ok so here's the spiel-please cant someone assist?

Installed Mandrakelinux 10.1 onto my laptop. was missing cd-4 so i never got around to actually use the gui. i will tho...anyways linux has to go for now.

windows was installed before linux, and in the meantime i forgot to activate windows, not sure if anyone's familiar but when activation period expires the computer gets stuck on the logon screen and wont let you do anything else. no Ctrl+Alt+Del nothing.

now here's the tricky part- I tried using a bootable windows 98 cd because the xp cd i have is an "upgrade cd" not a fresh installation, so it will not boot, needs to be run from within windows. computer starts and goes to the Linux choose operating system screen. no matter what I select, linux or linux nofb or failsafe or windows the bootcd will not start.

my question is: can i somehow get the W98 cd to run right off the bat so that I can begin this long annoying proccess of reinstalling. or is there another way to remove linux without using windows?

I would really appreciate any help anyone can give.Cheers-Euro

If im understanding you corretly you want to get rid of linux and keep windows. If true grab a livecd or use the mandrake rescue cd if there is one dont know, you can try sys rescue cd. Anyhow at the command line you can use a program called cfdisk, or qtparted/gparted if it is included. Delete the partition that contains linux. Now to get the boot manager to work i dont know of way to do this with a win98 cd, because the boot files used for xp and 98 are vastly different. What you need more than likely is a regular cd not to install. While windows is loading or when done loading hit r (repair) a dos prompt is presented type in fixmbr this will reinstall the windows xp boot loader.

Option 2 bypass the linux livecd just do the windows install cd and fixmbr, then in windows start>settings>control panel>administrative tools>computer management>disk manager you should see something along the lines of unrecognized partition format.

At this point after the mandrake partition is wiped you have one of two options and im not following exactly you want done.

A. If you have xp pro you can convert the drive to a dynamic partitiona and add the free space back to xp.
B. Create a spare partition to hold data so if windows crashes you wont lose all data.
C. Leave the partition blank and install your flavor of linux.

I have no idea if this is what you want, either way hope this helps somewhat.

This is the link to sysrescue cd, this includes graphical partitioning tools.
http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page

Thanks so much for the link to the rescue cd website. using that program i've converted the partition to ntfs...however, when i boot the system i still get the linux screen to choose operating system. Anything other than windows results in freeze.
Now, keeping windows is not a priority. I would gladly re-install a fresh copy given the opportunity. If only i could get the damn activation screen to go away...its a legit copy of windows, just its been activated too many times. I could copy the .wpa files from my other computer...if the damn thing would run.
At this point, I need the linux welcome screen to go away. That will enable autoboot from cd. right?
I checked the bios setting, cd is first on startup list. default. again, thanks for your time

"At this point, I need the linux welcome screen to go away. That will enable autoboot from cd. right?
"

No, this is not correct. The Linux bootloader is still on the Master Boot Record (MBR) of your hard drive. This has nothing to do with the cd being able to boot. If the bios is set to boot from cd first, then if this is a bootable copy of Windows, then it should boot before the bios even looks at the MBR.

Either this is not a bootable Windows CD, or you do not have the bios set to boot first from the cd.

What make and model system is this? There could be some other quirks that could be preventing the cd from booting.

Thanks a bunch for the insight. as it turns out, the cd was a dud.murphy's law...anywho...im now in the process of reinstalling xp.
i will be installing some flavor linux soon, i was actually hoping someone might be able to suggest an os i should use...mostly for gaming/online gaming and surfing. Since i am a noob to linux, what are the compatabllilty options, say transferring files from my windows pc's on the network i have at home?
currently have: ASUS L5D laptop 1G RAM, 80G 7200rpm hd, nVidia g-force 5650-GO (directX 9b), runs on AMD Athlon64 3000+(oc'd, upgraded fans and heat-sync's!! ...i've heard about my video card being "the plague" when it comes to linux drivers, but i am willing to experiment.
I havent really had any real problems as far as games running on xp. fear gave me a hard time at first but runs decently. I can play games like FarCry and CS2 on medium to high options and 1400x1024 rez. Ive been using the laptop a lot, runs better than the desktop computers i have at home, havent upgraded in years.
thanks guys-Euro