and take Linux off. But I ran the reinstall disk on the pc but nothing happened.
How can I get rid of Linux so i can reinstall?
Linux running the Gnome desktop and is ditributed by debian if anyone knows what that is!
cheers rick
Just like to add that i have tried just running the installer disc for windows xp but the computor still loads linux everytime.
I have no discs for linux as it was installed directly from the net. and the guy who put it on the dell, insisted it was better than windows (he was a linux programmer and my mother in law is not and struggles to do anything on the system.
Tagged with: cheers • dell • gnome desktop • Linux • linux programmer • mother in law • windows xp
Filed under: Debian
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Your Master Boot Record (first sector of the hard disk) is not what Windows expects: it was rewritten by Linux.
Insert the XP boot CD and access the Recovery Console, then issue the command FIXMBR. Instructions are provided in the link below from Microsoft.
Or else if you still have a floppy drive and the MSDOS diskettes, boot with those and issue the command FDISK /MBR.
Otherwise get hold of a Linux Knoppix or Slackware distribution, boot from it, get to a shell prompt and issue the command:
lilo -M /dev/hda
If you have a SATA hard disk, it may be /dev/sda instead of /dev/hda. Or even hdc or sdc. You can try them all.
After your MBR is back to ‘normal’ you need to reinstall XP.
But all this for a Mother in Law! Tell her IT assistance was not part of the marriage contract. … till Gnome do us part?
The disk should run. If it doesn’t read the disk then go into your bios and set the boot order to boot from CD first, other than that I have nothing else to tell you.
You install XP over linux just as you would install it to an empty drive. Insert the XP installation disk, start the installer, format the drive, and work out the details as you come to them.