[SOLVED] Problem removing Fedora

[saalikr]

Hi everyone. This is a little long...but, I managed to install Fedora 13 on my XP laptop but it has taken the whole disk. I would like to remove the Fedora to get my XP due to some wanted software. I can see the Windows area on the laptop. Because Fedora is taking the whole disk I cannot get to Repair on the Windows install disk because it does not see the hard drive.
I want to replace Fedora on the drive so that I can have a dual boot machine.
Any help would be very much appreciated.
Saalik

[devils casper]

Are you sure that Fedora has taken all the disk space? We have to check partition structure of your Hard disk before suggesting anything.
Boot up Fedora and execute this in Terminal :

su -
/sbin/fdisk -l

Post output here.

* It's a small L in fdisk -l.

[saalikr]

Good morning and thank you for the prompt response.
Here is the output from the fdisk command.

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 2550 20480000 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 8919 9729 6514326 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda3 * 2550 2576 204800 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 2577 8918 50942115 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 2577 8918 50941952 8e Linux LVM

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/dm-0: 50.0 GB, 50046435328 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 6084 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-0 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/dm-1: 2113 MB, 2113929216 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 257 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/dm-1 doesn't contain a valid partition table
[root@Sheikh Saalikr]#

[devils casper]

There is a NTFS partition in your Hard disk? What is in it? I would suggest you to try removing GRUB before wiping Hard disk.

Boot up from Windows Installation CD, select Repair and execute fixmbr command at repair prompt. Reboot machine and check if Windows OS, if there is any, boot up.

You can delete all Linux partitions (marked as unknown) and create new through Disk Management Tool of Windows OS.

[saalikr]

I have already tried to fixmbr but when the option to repair comes up from the windows install disk it won't recognise any OS. I guess I have lost my apps on windows.
I may have to reinstall windows and forget about Linux if these are going to be the sort of problems that will arise from supposedly 'stable' and 'easy to use/install etc' distros.
Saalik

[devils casper]

I may have to reinstall windows and forget about Linux if these are going to be the sort of problems that will arise from supposedly 'stable' and 'easy to use/install etc' distros.

It is not a Linux problem. Have you followed instructions from any tutorial? Linux installation is really easy if you take care of a few things like creating separate partitions for Linux instead of using whole disk.
You mentioned in your first post that Linux has taken whole disk space but Linux installer never do it without User's consent. It does ask about partition structure and disk usage specifically before starting installation.

Anyways, if you are still interested in Linux installation, do let us know and we will post step by step instructions.

Boot up from Fedora LiveCD and execute this in Terminal :

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

Above code will wipe your Hard disk. There won't be any partition or data in Hard disk and it will be blank as brand new. Windows Installation media will work fine on reboot.

[saalikr]

Thanks again for your time. I suspect 'used whole disk' was not the appropriate description. I should have said that the Windows OS was not recognised/seen.
Anyway I do not think that a Linux installation is 'easy' if one has to consider setting partitions etc. This is where Windows will always be favoured over Linux by people who 'just want a computer that works' without having to go through all the tech setups.
I decided to do a full install of XP and now have a machine that 'just works'.
Thanks again for your time.