Russell Tiedt wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:

 RJT>>> I seem to recall some discussion in here a while back regarding
 RJT>>> some version or other of windoze that makes it *real* much of a
 RJT>>> PITA to try and do anything else with the HD afterwards,  like
 RJT>>> maybe install something else...

 RJT>>> I can't recall the particulars,  though.  Can you guys refresh
 RJT>>> my memory on this issue?

 JE>> If you install XP or 2000 and use the NTFS file system rather
 JE>> than the older 98 or earlier file system (FAT32) it is a pain to
 JE>> revert back to FAT32.

 RT>> Had to put a friends HDD in my Linux box for that reason, delete
 RT>> the partions, then it was usable again. :-(( A real PITA.

 RJT> And _you_ were the one who sent _me_ that copy of TomsRtBt,  remember?

 RT> Hmmm ... - Yeah, and so I did, just that the floppy that TomsRtBt
 RT> is on went  "bad", and I don't currently have any new floppies that
 RT> will accept it, so  the easiest option was to put it in a Linux
 RT> system, and do the required. :-(( 

 RT> Floppies are not what they used to be. 

Yeah,  that's the truth.  :-(

 RJT> I took that floppy down there and booted it,  and used _that_ to
 RJT> delete the partition.

 RJT> Apparently running dd to write zeros over the boot sector wasn't quite
 RJT> enough,  though,  I should've done the whole bloody drive,  as it
 RJT> found something on there to holler about anyhow...

 RJT> But it was late,  and I was tired.  That's my excuse and I'm sticking
 RJT> to it! :-)

 RT> If you say so, promise not to complain .... :-)



He ended up trying to install 98 on it,  then went back to where he bought
it from and they straightened it out...

Which is fine by me.  I had suspected that XP stood for "extremely
painful" and my observations in this context seem to bear that out.

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