Hi Don. All you have to do is start the installation and the installer will ask you if you want to delete the current OS and install the new one, at which step you just select yes.
If you really need to erase the content on your drive before installing and you have the Ubuntu live disk gparted comes included in that disk too. So just start a live session and then run gparted from that session and reformat your disk from there.

Enjoy.

All the software you need for erasing or wiping is included practically with every base system. You can use fdisk or cfdisk to manipulate hard drive partitions, if you really need to wipe the drive for security reasons below command will wipe your first hard drive.

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i would run gpated-live-usb. if you want to be totally sure that even a professional data recovery team would have trouble retrieving the data you could learn to use dd and overwrite each sector with /dev/zero (and/or /dev/random /dev/urandom /dev/null/) -- i just read pastychomper's post. this is probably what shred does.

If the software you are downloading on Ubuntu (Eraser) is the software at the site below:

http://download.cnet.com/Eraser/3000...-10231814.html

your answer is in the first line of the first paragraph on that site:

Checking several other sites about Eraser, they all state it is a 'tool' to erase data and needs to be run from a windows machine. I didn't see anything indicating it could be burned as an image to a CD and booted but maybe? There are a number of suggestions already presented which will do the job from Ubuntu.

Way back when I used winblows I used http://www.freeisoburner.com/ to burn DVD\CDs, live is grate for modifying systems and OSs plus checking out other Linux choices or even installing.

I had no Idea I could wipe a hard drive by installing one over the top of the existing one. I will try it. After all I am trying on a computer that dose not work anyway. Mal ware infection don't you know. Thanks so much for this information, good job!!

Very cool information. Thanks. I will download it when I learn how to locate downloads on my system LOL!! and how to gain access to them.

Very cool information. Thanks. I will download it when I learn how to locate downloads on my system LOL!! and how to gain access to them.

When you install a Linux system, you will see an option to format which will basically overwrite what is on the selected partition although I am sure NSA could get a lot of data off it.

If you are downloading something from the internet, the default location for it in Ubuntu is the /home/user/Downloads directory. Make sure you are getting a Linux version. Some software will be only for windows, only for Linux, only for Mac and some has versions for all. Anything with an '.exe' extension is windows only.

I did as you suggested. I took my live USB Ubuntu 14.04 Plunged it in and turned on my computer while taping F9. Boot screen came up and I selected boot to USB. Next it ask if I want to replace my current OS. I click yes. Off it went. 20 minutes later i had a new OS installed. Fantastic!!! I just drop off this newly refreshed computer at my best friends house for him to play with. He is a long time user of windows. I wanted to install Zorin instead of Ubuntu. I just could not pull it off. I bought a DVD on the Internet. Zorin 8 core UTM. I also downloaded Zorin 8 core and Zorin Lite and put them on USB sticks. The DVD is junk and has never worked. I bought this DVD from On-Disk.com. It took them a month to send it me. A fatly disk. They have made no effort to replace it. So I an out 24 bucks. The other two download are not working ether. I think that has something to do with my ISP and data transfer. Any way thanks alot for the help Good job

I am glad you made it work. I have never used zorin OS so I can't make any suggestions for you. Perhaps somebody here would share their experience with it.

I've seen a number of sites selling Linux CD/DVD/flash boot media but never one that charged $24 for a DVD, a flash maybe.

Anyhow, I installed an earlier version of Zorin with no problems. Very similar in the installation to its pappy Ubuntu. They claim on their site that it is the easiest for ex-windows users. It seems to work alright but their are some small things I personally don't like about it so it just sits taking up space on my drive. I personally don't see any spectacular differences between it and Ubuntu/Mint, etc. but it's also been awhile since I used windows regularly.

What method did you use to put Zorin on a flash drive? Usually works pretty well with unetbootin or pendrivelinux.

the software center (or any other package management system) does exactly that. think of it as the windows app store, but for linux and with a significantly larger number of programs.

if you miss the delightful little worms and adware that accompanied the programs you used to install, there's a simple solution. Every now and then run the following command: to slow down your system, and randomly delete files from your hard disk.

I to have Zorin taking up space on my hard drive. I now have to learn how to erase Zorin and install Windows 7-32. I have found that I am having all kinds of problem with VPN service. Now that I am using Linux. It is clear to me now. That most if not all VPN company have written there software to cater to Windows OS. I did a test drive using Windows 7 in VM Box. The VPN worked for a while and then stop working for some reason. I live in Thailand and like to watch movies and TV show from Netflix & Amazon. I had HMAVPN until I joined Linux family. HMA just can't get it to work for me. So I canceled my account. I signed up with StrongVPN hoping they would do better. Not the case so far. I tried to install openVPN and blow-it. Can't figure it out????
I use unetbootin to create live USB sticks. It worked grate for Ubuntu 12.04 and 14.04 but not so good for Zorin.

I'm not sure about Amazon but Netflix uses the microsoft Silverlight software. The software you need on Linux to use Silverlight is wine-pipelight. Instructions on how to install it on Ubuntu (as well as several other distributions) are at the site below. The Ubuntu instructions should work for Zorin as it is derived from Ubuntu. I installed it on Ubuntu and it worked fine.

http://fds-team.de/cms/pipelight-installation.html

I don't have any knowledge of VPN so can't help you with that.