Need a bootable CD to delete a Linux partition ...

Booting XP should give you the option to delete any existing partitions before install.

I'm pretty sure that my XP install disks gave me the option of rewriting the boot sectors and re-formatting the entire disk.

XP should allow you to overwrite the partitions but if for some reason its having trouble you could try booting from a CD or Flash Drive using GParted. Its a Drive/Partition utility.

http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/

Hi,

Just you make a disk formatting with the windows cd and use gparted or linux cd fdisk

Follow this tutorial

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/314458

Here's my personal favorite


Not only will give you the options to delete partitions in depth rich field(gparted based) but it also comes with other great useful tools such as recovery, backup, internet tester,  among others features

Best of all it's FREE

i suggest making the UBCD - it has lots of tools for partitioning, and handling disks
Hardware diagnostic CD    UBCD
---------------------------------------------------
go to the download page, scroll down to the mirror section, and  click on a mirror to start the download
Download the UBCD and make the cd   <<==on a WORKING PC, and boot the problem PC from it
Here 2 links, one to the general site, and a direct link to the download

since the downloaded file is an ISO file, eg ubcd527.iso - so you need to use an ISO burning tool
if you don't have that software, install cdburnerXP : http://cdburnerxp.se/

If you want also the Ram tested - run memtest86+ at least 1 full pass,  - you should have NO errors!
 
For disk Diagnostics run the disk diag for your disk brand (eg seagate diag for seagate drive)  from the HDD section -  long or advanced diag !  (runs at least for30 minutes)

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/                        ultimate boot cd
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html             download page

**  you can make a bootable cd - or bootable usb stick

for completeness -here's how i handle disk problems : http://www.experts-exchange.com/Storage/Hard_Drives/A_3000-The-bad-hard-disk-problem.html

but i use also the VERY STABLE and good Bootit-BM( free for partitioning) :  www.terabyteunlimited.com/

The XP install cd should allow you to delete partitions.  I recommend using easy2boot if all else fails.  Our even has XP install instructions.

Check this article:

http://www.experts-exchange.com/articles/24999/Creating-a-bootable-USB-drive-another-comparison-article.html

if you insist on a linux dvd to clear the harddisk.
fdisk / gdisk can do the job for you
or just a plain:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1

will wipe the masterboot record. (assuming the disk is /dev/sda) with older distro disks it might be /dev/hda as well.