Linux back to XP.

Factual Questions
1

My cousin’s ex boyfriend loaded Linux on her computer. The box is only about a year old so I’m sure it used to be XP.

She want’s to go back to XP.

I’m hoping that the machine is set up as a dual boot. I’m not sure. Is that route worth trying? Or does she have to reload XP from scratch?

Would she be able to perhaps switch at boot with F8 or F11 or something to set it back to XP? Linux and XP can exist on the same machine, can’t it?

I’m trying to help her out but I’m doing this over the phone.

Thanks

2

If it’s been set up as dual-boot, you should be seeing a boot menu (most likely provided by the GRUB boot loader) offering you a number of different choices.
However, even if you’re not seeing this, it may be that the machine still has Windows and is capable of dual booting, but that the boot menu has been edited or disabled.

Probably the best way to find out for sure is to boot into Linux and take a look at the file system - if there’s a Windows partition, you should be able to see it from there.

Restoring the machine from dual boot back to Windows only is potentially a bit tricky, because you have to remove the Linux partitions, resize the Windows partition back to the full size of the drive, and remove the boot loader, replacing it with the Windows one - none of this is particularly easy to do from Windows.

I would suggest backing up any documents and files, then performing a clean install of Windows - I really think any other way is likely to be frustrating and potentially leave you with a less-then-stable machine - if you can’t find the original Windows install CD, take a look at the Windows Certificate Of Authenticity sticker on the computer case, make a note of the version of XP and see if you can borrow a matching install CD from someone (perfectly legit to do this as long as you already have the COA sticker).

3

Nonsense. It’s easy to remove all traces of a dual-boot. Boot an XP install CD, go into the recovery console, use the fixmbr command to get it booting straight to Windows. Do so. Don’t worry about resizing any partitions, just delete the Linux ones and create a new NTFS one (start-run-‘compmgmt.msc’-disk management), and point My Documents towards it. The added advantage is that any reinstall of Windows on C: leaves the documents untouched.

4

I guess that’s fair enough, if you don’t want to go back to the XP default of a single large partition. That’s assuming there’s any Windows at all on this machine - the doubt over this and the difficulty of the support situation were both parts of my decision to recommend a clean install.

But maybe a fix is the best thing to try first - I suppose if that and all else fails, clean install is always there as an option.

5

Apropos of absolutely nothing except for linux, I had to chuckle at the Dilbert from Thursday. :stuck_out_tongue: