this is a hard drive i used for mandrake and a debian
distro (libranet).
i fdisked and formated the hard drive. i loaded
windoze (this is at work - a m$ shop). the install
started ok, but when it re-boots, i get this:
loading GRUB.....
Grub error 17.
and then the cursor.
why cant i get rid of GRUB?
could it be fdisk and format didnt clean up the
boot sector? or .......?

you need to fdisk the mbr

fdisk /mbr

to get rid of grub

Use the DOS version of disk not linux.

If you have XP then use boot CD and run the program fixmbr.

using dos 6.22 i tried
fdisk/mbr
but get this reply
"wrong version"
i tried
fdisk/?
but get the reply
"wrong version"
i wonder, what ver of dos do i need?
tia, capy

It should of worked but you might want to try the win98 version. If you don't have it I believe you can get it here:

www.bootdisk.com