removing a Linux partition

[RobH]

I have a Linux box that Im moving a larger drive in,and I want to use the old drive in a 98 machine. Problem is It has only one partition and it is Linux,I tried to remove the partiton with Delpart,but it was on a disk that was formatted in windows,and the computer wouldnt allow its use.
any ides??

[bailey]

I use partition magic for that, works great

[mairving]

Have you tried booting off of the Windows 98 boot floppy and running Fdisk to delete the partition?

[bailey]

yes, I forgot that
you can delete a non dos partition that way too

[kilgoretrout]

Try fdisk but I've had problems with it in the past where there have been only linux partitions on the drive. In one case the only way I could get the drive recognized in windows was to use the manufacturer's disk utility to zero fill the drive and then partition and format with fdisk.

[RobH]

Originally posted by kilgoretrout Try fdisk but I've had problems with it in the past where there have been only linux partitions on the drive. In one case the only way I could get the drive recognized in windows was to use the manufacturer's disk utility to zero fill the drive and then partition and format with fdisk.

Yep that worked...thanks

[jglen490]

Actually the simplest way is to use the fdisk that comes with your Linux distro and then use it to remove your Linux partitions. Then the Windows/DOS fdisk or diskpart will handle the resultant blank drive.

[kilgoretrout]

Actually the simplest way is to use the fdisk that comes with your Linux distro and then use it to remove your Linux partitions. Then the Windows/DOS fdisk or diskpart will handle the resultant blank drive.

BTDT, usually works, but not always. If you have a windows partition, created by a windows partitioning tool, and you leave it on the drive then let linux partition, format and install on the unused space, you'll never have a problem. If you let linux take over an entire drive and partion and format, you can have problems that no partitioning tool will solve if you try to later install windows back on the drive. Believe me, I've had it happen and a zero fill was the only way to get the drive windows compatible.

[RobH]

As I said earlier,I have used DELPART and never had a problem,but this was the first only 1 partition/linux I have tried.I have built several systems dual boot,and could get delpart to work properly--not in this case.thanks for the help guys.

[SuperAndy]

I'm not computing genius. However when I had to change hard drives I found that maxtor has a utility that can be run from windows or from a boot disk called maxblast. You can copy partitions that run microsoft products with it and you can create new partitions and erase old ones. especially useful if you want to run windows. And it doesn't actually require that you have a maxtor drive. The only thing is the one that runs off of a boot disk doesn't always load so well.