How do I remove linux and install Win98?(kids pc)

[4thman]

Build a p/c for the first time and it actually works.Its for my kids, it's all used parts.Amd k6-2 266,FIC VA 503+m/b,pci rage pro turbo,Western Digital 8.4 gig h/d.Heres the catch(for me anyway)the h/d came with linux on it"Debian Gnu/ Linux 3.0 router ttyl"whatever that is.The last line says "router login:"How do I install Win 98 on this h/d?I've never installed an o/s from scratch before and thought I'd learn,but I was expecting to see a dos prompt not this.What do I do?Thanks.

 

[cleverhandle]

Find yourself a Windows 98 boot disk, either around the house or from www.bootdisk.com. Boot up, and type

fdisk

which will give you a short menu of partition options. Delete everything there, then create one big primary partition. It's not the most user-friendly program, but you'll figure it out. There's nothing to hurt, at least. After the partitions are made, "write" (save) the partition table, and exit the program. Then, do a

fdisk /mbr

at the command line to remove LILO, if it's there. That's it. Boot from the Win 98 CD, and follow the instructions.

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

That's it. Boot from the Win 98 CD, and follow the instructions.

That is if your Win98 CD is bootable. If not, start up from the Win98 boot floppy, choose "start computer with CD-rom support". At the A:\ prompt, type "setup"(without quotes). Follow onscreen instructions..

 

[4thman]

Ok thanks folks,it was scary at first but I had nothing to lose,and it seems to have worked but my 8.4 gig h/d only shows up as 673 megs in win98,what did I do wrong?Can I fix it or do I have to format all over again?Thanks.

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

Boot to your Win98 floppy again, run FDISK, choose option 4(show partition information) and see what you have. You may not have purged all of the linux partitioning. If not, Delete all partitions and create one primary DOS partiition. And yes, you will have to re-format anad re-install(sorry).

EDIT: When done fdisking, restart machine with 98 floppy again. At A:\ prompt type "format c: /s" minus quotes. While drive is formatting, observe how many MBs' are being formatted. Should be a whole lot more than 673 MBs'. More like 8200-ish.

 

[4thman]

Ok thanks GonzoDaGr8,gonna do again right now,thanks I'll keep you updated.

 

[4thman]

ok I found the prob,it looks like I didnt delete all the linux partitions.When I display them,there are two.Pri dos is 675 megs,ext dos is 7381 megs.But I can't delete the 2nd one (ext dos).Says"cannot delete extended dos part while logical drives exist"I can't seem to be to delete anything.How do i fix this?Thanks.

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

Hmmmm, I was figuring this was going to be a problem. Sometimes FDISK on Win98 floppy isn't quite strong enough to do the job. Have you tried deleting the logical drives and then deleting the ext. dos partition? I allways got around this by booting off of a WinXP CD and using the partitioning tools on it. It is a lot more powerful than Win98's fdisk. I know there is better utilities for doing this, but can't grab any off the top of my head.

 

[4thman]

Update-Fixed!Followed advice from users in this forum and others and I had to use something stronger than fdisk,I used a proggy from IBM called ZAP,it nuked it good!I now have a full size h/d with win98.Thanks folks.

 

[mboy]

Don't forget to fdisk /mbr if you still have trouble.