Printable View
Hi, I have installed linux 10.1 on my personal computer , now I wish to go back to my windows xp .so I tried to install windows xp on my personal computer but windows xp does not recognize the hard drive. What should I do now ? Eventually I would like my personal computer to have both that is linux as well as windows xp on same hard –drive ( i.e dual boot ) ? please help as I need both of them as windows support games and linux is more stable and faster to use ???????
If the hard disk is formatted for linux then windows xp won ‘t recognize it because the file partition and formation used by linux and xp is totally different and thus xp does not recognize this partition but linux does recognize xp ‘s partition. You can boot from a Linux CD and format the disk using FAT32 or NTFS format (which is the partition used by windows xp ) it should not be problem for windows xp to detect linux unless and until your hard –drive is not connected properly .
Linux does recognize xp partition but xp fail’s to recognize the partition done by Linux . You can download and use kills disk application for formatting your hard drive and then start over. By first installing windows xp and then linux and thus have a dual boot from the same hard –drive. Remember: download kill disk on another pc and then burn it to a blank cd. Because it needs s to be installed on a cd or u can also mount used application such as daemon or alcohol 120.
- Use another PC to download "Kill Disk" Windows version by searching it on google
- The free version is good enough, unless you need a higher security than normal humans.
- Install the application on that other PC and now you can create a bootable KillDisk CD. So burn that into a CD.
- Now go to that infected PC running Linux and boot from this Kill Disk CD you created. In the menu select Kill Disk. You will see your HDD - select it and then press F10. In the free version you can only use the default "Erases with one-pass zeros" which is more than enough. Now it will prompt you to type the command to erase the HDD. Type exactly as shown on the menu and press enter. And Ubuntu or any other damn Linux goes to its grave in under 20 minutes depending upon your system specifications.
- Menu shows a blank HDD with no formatting or anything else. Exit the Kill Disk menu and remove CD.
- Now get the Ubuntu 10.04 boot CD or any other Linux OS. So boot from this Ubuntu 10.04 and go to Live CD .
- Now use: System -> Administration -> Partition Editor -> GParted -> Partition -> New NTFS or FAT 32. Choose FAT 32 to be on the safe side ( because any windows os detects fat 32 partition). Now "Apply" those changes in GParted menu button. Make sure you have formatted the entire HDD with FAT32 - a single partition.
- Now exit Ubuntu Live CD and eject its boot CD
- OK, now your WinXP CD is almost ready to install on the PC with a blank HDD.
- Insert the WinXP CD and boot - press F2 to go to the BIOS Settings. And you can now install a fresh version of windows xp now. After u are done with installation of xp go for linux dual partition installation with windows xp as default.