uninstall ubuntu erase drive
 

I have foolishly installed ubuntu as the only operating system on my laptop. I need to wipe the drive and start over. How do I wipe it?

rsvp

Hi and welcome to LQ.

Please remove you email address unless you want LOTS of spam in your inbox.

There's no need to remove everything. Just install what you want (for example: Windows, another distribution of Linux) and it'll take care of removing a previous installation.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot


It is not foolish to have Linux as your primary OS. However if you meant to have Windows and Ubuntu the link should give you some guidance.

uninstall ubuntu erase harddrive
 

I tried that. Ubuntu will not recognize any other OS. I tried it with windows xp and I tried to add Musix. Nothing works. I went in and changed the boot to the cd/dvd drive and placed the xp disc in the drive. I also tried that with musix. Nothing. Ubuntu has taken over my computer. I've been searching all afternoon and cannot find any way to wipe the drive unless it's a dual boot, which it isn't. Ubuntu alone is the OS.

rsvp

That link says windows should be installed first, which it wasn't and isn't.

rsvp

Sorry to hear that you're having problems but it's just hardly possible. The only explanation I can think of is that you have more than 1 hard drive and Ubuntu has overwritten the Master Boot Record of your first drive and you keep trying to install other operating systems to a secondary drive. Can you confirm how many physical hard drives you have? Also make sure that you install bootloaders onto MBR.

I have only one harddrive and ubuntu has taken the whole thing. I need to erase it.

rsvp

I don't know anything about mbr. I did find partitions in the utility disk. It has the main partition and the swap partition. Unbuntu fills them both.

If your xp disk won't boot after you have set the CD drive to first boot priority in the BIOS, that's an xp/microsoft problem as Ubuntu and its bootloader are not available at this point. Ubuntu isn't available until you access the harddrive where its bootloader is. Posting some specifics on whatever error messages you get when you try to boot your xp or other CD might be helpful.

When you insert an XP installation CD, does it boot into XP installer or it loads Ubuntu straight away?

I'm making progress! I didn't realize I had to not only select the cd/dvd drive, but also move it to the top of the list. I did that and Windows booted. It loaded all the files then said it was starting windows. Then I got this message:

A problem has been detected and windows has been shuyt down to prevent damage to your comuter.

If this is the first time you've seen theis stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears againn, follow these steps:

Check for viruses on your computer. Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers. Check your hard drice to make sure it is properly configured and terminated. Run CHKDSK /F to check for hard drive corruption, and then restart your computer.

Technical information:
*** stop: 0x0000007B (0xF78D2524, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

thank you so much! I feel hopeful.

hh

PS. I have 2 computers. I'm online on the desktop now, trying to fix the laptop.

It was loading ubuntu straight away, but I figured out why. I didn't realize I had to not only select the cd/dvd drive, but also move it to the top of the list. I did that and Windows booted. It loaded all the files then said it was starting windows. Then I got this message:

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check for viruses on your computer. Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers. Check your hard drive to make sure it is properly configured and terminated. Run CHKDSK /F to check for hard drive corruption, and then restart your computer.

Technical information:
*** STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF78D2524, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

rsvp - and thank you for helping me. You're very kind. I'm online on the desktop now, trying to fix the laptop.

hh

hh

PS. I have 2 computers. I'm online on the desktop now, trying to fix the laptop.

No harm in trying the restart as it advises; you haven't got a working system, so you can't 'damage' it.
You need to understand that MS hates to share with other systems; it always assumes its going to be the only one.
This is why ( for a dual boot MS+Linux), you would have to install MS first. Linux doesn't mind sharing.

To confirm above advice, there's no need to re-format/erase previous systems. New installs will overwrite them anyway (they may ask for permission first; Linux would/should)

I forgot to mention I had already done that and got the same messaged the second time.

hh

uninstall ubuntu wipe drive
 

I put the ubuntu disk back in and partitions came up. I was able to delete the partitions then put xp in but it came up with the same error code.

I'm going to try reinstalling ubuntu then overwriting it again, or deleting the partitions again. Ubuntu quit working after I tried to install xp. It had a grub error.

hh

Error code 7b indicates that the Windows installation can't access the harddisk Windows is installed to. This error message usually comes up with Windows XP if the harddisk controller is set to AHCI mode (or a RAID mode) in the BIOS. Disabling AHCI (or RAID) should solve the problem.

Well I went into bios and there is no reference to ide, only sata, and no heading or tap or reference to "drivers" Then I tried wiping the drive with Dban. Then I got a new error message and ubuntu wouldn't boot any more. So now I've put ubuntu in the drive and I'm reinstalling it. Then I'll try overriding it with xp. I'm afraid xp may not work on sata. I saw no reference to ahci or raid. I couldn't find that anywhere in bios.

hh

thanx a lot by the way. I really appreciate your help very much.

h

Why no boot to the ubuntu liveCD then run Gparted from there and format the hard drive with NTFS or FAT32 format, format the whole thing then try to boot with the Xp install CD and get windows installed that way.

I am assuming you do have a Xp install CD and not just a recovery disk? I think in the windows world these two are different things.

Good luck to you.

Actually, I think Dban screwed it up. I put Dban on a cd and it said not to extract the winrar files. Well, it extracted them on its own. They downloaded without the winrar. I think that's what damaged the files. So now ubuntu is installed again and I'm going to try installing xp and erasing ubuntu again, making sure it boots from the cd drive and hitting f6 in the beginning to look for raid and sata drivers.

You guys are great! Thanx!


hh

hh

OK I will do that! Thanx!

hh

If what your doing now doesn't work, I would download and use the Ult. Boot CD. I have found the tools on this CD very useful. The version I have has a total of four tools for wiping hard drives. Here is the link to the site.
http://http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

I forgot to mention this is a fairly new laptop and came with Windows 7 installed. It's never had xp on it. I erased Windows 7 with ubuntu because it wouldn't let xp erase it. I tried pressing f6 and nothing happened, but a couple minutes later I got a new message saying to press S if I needed to specify some additional somethingorother so I'm going to look for sata for xp. While it was loading it said IDE and RAID several times so I'm guessing sata is what I'm missing.

h

Please post the exact model/maker of that laptop.

Googling the error code you posted led me to a number of sites which indicated the resolution to the problem was as posted above by TobiSGD. If you can't find the options, you might post specific information on your computer manufacturer and type.

Otherwise, re-formatting as suggested would be the next logical step with the Live CD. The CD will have GParted but I don't believe an installed system will have it by default. You may need to overwrite the mbr if none of the other options work, see post #3 at the link below:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...er-4175422340/

Well I just discovered under some heading a reference to sata and ahci or whatever it is and there was an option to switch to compatibility mode, which I did, and it said it would work with IDE. So I'm trying again to install xp. It's working. Thank you so much for all the help.

I love you man!

hh

Fixed! Thanx!

h

Now if you would like to install Ubuntu without deleting Xp is possible too. Mark this thread as solved and star a new one with dual boot specific questions.
Good luck to you.

Please post the ouput of

sudo fdisk -l ( from the ubuntu terminal )

Do you have Windows on it's own partition ?

Windows needs to be on a NTFS partition.