formatting problem

[liamkincaid25]

I was tryinng to use linux mandrake 8.1 in one machine built by me. It turns out that for me it was much trouble than it was worth.After I installed it , decide to go back to windows. I fdisk/mbr. and now there is a messages tht says "missing operating system" . Thats ok i tried to partition rhe drive to reinstall windows but i can not do it. A messages saying disk one is fixed appears and the after that point i can do nothing , do not accept the esc command to return to fdisk. Can someone tell me how to partition and format again so i can use windows?

[Rick]

If you still have your mandrake boot disk and cd.
Boot using the floppy or cd and run setup for mandrake.
When it asks where to install select advanced .
Then select let me partition the hard drive.
Using the graphic partition program it should show you how the disk in partitioned.
Select each partition one at a time and then use the delete button on the bottom of the box.
Once you have all the partitions deleted.
Press the done button.
it should say writing to hard drive.
you will receive a number of warnings about not having any partitions setup .
don’t worry about them.
Once the partitions are written just press CTRL_ALT_Backspace
this will reset linux and shutdown.

You should then be able to use a win boot disk and Fdisk the drive to your liking

[liamkincaid25]

Thank you for your advise Rick. I did as you instructed me , all was ok til i deleted the partitions. After that at no moment I receive a message about writing to hard drive. The only messages said that i needed to select a partition. So I reinstalled MANDRAKE because i was lock up with a systme with no OS. I still want to delete MANDRAKE. Any more ideas you can give me?
thanks

[Rick]

At the point where it told you to pick a partition is where you should have pressed CTRL_ALT-Backspace.

After you deleted all the partitions and pressed done.

[liamkincaid25]

thanks for your quick answer Rick I wil try that ASAP and let you know.thanks for your help

[Rick]

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/Partition/partition-5.html

ot use the expert mode and use Fdisk. Link about tells how