How to remove Red Hat 7.0

[iceman95]

I have an old 486 that currently has Red Hat 7.0 loaded on it as a single OS. This was an experiment that I tried after replacing that PC about two years ago. The problem is that the machine is just not up to the task. Red Hat/Gnome run so slowly that it makes it virtually unusable. I'd like to go ahead and just re-format the disk and re-load Win95 so it's at least somewhat functional. So far, nothing I've tried will let me delete the extended partition. DOS/FDISK won't work and Disk Druid from the install CD won't allow you to go forward with no Linux partitions. I have Partition Magic, but haven't tried that yet. Is that my best option?

Andy

 

[bubak]

dos fdisk won't let yoo delete the extendet partition, coz there exists some logical, he is not able to see. if the linux is still functionable, boot it, delete all partitions with fdisk and reboot, run dos and run from dos
fdisk /mbr (to remove lilo or other bootloader).
If linux is no more functionable, use some boot floppy from os/2 (2 floppies, good fdisk there) or some 1 floppy linux distro with fdisk (

http://www.linuxlinks.com/Distributions/Mini_Distributions/)

bubak

 

[bgauntt]

I wrote a FAQ on debugging a hard drive which will wipe out all partitions regardless of Linux or Windows. Here is a shortcut to it.

http://www.tek-tips.com/faqs.cfm?spid=602&sfid=1569&CFID=44898962&CFTOKEN=90869807

I would use Partition Magic first to delete the partition and then debug the hard drive. I have done this and it has worked for me.

If the link doesn't work then just go to the PC hardware - General Questions forum and click on FAQ's and it is listed under the viruses header.

 

[ifincham]

Hi,

Try the pqmagic and if you get problems then run the 'partinfo.exe' utility that comes with partition magic (ftp://ftp.powerquest.com/pub/utilities/partinfo.exe) and post the results here to see if theres anything strange going on.

Regards

 

[ahc142a]

Short answer YES u have to use Partition magic cos fdisk won't recognise linux partitions. However u can use PM to format your hardrive to fat and the u will be able to use fdisk etc. and install windows.