HOWTO Reinstall XP Without Destroying Fedora When the XP CD Balks - Page 8

stoat · #**106** 5th November 2009, 12:01 AM

Now that I think some more about it, I believe I've tried the "hidden partitions" idea already. It didn't work, and I just forgot about it. But I can't find a post where I documented that. I also tried "disguising" the Linux partitions by using fdisk to change their partition ID numbers. That also did not work, and I did find a post about that from back in 2007. This thing has been going on for a long time. People have tried everything for it. Two or three summers ago, I took this on as a kind of hobby. I searched and searched with Google. I set up a dual boot machine just to test ideas once I was able to duplicate the problem. I wrote about this all the time back them in thread after thread. Finally, I decided that I had learned all that I could and wrote this HOWTO thread. It really does contain all that I know about this after that long summer of effort.

yati · #**107** 5th November 2009, 07:46 PM

hi, I tried deleting GRUB from MBR and filling it up with win boot code (using SGD) but with no luck,... the winxp cd still won't boot.... It's crazy, the OS will boot without any problem, both from GRUB and directly from BIOS, but the very installation disk won't boot....... does win7 have the same problem??

stoat · #**108** 5th November 2009, 08:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yati

does win7 have the same problem??

Apparently not. Only the XP CD. And I've heard that it affects only the Home Edition of XP and not the Pro edition.

P.S.: If you are determined not to re-install Fedora, you can try backing up the Fedora partitions with imaging software or even with dd and then delete the partitions while you re-install XP. Then restore the Fedora partitions from the backup partition images.

P.P.S.: Anyway, thanks for returning to report the results of the MBR experiment. It confirms what I said about it not being universally successful.

yati · #**109** 6th November 2009, 09:31 AM

hi,
I tried booting winxp pro, (yes you guessed it), with no luck again... yes, it seems reinstalling both OS's is the only option i have now. BTW, i came by another great boot-disk which has loads of real handy applications thrown in and can also boot a live mini xp box... I dunno about the licensing of the software in it, but i liked the concept. It's called Hiren's Boot Disk: http://www.hirensbootcd.net/

another thing, did anyone try win7? I've heard about people having nightmares after switching to 7 from xp

yati · #**110** 8th November 2009, 06:57 AM

hi,
i reinstalled both the OS's and am running F11 now... thanks to all of you who replied, especially stoat...

jonathonp · #**111** 8th November 2009, 01:18 PM

No problem installing vista or win7 with a fedora installation that uses a boot partition. Windows XP Pro will cease to install during the boot if you have a /boot partition that is part of a linux installation. You don't need a /boot partition so don't use one if you plan to reinstall windows xp.

Fedora 12 has grub support for ext4 as far as i know so you won't need a boot partition.

I often wonder if people actually read all the posts in a thread.

troyatlarge · #**112** 8th November 2009, 02:00 PM

Great tutorial stoat. When I get past microwaving Microsoft CD's I may just have to try it!

abhijitsarangi · #**113** 11th June 2010, 01:04 PM

nice one stote.... good job...

***Dan*** · #**114** 5th October 2011, 02:18 PM

The last four posters to this have been spammers.

Enough.

Thread closed.