Booting & formating problem

[prajantika]

My sys AMD 64x2 5200+,AsusM2NPV-VM,XFX 8600GT,! GB RAM,160 SATA,Samsung TFT.OS is XP on drive C:Few days back Debian installed in drive F:.But Debian failed to detect monitor at the end of installation process.On OS booting screen, XP (as other operating sys) starts normally (within 30 sec),but Debian fails.
Debian uninstalled and sys stoppd booting XP also.Debian reinstalled and XP works (Debian as before-cannot detect monitor).My hard disk is C:,D:,E:,FNTFS & Windows) and three Linux partitions--94 MB,swap 478 MB,3.7 GB.
Now the problem is I want to format the whole disk but no bootable XP CD working (tried with three different CDs).After the `PRESS ANY KEY TO BOOT FROM CD >SETUP IS INSPECTING YOUR COMPUTERS HARDWARE CONFIGURATION, and the screen goes grey-black nothing happens,except the HDD-led remains on. How to get rid of such prob .pliz help.

[dOm1naTOr]

Use partition magic
it can work with ext, ext2 dn ext3 easily

[urvan4ce]

k nw plz tellme wether u have xp still installed...???
if yes then u may not even need to reinstall it... or atleast ican suggest that we can get your previous desktop running and then we can delete all the debian partion thru win xp and make your previous xp installation active.... here's how i suggest....

1..arrange urself Windows 98 bootable disk or boot cd...
2... boot into the system.... then enter fdisk command...
3... in fdisk session if u remember mark ur windows xp partition active if it's nt this steps just 4 precaution 4 what we are doin to do next....
4.... exit fdisk....and enter this command.... fdisk /mbr
5... reboot.... and i think you should be able to access your previous windows installation....

[dOm1naTOr]

but cant format ext partitions using DOS commnd prompt or windows fdisk. It works only with FAT32 nd NTFS.

[debsuvra]

I do not think it as a HDD problem. Something other than the HDD is creating nuances in installation. Please post your complete hardware configuration here.

Also please check with Ubunty Gutsy, if the monitor problem persists.

[pushkaraj]

Although there is a low chance of this, but the gfx card might b causing a problem. IMHO, keep minimum hardware connected in ur cabinet and then try to install XP.

[prajantika]

Originally Posted by urvan4ce

k nw plz tellme wether u have xp still installed...???
if yes then u may not even need to reinstall it... or atleast ican suggest that we can get your previous desktop running and then we can delete all the debian partion thru win xp and make your previous xp installation active.... here's how i suggest....

1..arrange urself Windows 98 bootable disk or boot cd...
2... boot into the system.... then enter fdisk command...
3... in fdisk session if u remember mark ur windows xp partition active if it's nt this steps just 4 precaution 4 what we are doin to do next....
4.... exit fdisk....and enter this command.... fdisk /mbr
5... reboot.... and i think you should be able to access your previous windows installation....

Yes XP is still installed & Im working at this moment also.Previously I deleted all the Linux partitions & XP was not booting.Reinstallation Debian made XP working.

[Krazy_About_Technology]

You need to remove the bootloader of debian before you could delete the partitions. First boot into xp and insert your XP cd. now from a command prompt or the run dialog run

f:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons

this will install recovery console on your harddisk. Now when you'll restart your system, you'll get a new option of Recovery Console in your boot menu. start it. choose your windows installation and provide the Admin password on prompt. When you get the c:\>, run these commands:

c:\>fixboot

then

c:\>fixmbr

Restart your system. Now check if you could boot normally into windows. After that boot from any live cd which has gparted (for ex. Linux Mint) and use it to delete linux partitions. you can create your Windows partition using this tool or using Disk Management Console after booting into windows.

[goldy_connect]

If the forum posted by my friend Krazy_about_Technology, then I recommend that you should try this first. But if this not happens and u want to complete erase your partition of your hard drive then you should follow this: -

If u simply partition your hard drive then the better option for this is to use UBCD (Ultimate Bood CD). It is a bootable CD which you find on Digit December 2006 Cd. In this Cd you will find lots of Partition Software which are easy and user friendly enviornment. If you have not, then you should try Seagate Disk Manager (Free) can be downloaded from seagate web site or u can search the link from Google.

Try and reply.. I am waiting

[debsuvra]

Originally Posted by goldy_connect

If the forum posted by ...

No offense meant but a forum cannot be posted, only posts can be.

@ prajantika, ur problem is indeed a boot related problem. Try K_A_T's method. Also you can boot into the recovery console from XP CD also. When booting from the CD, press R to enter the recovery console when prompted. And please do fixmbr first and then fixboot only if necessary.

[Krazy_About_Technology]

Originally Posted by debsuvra

No offense meant but a forum cannot be posted, only posts can be.

@ prajantika, ur problem is indeed a boot related problem. Try K_A_T's method. Also you can boot into the recovery console from XP CD also. When booting from the CD, press R to enter the recovery console when prompted. And please do fixmbr first and then fixboot only if necessary.

he has tried booting from the cd, but its not working, please read the post carefully, No offences please.

[khattam_]

do as Krazy_About_Technology said earlier.. but you don't need a LinuxMint CD to delete ext partitions.. diskmgmt.msc will just work fine...

[Krazy_About_Technology]

Well ya, diskmgmt.msc is the first one to try. But sometimes it just refuses to delete ext3 partitions, dunno why. It happens specially if you make partitions on pen drives. Thats why i suggested Linux Mint.