Hello Everyone,

I have big problem and need solution.
I am not able to start My XP. I have install dual OS XP and Fedora. I have deleted the XP's C: drive where It was installed.
Now the problem is that I am not able to reinstall it due to fedora's Non Dos partition.

I want to delete the Non Dos partition and install XP back..

I dont want to lose my data on other drives like D:,E:, and F: ..

Is there any solution to delete the fedora an can get my space with XP back???

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heilpflanzen

First, welcome to the forum. However, please note that this isn't really on-topic for this forum, which centers around the 6502 and derived architectures. However, the nature of the query is easily answered, and might be useful for someone else here, so I'll bite and give it anyway.

The solution is to treat Windows like a sexually transmitted disease.

No, really.

This is based on more than 20 years of experience dealing with everything from Windows 2 all the way up through Windows 2003 Server, and all points in between. What you're experiencing is a commonly used tactic by Microsoft, used as far back as Windows 3.1, to control what operating systems customers use.

The only reliable solution to this is to use different physical drives in the computer, one for Windows, one for everything else that plays nice with each other. When it comes time to reload Windows, you physically remove the drive with the nice OSes on it, so Windows is incapable of discovering their existence (Though relatively rare, I've had cases where Windows "silently" decided to reformat them upon re-installation without my approval.) Install Windows with it thinking it owns the full box. Only through a full quarantine like this will Windows re-install as you the customer expect it to. (You might be able to coax it otherwise, but are you sure it will install as completely as you intend?)

Then, when done, re-install the other harddrive, boot back into Linux (or whatever), and re-install your master boot record from a sane boot loader. Obviously, make sure to configure it for the new drive configuration, so you don't have to boot with drive overrides all the time.

This is the only foolproof method I'm aware of to get Windows to "dual-boot" with other operating systems.

Disadvantage: it requires another physical drive.

Advantage: it gives you an extra partition on your "nice" harddrive to install the latest OS distribution of your choice, except for Windows, or to use as your /home directory (a recommended practice anyway), etc.

Welcome to the forum, although we really don't get into PCs here except when used to cross-develop 65xx software or other ancillary uses.

In talking about your other "drives" (other than the C: drive itself), are these on physical drives or are they extended DOS partitions? If the latter is the case, your best tactic is to use Norton Ghost to copy those partitions to a different physical drive. Afterwards, you can mess with the C: drive to your heart's delight. It is possible to boot from the Ghost CD, which has its own self-contained Windows operating system.

BTW, for a permanent solution to the Windows problem, look up Rent-a-Dumpster in the Yellow Pages.

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

2 ideas:
- Use Linux fdisk to recreate the C: partition exactly where it was before.
- Put the HDD in another working Windows computer and run RecoverMyFiles on it.