Hi,
    Firstly thankyou to those who responded to my query.  Your help is always appreciated.  I tried a number of options including using Maxblast (its a maxtor hdd) but nothing worked.  Then I got smart and asked a 15 year old kid.  He said to: 
fdisk-delete all partitions
esc to fdisk- type /mbr (this resets the master boot record)
enter
restart
fdisk-create partitions
format and go for it. It worked!

He had the same problem and explained that Linux installs LILO a boot manager and if you don't get rid of it Win won't load.  So there you are. If all else fails find a kid between 10 and 16-they know everything! LOLOL  
Thanks again
Rick Thornton

                  Visit our website regularly for FAQs,
               articles, how-to's, tech tips and much more
                          http://freepctech.com