PART II : Scroll 2 Bottom Please

[MainFramed]

PART I

I want to get ride of windows xp pro on my comp and install linux (what distro i dont yet know, i think red hat or mandrake) but i dont know how to delete win xp pro becuz lately i have had a problem, when i try to boot up my computer i get this message:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
You can attempt to repair this file by starting windows setup using the original setup CD-Rom. Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair.

I dont have my 'orignal' win xp disk my friend has it.
is there a way to delete win xp without repairing it. and jw if i were to completely (dont know how) erase all the data on my hard disk would windows be gone?

PART II
comming soon....(need answers from above first)

 

[Electrode]

When you start the installer for whatever distro you choose (i recommend debian or slackware), at some point you will get an opprotunity to repartition your hard drive. Just delete your NTFS partition and create your Linux and swap partitions, which will destroy all traces of windows.

If you REALLY want to clean your HD, as in the way it would be if you had just bought it new, get to a command prompt and run dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512. This will erase EVERYTHING. Files, partitions, partition table, MBR, you name it, it's gone. There's no need to do this, but it is fun.

 

[RedBeard0531]

lol, waht do you have to hide?

 

[Nothinman]

If you REALLY want to clean your HD, as in the way it would be if you had just bought it new, get to a command prompt and run dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512. This will erase EVERYTHING. Files, partitions, partition table, MBR, you name it, it's gone. There's no need to do this, but it is fun

Actually it's just slow and pointless. With enough $$ and work, data recovery people can recover data from harddrives written too many times. To stop Joe Blow from down the road, fdisk is normally more than enough.

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

here4amission,

Judging by the post, I estimate that your experience with Linux is toward the novice end (much like myself). As such, I would highly recommend Redhat 7.3 over the other distributions. Not that they are any less capable distro's, only that Redhat seems to have the best documentation and support among hardware/software vendors. Go to www.redhat.com. I suggest using a true FTP client instead of the FTP supported through your web browser. Once the ISO's are downloaded (a time-consuming project) You can burn them to disk and install the OS. There are three ways to partition your HDD: let RH do it, do it yourself using Disk Druid, or do it using FDISK(for all intensive purposes). Repartitioning a drive will destroy the data held therein...so as the others have already pointed out, you have your method to remove XP. Good luck!

 

[civad]

why not use a win 98/ME boot floppy to format the hdd?
After all, its always nice to use the "enemy's" weapon to kill him....

 

[MainFramed]

Originally posted by: RedBeard0531
lol, waht do you have to hide?

cant tell

 

[MainFramed]

Originally posted by: ST4RCUTTER
here4amission,

Judging by the post, I estimate that your experience with Linux is toward the novice end (much like myself). As such, I would highly recommend Redhat 7.3 over the other distributions. Not that they are any less capable distro's, only that Redhat seems to have the best documentation and support among hardware/software vendors. Go to www.redhat.com. I suggest using a true FTP client instead of the FTP supported through your web browser. Once the ISO's are downloaded (a time-consuming project) You can burn them to disk and install the OS. There are three ways to partition your HDD: let RH do it, do it yourself using Disk Druid, or do it using FDISK(for all intensive purposes). Repartitioning a drive will destroy the data held therein...so as the others have already pointed out, you have your method to remove XP. Good luck!

Yes ST4RCUTTER,
you absolutley right, i am every bit of a novice when it comes to Linux I think i am going to use the Red Hat 7.3, i have been to Red Hat's web site many times and have done pleny of research on Slackware,Mandrake,Redhat, Debian (etc..) and i think to start i am gonna try Red Hat.
But not only am i new to Linux i am to the whole Hard Drive stuff, and Partitioning, and fdisk. its all a 2nd language to me right now. I dont need xp right now, i will be putting it on a computer i am building soon, so how can i erase my entire hard drive as if brand new, without being "inside" of windows like i said :

when i try to boot up my computer i get this message:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
You can attempt to repair this file by starting windows setup using the original setup CD-Rom. Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair.

and i dont have my 'original setup cd' so what do i do? is there a wat to erase my hd with this error?

 

[robisc]

You didn;t mention but IMO I would try SuSE over Mandrake or Red Hat, they are all 3 good but with the YAST tool that comes with SuSe it is much easier to configure things than with the other distros, I have even tried the latest Betas form Red Hat and Mandrake and I keep going back to SuSE.

 

[MainFramed]

I am sure i will try SuSE but RH will be the first

 

[MainFramed]

^ bump

can someone please help me!!! i need a answer to the 8th post here!

 

[Nothinman]

If you don't want to save the data on the partition the XP installer or the Linux installer will let you delete the partition.

 

[MainFramed]

so all i have to do is start the linux installaltion, and then it will let me delete the partittion with xp on it?

 

[robisc]

Yes there will be a partition setup option that will let you wipe the whole HDD if that's what you want.

 

[MainFramed]

PART II
i have never installed a OS before, now i have downloaded Red Hat Linux 7.3 perfectly what do i do now? how do i install it??

 

[Tiger]

Burn the iso files to CD's.
Change the boot sequence of your computer in BIOS to CD first.
Put the first CD in the CD drive and boot the machine.
Read all the text and instructions and make sure you're comfortable with what's going on before moving on.

 

[MainFramed]

I did everything the book said (Linux 7.3 Bible) and put the disk in restarted the comp. but the computer dosent seem to reconize the disk in the cd-rom. i think i am gonna need to repair xp pro before i can install Linux, does anyone have anyother ideas?

 

[robisc]

Does your PC allow the option to boot from CD?

If so have you set the CD drive as the first boot option either in the BIOS or by instant access while booting?

If the answers to these are yes then maybe your disk is bad, meaning it was either not burned correctly or isn't bootable.

 

[MainFramed]

how could i go about making my cd rom the first thing that boots in the BIOS?
i dont know how to do this, like many other thigns you can see in this thread.

 

[MainFramed]

anyone?

 

[robisc]

OK when the PC is booting there should be something that shows what key to press so that you can get into the BIOS, usually it is esc, del, F1 or F5. When you hit this key you should boot into the BIOS, be very careful in here and DON'T change anything you don't understand, just look around and find out where your boot options are, right now it is probably set to boot from HD-0 first if that is your first HDD, so you would want to change it to boot from CD-ROM first then save the BIOS settings and exit, now with your bootable CD in the drive it should boot from it and hopefully you will install Linux OK, after this is done make sure you go back into the BIOS and change the boot options back to the HDD. Some PCs have the option to change the boot options temporarily rather than having to go into the BIOS, there is another key you press when booting that will give you your boot options, for example when PC is booting after the POST I have the option to press del to get into the BIOS and F8 to get the boot menu, in this case I would press F8 then select CD-ROM. Hope this helps.

 

[MainFramed]

Thanks robisc,
i switched my hard drive into another computer, my computers BIOS wouldnt let me choose which thing was gonna be booted first. I have succesfully installed Linux!

 

[robisc]

Sounds good, what flavor Linux?

 

[MainFramed]

For my first try with Linux i went with Red Hat 7.3 I am more than sure i will make my way around to suSE and slakware etc... but i sure couldnt have installed without the help from those who contributed to this thread. thanks guys