Uninstalling Red Hat Linux

[Mattman]

I currently have a dual boot config, Windows XP and Red Hat Linux, using LILO to select the OS.

Red Hat has crapped out and frustrated me for the last time. I want to uninstall it, but I don't know how. I tried reading the installation guide that came with these CDs, but it doesn't have anything about uninstalling. I know LILO is going to make things even more difficult. How do I uninstall Red Hat and set Windows XP as the default OS?

[aym]

You need to do 4 steps:
1)Backup your data!
2)Restore the Win XP Master Boot Record (MBR).
3)Delete Linux partitions.
4)Create new Windows partitions out of the free space left by Linux ones.


First step is done using the command fixboot, for more info check this.

The second step can be done by using a third-party tool called DelPart (ftp://ftp.erdelynet.com/mike/delpart.zip)

Use diskpart command to do the third step, refer to the first link for more info.

HTH

[Mattman]

I forgot to mention that I am going to replace Red Hat with Mandrake, so I won't need to delete the partiton. Will that change anything that I have to do, other than skipping step 3? TYIA.

[MaXimum SMOKE]

All that being said... It would be easier to just boot the Mandrake install disk and let it install over the Linux partitions currently held by RedHat.

[TMAN]

umm isn't mandrake redhat? They seem to mirror each others problems on my machines. IMO you should install slack or bsd instead of mandrake for a change of pace.

[Statica]

Nope, not quite .. mandrake IMO has created a niche for itself in being very userfriendly, sometimes to a fault and in being high in development. Redhat packages usually lag behing significantly in versions. Agreed that slack and bsd are great and your suggestions are valid, but for a person that had probs with RedHat, it might not be prudent turning to something that emphasizes on stability and not compatibility or development (like slack or bsd). BSD is in essence a different beast, so what if Linux is UNIXlike .. it still isnt UNIX (thank goodness).

[kroneko]

For what you want to do, I'd just put the mandrake boot disk in and follow it, it will give you the option of deleting or using linux partitions, just let it use the existing linux partitions you used for redhat, and it will delete everything and use that, then it will install the bootloader to the mbr and you won't even notice what happened, assuming you had it set so it would erase or delete what was on the partitions that it used in the installation.