Removing Linux Mint

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12-08-2010
AbsoluteNovis

Removing Linux Mint

I have just bought a second hand Toshiba laptop which came installed with Linux Mint 8. It works fine and I have tried to use it for a while... sorry but I just prefer Windows XP. I followed a solution posted by 'daark.child', to remove Linux and re-establish XP.

I ran 'partedmagic' to remove the Linux partition, and converted to NTFS. Tried getting into recovery mode by booting up from XP install disk but it will not work. I downloaded 'Supergrub' (auto_super_grub_disk_1.7.exe) from cnet. Burnt onto CD but that doesn't work, I guess because it's not a boot file.

Someone please help.
12-08-2010
oz

Welcome to the forums!

Boot your Parted Magic disk, go to a terminal and run the following command:

Code:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1

The entire process should only take a couple of minutes, or less. You'll get a short message about records in and records out, and the drive should be cleared at that point, and ready to go. If your WinXP install disk still doesn't work, you might need to install SATA drivers. You might also try toggling the hard drive type between IDE and SATA in the BIOS, then reboot to see if it works.
12-08-2010
AbsoluteNovis

Quote:

Originally Posted by ozar

Welcome to the forums!

Boot your Parted Magic disk, go to a terminal and run the following command:

Code:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1

The entire process should only take a couple of minutes, or less. You'll get a short message about records in and records out, and the drive should be cleared at that point, and ready to go. If your WinXP install disk still doesn't work, you might need to install SATA drivers. You might also try toggling the hard drive type between IDE and SATA in the BIOS, then reboot to see if it works.

ozar

Thanks for the quick response. I entered the command in LXTerminal, it reported in a split second... 1+0 Records in, and 1+0 records out, so guess it didn’t work?
12-08-2010
oz

Quote:

Originally Posted by AbsoluteNovis

I entered the command in LXTerminal, it reported in a split second... 1+0 Records in, and 1+0 records out, so guess it didn’t work?

It looks like clearing the drive did work. Try booting with your WinXP install disk to see if it works now. If it doesn't, try the other options mentioned above.