What To Do When Microsoft Fdisk Won't Overwrite The Linux Partitions

Ok, so you went and gave the whole disk to LINUX, and that was good, but now you want to remove LINUX from that disk and load Windows, but the Microsoft FDISK utility won't delete the LINUX-partitioned drive. It does not appear to understand the partitions. You get conflicting messages stating that:

"You can't delete the partition because it has logical drives in it.."
-and-
"There are no logical drives defined.."

No problem. You can deface the partitions yourself and then use FDISK and FORMAT in the usual way, in preparation to install Windows. Now, I am no expert on how LINUX writes partition data to the disk, but I have done this several times successfully. Do I know what I am doing? No. By the way, this will destroy data, partitions, and or formats on your hard disk. You will do it yourself when you follow these instructions. This is NOT for nondestructive 'editing' of the disk's partitions or data. This is intended to scribble over enough of the LINUX-created partition data to render the disk accessible to the dumb ol' DOS FDISK program. Don't whine if you didn't back up your data, or if anything goes wrong. You the hacker are responsible for any damages arising from your use of this method, including but not limited to erasure of low level format information, and I do not warrant this procedure or these instructions as being fit for any purpose.

0. Download PROVIEW.ZIP

0.5 Register the program.

1. FORMAT and SYS a DOS floppy, and place PROVIEW on it.

2. Boot the computer with the DOS diskette, and run PV.EXE

3. Select "F10" for the pulldown menus, and "D" for disk.

4. Select "P" for Physical sector view.

5. Select the hard disk you wish to scratch. (usually hard disk1).

6. Select the side 0, cylinder 0, and sector 1 ( the beginning of the disk).

7. You should now see a display of either assembly instructions or hex codes with text.

8. If you see assy. code, press "F4" to get to the hex codes display.

9. Search through from the beginning of the disk, and when you find code, mess it up by overwriting it. This is usually sufficient to damage any recognizable partitions on the disk.

10. Now you can go ahead and run FDISK, to check for any partitions which you can now delete without the forgoing contradictory error messages. If you still get the messages, then you did not scribble over enough of the the right areas. It helps to identify the target information if the disk is clear. FDISK the disk as usual, in preparation for DOS or Windows. pagan goathead horned devil microsoft fdisk format partition dos linux fdisk won't remove linux pagan goathead horned devil microsoft fdisk format partition dos linux fdisk won't remove linux partitions pagan goathead horned devil microsoft fdisk format partition dos linux fdisk won't remove linux pagan goathead horned devil microsoft fdisk format partition dos linux fdisk won't remove linux pagan goathead horned devil microsoft fdisk format partition dos linux fdisk won't remove linux pagan goathead horned devil microsoft fdisk format partition dos linux fdisk won't remove linux