Gnu grub linux 5?

:-oBought a "newly used" 80Gb HD from EBay (bad idea, I know) - Thought it was loaded with WinXP but turns out it has Linux. I have exhausted my limited knowledge on how to format this HD to get it ready to install Windows -

How do I wipe this thing so I can start with a "blank" Hard Drive? I have a Windows 2000 Pro CD that should go right on there if I could get it to boot, but I seem to be missing something I guess???

I apologize it this is covered somewhere else in this forum - I looked and couldn't find it

 

Have you tried booting to the cd. Cause I know on an xp disk you can boot from cd and when you install the new OS you can format the drive.

 

Welcome to Majore Geeks.
If you have access to another machine that will accept a slave drive, then install your drive,delete the partition through Disk Management, reformat, remove and reinstall in your own machine.

 

CoalNixon:

Yes, I have tried booting to the CD, but as I said it is a Win2000 Pro -it ignores the CD the Linux still starts up. I could try to locate the XP CD from somebody if you think that would work.

hrlow2:

That is an excellent suggestion, but I failed to give you all of the information and I apologize - this is a Dell laptop. I have another laptop, but I don't know how I could connect a second drive, unless there is some way to connect it through the PCMCIA slot maybe?

Thank you both for your replies!

 

Yeah you could try to locate an XP disk and try that, but if you can't I would download a partion manger like partition magic or bootit partition manager load it onto a floppy(if possible) or a usb stick and try to delete and reformat the drive from there.

 

CoalNixon:

Thank you for the suggestion. I might be able to locate an XP disk because this would be the easiest, but I am also willing to try using the partition software, but I freely admit I have no experience with these programs and I may need some help.

Thank you for trying to help me. If I get it, be assured I will follow up and let you know what worked.

 

Sounds good. Most of the partition managers that I have used are fairly straight forward and easy to use.

 

What does the linux drive do when you try to let it boot as primary?

 

Hello BoredOutOfMyMind:

This is exactly what happened:

I have a Dell Laptop, the hard drive crashed completely. On boot up, it said "no hard drive found" or something like that. I bought the new one, put it in, turned on the laptop, and....

startup screen comes up where you can hit F2 or F12 to access setup or boot menu, respectively.

then the screen comes up with a red background with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 in big white letters at the bottom, and says "booting red hat Linux client" across the top.

Then screen goes black, and white lines of code start scrolling up the screen saying "Starting" this and that.

error comes up saying Failed to start the X server and would I like to diagnose the problem. I say "no", and the end is at the prompt

Linux login: _

If I type in "root" for login and password, it goes to the prompt

[root@Linux ~]# _

That's it - I'm stuck. If it was MSDOS, I would type format c:, and that would be it. I don't know Linux - is there a similar command?

 

I have Norton's Partition Magic now, but I don't know how to run it from Linux - I don't think my CD drive is mounted (if that is the correct terminology) and if it was I don't know how to access it. I assume that it would need to be installed before it could be run, but again, I'm probably wrong about that too.

I guess software unused is useless software - someone please tell me what to do or what to read so I can learn.

Thanks in advance

 

Do you have any linux live CDs?
If so, you can run a live CD in your laptop, attach the 80GB hd using an ide/sata to USB adapter.
The live distro should auto mount the USB hd.

Depending on what distro you are running, you can format the external to NTFS or FAT32, if you prefer, and even create partitions on it.

I use an old live CD of PCLinux to format and partition drives (usually internal).

 

the windows 2000 cd can delete and reformat the whole drive,
if you can't boot to the w2k cd then i guess you won't be able to boot a linux live cd,

all you need to do is to put the cd/dvd drive as first boot device in your bios, pop in the w2k cd and off you go

 

Got it!! Turns out the CD I had WAS NOT bootable - DUH... I'm an idiot, I admit.

:-o

Thank you all for your help and comments - this is a great forum!