is a reformat necessary to uninstall Mandrake 9.1 running win98se & fat32 single driv

leeboy · 03-07-2004, 11:02 PM

I have not been successful in finding a way to remove Mandrake 9.1 which is working OK...so far the only thing that I have been able to do is remove the ???boot loader & now can go directly to win98se which is running on a fat32 single disk...is there any other way except by reformatting

Redeye2 · 03-07-2004, 11:10 PM

Using fdisk you should be able to delete the partitions mandrake is using. Now, to get the free space incorporated back to your win98 system I'd recommend using Partition Magic.

leeboy · 03-07-2004, 11:28 PM

Red Eye2
thankyou for reply...tried fdisk...it did not report any partitions back...did not go any further...this 20mb drive is running with fat32 without any partitions...a note after removing the boot logon with fdisk /mbr a strange thing ocurred my drive filled up to the maximum with swap files...run diskeeper & removed some & rebooted got rid of much more...it also reported no fragmented files...any other places to search...

Redeye2 · 03-07-2004, 11:48 PM

So, let me see if I got it right... you had Mandrake 9.1 and Win98se running on the same drive with FAT32 unpartitioned. Then, you restored the mbr so lilo or grub wouldn't load up and it went straight to Win98se. Now you get all these weird swap files appearing from nowhere but the problem was fixed. So far this is the issue?

leeboy · 03-08-2004, 12:14 AM

Red eye2
you got it exactly right...but I still have the dilemna of now not being able to use mandake...& still can't unload mandrake

Redeye2 · 03-08-2004, 12:35 AM

In order to boot to mandrake as you stand would be either to reinstall grub or lilo, but that would be going backwards or using a boot disk. About not being able to "unload" mandrake, you should be able to see the files from windows and just delete them all.
If the thing is you want to install mandrake again I would definetely advise you to partition your harddrive.

leeboy · 03-08-2004, 01:22 AM

Redeye2
My thanks to you for your effort to help...still not doing any good...
also cannot find any reference to Mandrake 9.1 in windows or C drive...
must not be using the right search...also tried Linux...if you do know the best way to find these files I will unload them...if not I'll have to bite the bullet & format...ouch!!!
I really do mean thankyou...