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I have Fedora 13 on my Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop. This is the only OS on my machine.

From tutorials I am able to remove Fedora from my machine. However when installing Windows XP on my laptop, it starts part of the way through the setup, so I am not asked for partitioning or given the option to format any drives.

After some time the installation stops with a message along the lines of there being a memory error and saying that there may be a virus or some error on the hard drive.

Can anyone help me fix this so that I can install Windows XP?

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It is hard to understand what exactly is happening here - if you are happy to wipe Fedora, then XP should be able to format the drive. I can't follow what you mean by "started from in-between of setup" - are you saying it skips this part? – Paul Nov 8 '11 at 5:35
could you try running dban on the drive - a full wipe with zeros sometimes takes care of random issues? also, see if you can set the hard drive to legacy mode in the bios if that dosen't work – Journeyman Geek Nov 8 '11 at 7:19
what is the mean of wipe here, i already removed the fedora from my machine after that i am trying to install windows-xp. and installation started from the middle steps. Any new idea for wiping the fedora. because i tried almost all methods as found on internet. Help? – user168006 Nov 8 '11 at 9:01
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dban is a software for secure erasing a drive. It tends to help if there's some minor glitch thats preventing windows from being able to install. If nothing else, it'll ensure there's no trace of fedora on your system – Journeyman Geek Nov 8 '11 at 12:48

2 Answers

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If you are using the Windows restore disk that came with the laptop, it will not offer to partition the disk as it will just restore an image. In that case, with those error messages, you may have a genuine memory or disk hardware error.

If you need to test your hardware, a bootable cd containing diagnostics e.g. UBCD will provide you with disk and memory diagnostics.

Depending on how you installed Fedora13, you may still have a hidden partition on your disk containing the Dell utilities. These can be accessed by pressing one of the function keys at boot time (Usually F12). If it is still there, it contains diagnostic tools that will test the memory and the HDD.

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Use dban to nuke the disk, then try the XP install from scratch.

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but dban requires some os or not ??? Help please ? – user168006 Nov 9 '11 at 5:50
It is an .iso file then how to use that tool in fedora os – user168006 Nov 9 '11 at 5:55
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Burn the iso as an image (not data) to a CD, then boot from the CD – Moab Nov 9 '11 at 21:35
i used that but it takes too much time to erase which is not feasible for me. With dod command it takes 15+ hours, dodshort takes 10+ hours and with Enter and quick it gives fatal error. Any other way or soluytion so that it will feasible for me. – user168006 Dec 12 '11 at 6:29
Letting dban do its job may be the only solution. – Moab Dec 12 '11 at 18:03

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