I have an hp pavilion m8430f, it was running windows vista and I tried to partition it with osx snow leopard and was having troubles getting it to work so I flashed my bios and now I have a code purple error where it wont let reinstall vista correctly. I've searched and searched and tried everything to get past the Code Purple but no luck. Is there a way I can wipe the hard drive and boot with Ubuntu? Any help would be appreciated since my computer is useless until I get past this. Thanks

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Er... isn't OSX Snow Leopard for Macs which use a totally different file system to PCs; HFS rather than NTFS? And then you flashed your BIOS????? Why did you repartition it with OSX, what were you trying to achieve?

Have you tried booting with an Ubuntu Live CD yet? CAN you boot with an Ubuntu Live CD? If you can you should be able to re-partition the drive.
Are you trying to install Ubuntu or are you trying to breath life back into your Vista install?

Enough questions! Give us some answers so we can help.

Play Bonny!

I was trying to do this http://m.lifehacker.com/5360150/inst...cking-required
But it didn't work properly and now I'm stuck and can't boot vista up. I'd like to install ubuntu instead of running windows on it since I can't get past the code purple and I have tried the ubuntu Live cd yet.

Sorry... You have tried the Ubuntu Live CD or you haven't?
What happens when you try it, can you install it?

Play Bonny!

Reflash your bios back to the level it was.

Guess the new version could have left defaults in bios settings off. Could check them.

I really don't know what a Code Purple is.