How to uninstall Linux and still get XP/Vista to boot up properly:

Checklist:

• Backup all important Linux documents onto a CD using KFreeBurner or something similar
  

  
   

• Keep a Windows XP / Vista Bootable disk ready.
  

  
   

• You cannot recover an XP installation from a Vista installation disk. So make sure you have a WORKING bootable XP disc. It doesn't matter which flavour. Just make sure it's bootable.
  

  
   

• Make sure the BIOS settings are set such that the primary boot device is set to your CD/DVD disc drive.
  

  
   

• Get a hardcopy of this document because once you start the recovery procedure, you will have no way of viewing this document on the same PC.
  

Go to Control Panel -> Administrative tools -> Disk Management in XP

1. Your Linux partitions will be shown with a pink colour and labelled "unrecognized partition".
   

   
    

2. Right click on a Linux partition, and select "Delete Volume". Give the confirmation in the window that pops up.
   

   
    

3. Do step 2 for every Linux partition that you want to remove.
   

   
    

4. Now put your bootable Windows XP/Vista disc into your CD/DVD drive.
   

   
    

5. Restart the computer
   

   
    

6. The "Press any key to boot from CD/DVD . . ." option appears. Press any key to enter installation
   

For Windows XP:

• Let the CD/DVD do its thing. You will be asked to choose from a screen which contains 3 options:
  

1. To proceed with installation.
   
2. To enter the "Recovery" console.
   
3. To use auto recover from a recovery disc.
   

   
    

• Option 2 is what we are looking for. Press "r" to enter recovery console.
  

  
   

• You will be provided with a DOS type screen.
  

  
   

• As soon as the keyboard detection procedures are completed, you will be asked to choose from the available XP installations. The installations have numbers as markings. Press the number of the XP installation which you would like to boot into.
  

  
   

• Type your administrator password when prompted. You will then receive a prompt such as "c:\....\....>".
  

  
   

• Now, follow the procedure carefully. The actual sequence is of paramount importance:
  

  
   

1. Type "fixboot" without the quotes and press enter
   

   
    

2. Press "y" for confirmation
   

   
    

3. Type "fixmbr" without the quotes and press enter
   

   
    

4. Press "y" for confirmation
   

 

That's it!!! Now hit "exit" without the quotes and remove the bootable disc from the drive. Your PC will boot normally into the XP installation you chose as if you had never installed Linux!!

 

For Windows Vista:

The procedure here is relatively simple.

Boot up using the Vista disc and let the environment load. Be patient as this might take longer on some computers. Then select "Recover an installation". Then select the vista installation and VOILA! Your Vista installation is ready to rock and roll!!

Partitioning your HDD: Divide and Rule

• There are a few basic rules to partitioning. Learn them and you'll be able to get the most out of your pc's HDD (Hard Disk Drive).
  

  
   

• Your HDD is divided into "Logical Drives" and "Primary partitions".
  

  
   

• "Primary partitions" are limited to 4 per hard disk no matter which partitioning software you use.
  

  
   

• "Logical partitions" are limited only by the hard disk space you have. i.e., you can have any number of logical partitions.
  

  
   

• Primary partitions are used as "mount points". That is, these are the partitions, which operating systems use to boot up. A maximum of 4 operating systems can be installed on a single HDD amounting to 4 primary partitions.
  

  
   

• Logical partitions on the other hand are meant for data storage. These partitions can be used for any other purpose, or just left blank.
  

 

For all purposes, the "disk management" feature provided with Windows 2000, XP, and Vista should be enough to meet your partitioning needs. This doesn't recognize Linux and Mac partitions though. These will be shown in a pink colour and labelled "Unknown partition". You can always delete and resize such partitions from within windows.

 

The disk management window can be accessed from within windows 2k or greater:

Control Panel -> Administrative tools -> Disk Management in XP, windows 2k

Control Panel -> System and Maintenance -> Administrative tools -> Create and format Hard disk partitions

How to get ANY game running on your PC !!

The following tutorial assumes that you have a minimum spec. graphic card such as the NVidia GeForce FX 5200 or something similar with a video RAM of atleast 64 MB.

1. Make sure you have the latest drivers for your video card. The latest DX version is also recommended.
2. You have to tweak the game to run optimally on your pc. The same rule holds no matter which game youre tweaking.
3. Games these days integrate an "options menu" into their games. Normally found on the starting screen. Go through the game menu and find it.
   Older games/ games from Atari also configure themselves from an external "Launcher" program. These are normally found in the same installation directory as the game.
4. Go through the configuration settings, go to the "video settings" and make sure everything is set to "low". Some games offer sliders to bring down the level of detail, so keep your eyes open.
5. Decrease the resolution within the game to about 640x480. This should make the game run faster on most systems, but then again, quality is lost out.
6. Run the game again. This time you'll find that the game runs faster!
7. If you still wanna tweak it, get a patch for the game. Patches sometimes support older graphic cards and ensure compatibility.
8. If "EAX environment sound" or "Hardware acceleration for sound" is enabled, you can disable it to gain some performance. This is especially useful if your game produces "stuttered" sound.
   Always look to play in "software" modes, rather than in "hardware" accelerated modes. This is becausethe "software" modes use the CPU contrary to the "hardware" accelerated modes' GPU usage. As your CPU's are always faster than your GPU's(assuming there is one), you can get a major performance gain.
9. Make sure you got ample hard disk space on your drive(YES, the one the game is INSTALLED on, and on drive C). Some games need to write their SAVE status to a drive every now and then. If you do not have ample free space, your game may not save your progress and may CRASH during gameplay. Most games I have played crash without even giving out a message when encountered with disk space scarcity.
10. Calculate the size of your page file and set it accordingly using the formula
    (3.5 * (The amount of RAM on your system))
    This should work wonders for your games.