Topic: Green Newbie in Need

[JR]

As a newbie to the linux world, putting the E-Smith server on an old PC was delightful.  Was a great test....no install problems.  Deal is, I am so green....I don't know how to get E-Smith off the old PC so I can return it to it's previous state.  BTW, I don't have a working floppy drive....just a CD ROM.  Any assistance would indeed be appreciated!  Many thanks in advance.

Jason

[Jeff Fox]

The hard part about getting rid of Linux is removing it from the boot block. The way I've always done it is to boot to DOS (MS-DOS 6.22) and then issue the following command:
fdisk /mbr
Of course you'll need a floppy drive to do this.

After that you should be able to use fdisk to partition the drive as you see fit, or install another OS and let it configure the drive for you.

If you are going to install a different Linux distribution on the same machine then just boot from the CD and it should have tools for reconfiguring the hard drive. You are probably going to get rid of all of the partitions that e-smith used.

Mandrake has very nice disk paritioning tools. Mandrake is also newbie friendly if you are looking for a more generalized Linux distribution (a desktop box rather than a server).

[Charlie Brady]

JR wrote:

> I don't know how to get
> E-Smith off the old PC so I can return it to it's previous
> state.

This command will return your hard drive to factory (empty) condition (use with appropriate caution):

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda

Regards

Charlie

[Brook]

If you boot a Win2K CD and go thru the setup there is a place to delete the current drive config and then load Win2k, either FAT32 or NTFS...

HTH

Brook

[Alejandro]

Brook:
this is not 100% true, as win2k  plain "fdisk" used by win 2k setup process" does not allow to wipe out "unknown" logical units of a linux partition system in ext d.o.s partition, and MS fdisk cannot delete the extended partition until it's empty.
You'll ned to manually delete the partition system with charlie's suggestion and advice, in first place or, if you are not able to load linux from the hdd, the option gived by Jeff: using a Mandrake or Red Hat First installation disk and beggining a new installation with the advanced setup option, will give you access to the partition manager of those distributions,
in adition to that you will also need to make a "fdisk /mbr" command to remove lilo form the boot records.

I think the easiest way is : "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda"

[JR]

Thanks for your assistance everyone!  In way of an update, I tried Charlie's method prior to getting the other advise via e-mail.  My PC is now in a state of disbelief....eagerly waiting for me to understand what to do next.  

The Win 95 CD I have is apparently not bootable.  Solaris CD boots fine....Mandrake CD boots fine.....so I think it is a Window$ 95 deal.  So, system is giving me a boot disk failure even though I have changed the boot sequence to C only in the Bios.  Does this indicate that DOS is no longer on it?  Can't seem to get to a command line at all.

Off the E-Smith removal subject: Any way to trick the Window$ CD and make it boot? (admittedly niave question!)  If it was not for the Window$ only modem I have in the PC (and the fact I am giving it to my brother), I would put Mandrake on it....but can't find a linux driver for this modem.  Any other options besides purchasing a modem that works with Linux?

Just to clarify, is there anything beyond "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda" that I need to do to this PC to remove everything?

Thanks again everyone, you have been very kind!

Sincerely yours,

Jason