can't get rid of Linux on a 2.1GB WD HD

[Humilliation]

I've tried and tried. I've fdisked and deleted the non MS-DOS partitions and formatted this hard drive. Everytime I try to install Win98, when it re-boots, it boots into a Linux log-on screen. How can I get rid of this Linux boot record? I can't use Western Digitals Data Lifeguard Tools because I get the error 0207, which means that there are errors on the drive that can't be fixed, but when I use this drive as a slave it works perfectly fine. What's up with that? I've run scandisk while using this 2.1 GB hard drive as a slave on another system and it doesn't find anything, neither does Norton Disk Doctor. I have thoroughly tested this drive with both of these utilities with no errors. So why does DLGTOOLS find errors on this drive? I've tried different cables and still get these errors with DLGTOOLS, and this drive works great as a slave but I want to use it as a master. And yes, I have changed jumper settings on the drive for master or slave set up.

How does the log file get closed on a hard drive? Is there anyway of opening a log file that is closed on a hard drive? This just doesn't make sense. This hard drive ran beautifully for over four years, now that I try to get rid of Linux, it punishes me. I've never had trouble like this before trying to get rid of an O/S. I like Linux as an operating system, but if can't remove it to install a newer version, how good can it be?

[Radical Dreamer]

I had trouble getting rid of the grub os chooser that comes with linux and just rewrote the master boot record and it was gone. Is this what you are talking about, the os chooser, or is it booting into functional linux

[Darren Wilson]

Low Level Formatting will remove it.

[Humilliation]

Originally posted by Radical Dreamer:
I had trouble getting rid of the grub os chooser that comes with linux and just rewrote the master boot record and it was gone. Is this what you are talking about, the os chooser, or is it booting into functional linux

I didn't use the O/S chooser, I only had Linux installed. It tries to boot into full Linux, it gets so far and freezes because it only sees a couple of Linux files but I guess their enough to stop Win98 from booting up.

[Humilliation]

Originally posted by Darren Wilson:
Low Level Formatting will remove it.

Thanks for your fast response Darren. I've tried to use Western Digitals Data Lifeguard Tools to write zeros to the drive(I think that's the same as low level formatting, isn't it?) but it won't allow me to. WD's utilities tell me there are errors on my hard drive that can't be fixed, error 0207.

This drive never gave me any problems before. I used it for years without ever getting a bad cluster on it. Now I can't format the boot sectors. Are there any other low level format programs that I could use to write zeros to this drive to get rid of Linux in the boot sector?

[SB]

1. Download the little util called Zap from here http://www.windrivers.com/utility/download/072099.htm

2. Put it on a bootable floppy
3. A:\zap0 - where 0 (zero) is the primary master. In 2 seconds the MBR is gone and you've got a fresh drive.

[Humilliation]

Thanks shawnMt, that ZAP program worked great!! Thanks go out to all who responded, thanks!!!

[SB]

And I STILL aint seen a partition that Zap.exe wouldn't wipe

[screwy]

boot with start up disk.

Type fdisk/MBR

Make sure the fdisk u use is the one for the right O/S.. eg 95 /98/ME..so on

[Radical Dreamer]

Originally posted by Insanemonkey:
type fdisk /mbr

Does no damage to your HD

I had the same problem. BTW isn't linux just the worst? It looks like some piece of DOS from the 80s or something. Who needs it...Win2000 rules.

Linux is great if people would just make more proggies for it.