Removing Fedora Core3

[10g4n 0]

Anyone got any news on removing/formatting a HD with Fedora Core3 on it? I just wanted to test the thing out, very impressed with it aside from having to get vid/mp3 software separately.. ah well, thx

[matttah 0]

It seems you are wanting to reinstall windows..to do that simply put the disk in, and do an install...delete the partitions that were created for linux after you select you want to install the windows..then installt he windows on the new free space....I'd suggest that you stay in linux for a little longer, it grows on you=)

Daum

[10g4n 0]

haha well actually I've been working on my aunt's comp (my old comp) and its not XP compatable so we've kept ME on there...yes yes it's AWFUL haha! They are pretty illiterate and I don't think Fedora Core is for them..(I like it!) thanks for the help

[chendra 0]

I have a dual boot at home, an xp and a fedora core 3.

I installed fc3's grub on mbr. now, I want to remove the fc3, and use only winxp for a while (i got a project that need the extra space).

 

i've tried to do fixboot and fixmbr using a winxp cd, but it just mix things up and I cannot load the winxp at all, neither is the fedora core 3 (which i've already removed using partition magic earlier in windows).

That was a while ago, Now, i re-install the fc3, and the grub, and fortunately my winxp can be load using grub on mbr.

 

can anyone help me? I need to remove the fc3, but don't want to loose the xp.. i hesitate on doing the fixboot and fixmbr again, since it might cause me to loose the xp.. but any idea welcomed.

 

thanks in advance and sorry for my bad english.

john

[danleff 0]

You can't just remove the Fedora partition, as it has references to Grub. Grub must be removed first. This is why the system would not boot when you just removed the Fedora partition. Since you already tried to use fixmbr and fixboot, I wonder what your system layout is.

 

What system is this and what are the partition designations as PartitionMagic sees them?

 

You can also resize (shrink)the Fedora partition if you don't have much on it and enlarge the XP one to gain more space.

 

Another simple fix would be to add another hard drive for your data files, if this will work for you.

[chendra 0]

resize? is it ok? I mean, will it not confuse the FC3? I remembered once i do a resize on my old pc's linux partition (a Pentium2 pc), and the linux (mandrake, i think) won't boot.. got many error.

 

as of adding another harddrive, it would be my last resort, since i don't have spare fund to buy a new hdd, and i'm afraid my power supply will burn if i add one more harddrive..

 

hope i understand you correctly, english is not my primary language.. (sorry)

my system:

Intel P4 2,8E Processor,

Asus p4p800 SE MotherBoard,

2x 512mb PC3200 Visipro DDRAM

2 harddrives: 80gb ATA + 80gb SATA (both Seagate 7200 rpm)

2 optical (dvd-rom + cdrw -> both asus)

creative soundblaster live soundcard

128mb soltex ati radeon 9200 videocard

lots of yada-yada peripherals.. 1349-Firewire card, IRDA, BlueTooth dongle, printer, modem, onboard lan..

 

the SATA disk is only used for storage (ntfs), so the xp and fc3 are in the ATA disk.

I remembered the device structure in fc3: (I didn't remember the PartitionMagic's details)

hda1 = winxp (about 30 gigs) ntfs

hda5 = swap (about 800mb)

hda6 = fc3 / (about 15 gigs) ext3

hda7 = ntfs partition (labeled DATA in xp -> about 30 gigs)

 

I use grub as the bootloader, installed in MBR.

A friend told me to get a Win98 Boot Disk and boot using it and do a "fdisk /mbr" to remove the lilo/grub in MBR, is that the same as fixmbr/fixboot in xp?

 

anyways, as a backup plan, if I re-try to do fixmbr & fixboot, what steps do i have to make to ensure that if I loose the grub again and cannot boot into winxp, I still get the grub back and let the grub load winxp? I hope you understand this last question.. I'm confused myself ..

or put it in other term, can I rescue the deleted grub incase i try to do fixmbr&fixboot?

 

one more thing (hope i'm not annoying anybody), what are the steps to remove a linux system normally, assume that I don't have the last problem.. I'm just curious, maybe i miss some preparation or give wrong commands..

 

Thanks A LOT!

john

[danleff 0]

Quote:

resize? is it ok? I mean, will it not confuse the FC3? I remembered once i do a resize on my old pc's linux partition (a Pentium2 pc), and the linux (mandrake, i think) won't boot.. got many error.

It's good that you are thinking of a back-up plan. Especially since you had trouble before.

You can resize partitions, as long as you don't move them around, or add new partitions. I will assume that you added a partition before in the free space that you made? Of course, this would change the partition designations. The second thing is, with the current partitions that you have, what are primary vs. logical partitions? This would make a difference, as well.

Now let me ask, you have 60 gigs of space on the ide drive and 80 gigs of space on the sata drive, all being available to Windows? Will adding 10 gig of space make that much difference (assuming that you keep FC3 installed and just reclaim space from that partition - resize the partition so FC3 stays on the drive with less space)?

In terms of the fdisk /mbr command. This is really for Windows 98 or ME. Some claim to have done this for Windows XP, but it is not totally reliable. The fixboot and fixmbr commands are specific for XP. I will guess that when you did this before, did you really have the MBR pointing to the right drive when you applied these commands?

Sata is another issue. I recently got one of these drives and discovered a few things. Make sure that you do not have an MBR written to the sata drive. I bet the fixboot and fixmbr have to be specified when using the fixboot and fixmbr commands. I will try and find the Windows article on this for you.

In terms of backing up grub, try this. Get into FC3 and a terminal window as root user. See if you can make a grub floppy disk by issuing the command in the terminal;

grub-install /dev/fd0.

Make sure that there is a freshly formatted disk in the floppy drive. If this works, then at least you have a floppy grub disk.

I'm going on vacation tomorrow until March 4th, so if I don't get back to you, there are fine folks on these boards that can follow-up with this.



P.S. In terms of a boot floppy, look at this thread.


Also, for XP boot rescue using fixboot and fixmbr, see this Microsoft atricle.

[10g4n 0]

Right, well I can't seem to get Fedora Core3 off this old beast of a comp still ;( When I try and boot with the XP CD, it just says "Scanning hardware config" then it goes black and does nothing... (since the mobo isn't compatible with XP this troubles things). I can use the 98 disc to let me type in some command lines but that's about it. This is one single HD, about 25GB with no dual boot either, any ideas? This sucks, haha!

[danleff 0]

OK, now I'm getting confused.

 

10g4n, is this the system with Windows ME on it or one with just Fedora installed?

 

If just Fedora is on the hard drive and the entire hard disk is formatted with only Linux partition(s), then the Windows install disk will not see any hard drive space and spit out an error message or fail. Windows is unable to see Linux partitions (sees no hard drive space at all to install to). It will see this as no hard drive installed in the system at all.

 

If this is the case, you need to re-format the drive with a Windows filesystem, then install Windows.

 

Let us know why the system is not Win XP compatible. Is it that there is not enough memory, or it does not meet the processor requirements for XP?

[chendra 0]

Thanks danleff,

my space problem is solved. After cleaning up, i didn't have to remove the fc3, i burn out a few cds and delete some old setup files.. some old video movies, etc. it took a while, but at least it's cleaner now =)

 

yes, SATA is (somewhat) new technology, and that's why I only use it for storage or cache for video/audio processing. it's faster.

 

I recently read an article about fc3 instalation, here

 

he didn't use linux's boot loader, but windows'.. any comment?

 

and thanks for the grub backup..

a lot of thanks,

john

[scoopz 0]

Hi guys, I found this thread on Google and I decided to ask for help.

 

I have a dual boot with XP and FC3, and I want to remove the FC3 w/o reformatting anything. As to why I wanna do this, well my mobo doesn't have any drivers for Linux so the system basically sucks, hehe.

 

I have the disk partitioned as a normal dual-booter would have:

 

15G for XP

45G for data

15G for FC3

 

And I tried once to remove FC3 using the kernel tools on the CD but GRUB remained there so I couldn't start XP. Please HELP me on this one.

[danleff 0]

Do you have a full installation CD of Windows XP? if so, pop in the XP disk and allow it to boot to the options menu. Pick "R" for rescue mode. At the resulting command line, issue the fixboot command. When this is finished, issue the fixmbr command. Exit out of the utility and see if this allows a normal XP boot.

 

Realize,that you must know the administrator password for XP for this to work.

 

This also assumes that you have a full installation CD of Windows.

 

If Windows was not pre-installed on your system and you don't have a full installation Cd for Windows, let us know.

[scoopz 0]

Ok, I'm 99% sure I don't have an XP CD, so what can I do??

[danleff 0]

OK, now it is time to tell us a little about your system. Why? Because what you do, depends on what your system specifications are and how the system is set up.

 

Can you post the make and model of your system? you posted;

 

Quote:

As to why I wanna do this, well my mobo doesn't have any drivers for Linux so the system basically sucks, hehe.

 

Well, 99% of the time, you don't need "drivers" for the motherboard, unless it is a very new system/motherboard. If it is, then Fedora Core 3 was not a good choice, since your hardware is newer than what "drivers" are included in Fedora Core 3.

 

Removing the Fedora partition, as you found out, does not remove the grub bootloader files written on the MBR. Now the actual grub reference files have been removed (by removing the Fedora partition where they resided). Now you need to restore the MBR to it's original state.

 

You don't have a Windows XP installation disk. What do you have? Do you have recovery disks for the system, say if it's a Compaq, HP or Gateway system? In other words, was XP pre-installed on the system and do you have any recovery disks?

 

There is a method to restore the MBR via using a Windows 98 floppy boot disk that is available in various sites. This method may work, but in some cases, it does not, depending on the system setup. See this reference and Microsoft's own faq on this subject here.

 

Of course, you need to have a backup plan if this fails, which is why I ask about your system and what Windows XP recovery options that you have.

[scoopz 0]

Ok, say I find my XP CD now that I know who has it (yes, I give my CDs to friends sometimes). If I do the fixboot and fixmbr thing, that sould do it right??

 

Is there any way like with LILO that just a console command could work, like lilo -u /dev/hda, isn't there a way to uninstall GRUB like this??

 

That'd be easier than chasing out the guy that has my XP CD hehe

[danleff 0]

I am not aware of such a command for grub, but that does not mean that there is not one. the issue here is that you already deleted the Fedora partition, so who knows if it works from a rescue?

 

Best to locate the XP disk and do it that way.

 

If this is not possible, then you can try the fdisk /mbr command from a Windows 98 boot disk, or a DOS 6.2 boot disk. But realize, if this does not work, then you really need to find that XP disk.

 

If you are sure that you do not have any of the utilities installed, as noted in the articles that I referenced (such as a third party bootloader of some sort, or a special bootmanager), then you can try this fix.

[scoopz 0]

I haven't deleted the FC3 partition ... what I'm saying is if there is such a command for GRUB, then I can kick it out and then remove the FC3 partitions on XP with PartitionMagic or any other partitioning tool for XP ... I'll try to find my XP CD and remember my admin pswd, thanks for all the help

[danleff 0]

OK, so perhaps I misunderstood. You originally posted;

 

Quote:

And I tried once to remove FC3 using the kernel tools on the CD but GRUB remained there so I couldn't start XP. Please HELP me on this one.

 

So this led me to believe that you hosed the FC3 partiton, or at least the contents of the partition, so the Grub bootloader does not boot either OS. Grub needs to reference these files on the root partition (or boot partition, if one was created durig the installation process) to boot properly.

 

If this is not the case, then I did indeed misunderstand.

[scoopz 0]

Ok, let me explain the situation again...

 

I did erased the FC3 partition and couldn't boot any OS ... then I installed FC3 again so I could boot XP and continue with my life ... but I don't want to do that again, nor formatting my computer, so I need help.

 

I was thinking about trying the fdisk /mbr thing but I don't feel right about that.

[danleff 0]

OK, then you have three options. This is why I always harp on having a plan when you install an OS and a bootloader.

 

1. Find the Windows XP disk and do the suggested commands in recovery console to over-write your MBR.

 

2. Try the fdisk /mbr command using a Windows 98 or DOS 6.22 floppy disk.

 

3. Leave the system alone and play with Linux as you wish. If you truely are having problems with your hardware with Fedora Core 3, then you may want to try Fedora Core 5.

 

If you choose option #3, you may change your mind about Linux. What has been missing on this thread, is what your hardware is on the system, or what problems you were having with the hardware. It may be just a matter of your hardware being new enough that support for your devices was not present until a more recent version of Fedora.

 

In any case, before you do anything, have a backup of your inmportant files. This is always prudent.

 

To respond again about the uninstalling grub question, see this Grub FAQ page, item #12, to point out the issue with uninstalling bootloaders.

[scoopz 0]

Thank you very much ... You've been veeery helpful, I'll let you know how things go.