[Am-info] Uninstalling Win XP

Geoffrey esoteric@3times25.net
Tue, 03 Sep 2002 20:36:32 -0400


Erick Andrews wrote:
> On Tue, 3 Sep 2002 17:05:22 -0700 (PDT), Bill Forrest wrote:
> 
> 
>>Hi Everyone,
>>
>>This is a little off topic but I have a simple (I think) question: I'm
>>going to buy a new laptop this week but I don't want to run XP on it.
>>Can anyone tell me how to reformat the hard drive to load Win98?  Also
>>will this cause a configuration problem for the hardware.  I'm going to
>>buy an AlienWare Area 51m.  Thanks in advance for your input.
>>
>>Bill Forrest
> 
> 
> The later incarnations of Microsoft operating systems are known
> to change the master boot record (MBR) with entries that are
> unique, and sometimes troublesome for other OS installations.
> 
> I don't know what "AlienWare Area 51m" is.  Is it an operating
> system?  I've not heard of it.
> 
> However, most popular OS's will, when you go to install them,
> offer a facility to reformat the drive.  Do it.  If it's not there with
> yours, or won't work correctly, a safe bet is to drag out your old 
> DOS (PCDOS is nice...or MSDOS) version-whatever diskettes,
> start that DOS install, use FDISK to wipe the partition (maybe 
> use FDISK /MBR), reformat with FAT, then start your new OS 
> install.  That should dumb down the MBR and allow you to
> install with a different installable file system (IFS).

Reformating the drive will not address changes to the mbr, as you noted, 
fdisk /mbr is the key.

> 


-- 
Until later: Geoffrey		esoteric@3times25.net

I didn't have to buy my radio from a specific company to listen
to FM, why doesn't that apply to the Internet (anymore...)?