Windows Installation Problem on RHEL5

[Jairam Mohanty]

In a system which has RHEL5 32 bit OS installed on it , I tried to format the whole and install WIndows XP on it but unable to do as the system was not taking the Windows XP installation CD.

[daark.child]

Hi,

Did you mean to say that your system is not booting from the Windows CD? If so, then you need to configure your BIOS settings to boot from CD before HDD.

[devils casper]

Windows Installation CD doesn't work after Linux Install in a few machines. You have to remove GRUB.
Either boot up from SuperGRUB CD and select Fix Windows Boot Loader from options
Or
Boot up RHEL, log in as root and execute this in Terminal/Konsole

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=521 count=1

It will wipe your Hard Disk and Windows Installation CD will work on reboot. If RHEL is not booting up, you can use any LiveCD.

[manavalansuresh]

hi jairam mohanty

now your want remove the Linux os my sugge is please remove your hard disk ...after word
connect to the another PC in your hard disk but your hard disk have connect to slave and reboot system and in the master hard disk already have windows XP go to device manager --> disk management--->it's shown disk0 and disk1 and after format the hard disk

there fore is this easy way to remove linux os because already i try it
it's working da

[devils casper]

hi jairam mohanty

now your want remove the Linux os my sugge is please remove your hard disk ...after word
connect to the another PC in your hard disk but your hard disk have connect to slave and reboot system and in the master hard disk already have windows XP go to device manager --> disk management--->it's shown disk0 and disk1 and after format the hard disk

there fore is this easy way to remove linux os because already i try it
it's working da

That wont work because GRUB is stored in MBR instead of Partitions and formatting partitions wont make any difference. One has to remove GRUB from MBR first.

[i92guboj]

Windows Installation CD doesn't work after Linux Install in a few machines. You have to remove GRUB.

Are you sure about this? I have never seen this. And if that happens after you changed the boot order in your BIOS, then it's a bug on your BIOS. The BOOT order should be respected, and only the MBR on the drive that you are going to boot from is the one that should be read.

Otherwise, this could potentially make your pc unrecoverable from a virus infection, for example. If this ever happens, I bet that you have a good change to recover from it by either reseting your BIOS config (just take off the battery and the power cable for a few seconds) or, if that doesn't work, try to update your BIOS.

[devils casper]

Are you sure about this? I have never seen this. And if that happens after you changed the boot order in your BIOS, then it's a bug on your BIOS. The BOOT order should be respected, and only the MBR on the drive that you are going to boot from is the one that should be read.

I am 100% sure about it. Windows Installation CD doesn't work in 12 Machines at University Lab including my own test machine. I have upgraded BIOSes of all machines myself.

You can also search here in LinuxForums for similar problem.

[daark.child]

Are you sure about this? I have never seen this. And if that happens after you changed the boot order in your BIOS, then it's a bug on your BIOS. The BOOT order should be respected, and only the MBR on the drive that you are going to boot from is the one that should be read.

Otherwise, this could potentially make your pc unrecoverable from a virus infection, for example. If this ever happens, I bet that you have a good change to recover from it by either reseting your BIOS config (just take off the battery and the power cable for a few seconds) or, if that doesn't work, try to update your BIOS.

Its the first time I've heard of this as well. I've never known the bios boot order to be affected by the bootloader which is on the MBR of one of the boot devices. Its really strange.

[devils casper]

Its the first time I've heard of this as well. I've never known the bios boot order to be affected by the bootloader which is on the MBR of one of the boot devices. Its really strange.

IIRC, I discussed this with you a few months ago.
Its not a BIOS Boot Order problem because Machine does boot up from Windows Installation CD. Installation CD stop working at Hardware detection phase.

[daark.child]

IIRC, I discussed this with you a few months ago.

I don't remember specifically discussing this topic, but you could have mentioned it in another thread. Either way, its a strange problem that I haven't come across before.