Cannot remove Linux and reinstall Windows XP

I started with Red Hat (now Fedora), but dropped it after many problems with version 2, 3,and 4. Mandriva, Xandros, Ubuntu, or Suse are all very user friendly. Another one I am trying (and like) is Beatrix_2005. It is 190 MB, can
run as live-cd or install to hard drive. Using it on old, old IBM Thinkpad 380d with Pentium 150MHZ MMX, 2.1G HDD,
and 80 MB ram. The reason you are running into problems is probably Ram. No matter what Windows minimums listed say, 256 MB Ram is necessary to run XP. If you can get it
to install with 128MB, it will run very, very slowly. If
you still want to try, use a 98se boot disc to Fdisk a
partition (or 2, depending on HDD size). Don't format!
Now load XP disc and install as normal. If it is going to work, it will be now. You will need all the motherboard
and other drivers (Windows does not supply these). Good luck. chuck

I also had a bad run with Fedora Core. Although I think that Fedora Core is a great OS, I had some difficulty reinstalling Windows. My problem was a little different than yours, after files were copied from CD and the computer needed to reboot, the second stage of the installation never began.

It turns out that I had to do a low level drive format. You can find a utility for this on the hard drive manufacturer's website. However, a normal format should do just fine unless you experience problems.

I prefer to use Knoppix for all of my formatting needs. Then, I just use fdisk to format the drive to NTFS. Also, you might want a little more RAM for XP.

128 MB of RAM will run XP but you will never be happy. You need 512 to make it run even decent.

The hard disk may need to be repartitioned first for XP, depending on hoe it was parttioned or repartitioned for your linux install.

Take a look at this distro. Only needs 16 MB to run. No bells and whistles, but some of dislike the bells and whistles that just chew up memory.
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

Linux selections can be found in this site and you can sort for minimalist in the category choice, which will give you systems that are made for older/smaller machines.
http://www.linux.org/dist/list.html

Or why not do a use a live CD version if you have 2 CD drives in your system?
www.knoppix.org

Get a utility from the manufacturer of the hard draive and zero the drive. Windows tools does not handle linux file systems. It is the only operating system that has this sort of problem. Use some more universal utilities, like those provided by manufacturers and you will not find this odd problem.

Linux will not like to run in a computer with hardware issues, e.g., bad hardware. Windows compensates but then the problems created manifest in oddness. Some think this is a strength of windows, but I find it a weakness. If your chipset is burping, you should know it up front and not use a system that is unreliable. Linux uses the bios for info on the system; windows does its own thing.

I too have the same problem.I cannot remove Fedora Core 4 and install Windows XP. MY comp is 128MB of RAM and freezes all the time with Linux. I try to reinstall windows and boot from the disk but it says "Checking Hardware Configuration" for 2 seconds than the screen goes black. The disk is fine and I just need to know how to format the drive (20 gig).
please help..