Unable to format laptop after SUSE10 install

[madman045]

Installed SUSE 10 on my laptop as a dual boot with XP

My XP install has gone pear shaped, so I was going to format the entire drive & start again, however when I put in either the recovery cd, xp pro cd or even a knoppix cd, none of them will boot.

If i let the laptop load as normal, grub kicks in & both XP & SUSE are loadable.

Anyone got any ideas on how to format this so I can reinstall XP?

Thanks

[Agent]

Have you checked the boot order in the BIOS ?
Sounds like its just looking straight at the HD, finding a boot sector, then it wont even look at your optical drive.

[teachmech]

As Agent said make sure the laptop isset to boot from the CD/DVD first in the bois, then retry booting from the XP CD. This should allow you to reformat the drive to NTFS.

[madman045]

It is booting from the CD, it has the press any key to start the process, the screen changes & then nothing.

It actually boots the laptop system cd, when it says insert the recovery cd, i put it in, press any key & nowt.

The only cd that has booted is the Knoppix 4 cd, otherwise the system fails to load the other CDs.

Is there a way I can wipe the lot in Knoppix & remove the grub loader, as i suspect thats the cause of the problem...

Thanks

[aidanjt]

Your hard drives wouldn't have anything to do with the booting of livecds or WinXP setup cd, you can also delete Linux partitions with the WinXP setup cd (recovery cd's are an inherent headache, I'd advise against using them at all times). My only guess is your CD/DVD ROM or BIOS is faulty.

[madman045]

I might be wrong, but isnt part of the XP Setup to search for hardware, i.e hard disks?

Because after the detecting hardware bit at the start, there is constent disk access...

The layout of the drive is

fat32 partition, contains the laptops boot info/grub & system tools for the laptop, C: is NTFS as is D: & the rest is two linux partitions for SUSE10.

[mike_w]

The XP installation shouldn't have a problem with there being a Linux partition - I've had 2000 happily destroy my Debian system, and GRUB.

[aidanjt]

I might be wrong, but isnt part of the XP Setup to search for hardware, i.e hard disks?

Only if you didn't get a real OEM Setup CD.

[teachmech]

I think aidanjt has hit it on the head, are you using a recovery cd or an actual win xp cd?
To do what you are trying you need an xp cd not a reovery cd.(I think) As most recovery cds look for a hidden partition on the hd that contains the recovery info, perhaps you have erased this partition with your suse install?

[aidanjt]

I dispise those recovery cds with a passion, if OEMs do supply recovery cds/dvd's they should doso with an origional setup cd too. Unfortunatly in many cases they don't, once the recovery partition is gone you have real problems.

[madman045]

Ok, lets clear it up.

I have tried the recovery cds that came with the laptop, my ms action pack version of XP Pro & an OEM XP pro cd & none of them will work.

Looking like i might have to take the drive out, format it in another machine using an ide converter, only problem is i could go from a working, albeit slow laptop to a none working one....

[teachmech]

If you have a floppy drive how about trying a win 98 fdisk to unpartition the hd then try running the xp install.(I'm running out of ideas now)

[madman045]

I guess it's worth trying, i'll have to source a usb floppy drive.

Thanks for the suggestion

[mike_w]

Is the Knoppix CD working? If so, you could try using that to tear apart your hard drive.

[madman045]

Mike, the latest knoppix cd boots without a problem, only thing is, I wouldnt know where to start on sorting the drive out lol

It can mount all the partitions ok & read the data on them...