I have a 3 year old HP desktop with no operating system, but GRUB left over from a previous installation and no apparent way of deleting it.

Win 8.1 refuses to install quoting a corrupt file. SuSe Installation boots through an external USB DVD drive, but then says the existing partition setup will not work but refuses to allow me to change it. I can not delete or add partitions.

I have SDA + SDA1 and SDA 2 partitions. SDA1 is 300 Mb - SDA2 is 930Gb. SDA1 is set to mount as / SDA2 is set to mount as /home.

I know this is not feasible but can not change the partitioning. Linux installation will not let me.

My guess is I need to get rid of the old GRUB, but I don't know how.

Where do I go from here ??? (Scratch Head )

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Pete

pop in "Gparted" cd and reformat the drive to remove the old boot partition
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

windows can not read non MS formats.
MS will NEVER allow a windows OS to read NON Microsoft owned and MS patented and MS copyrighted formats

Do you have Suse Linux installed on an external hard drive? Are you able to boot it? You aren't trying to modify these partitions from the booted system are you? Do you have an internal drive which may have Grub code in the mbr and so your windows fails to install on that drive? Or are you booting and trying to also install Suse and if so which version? Try posting the drive/partition information from: fdisk -l while logged in as root and clarify exactly what the setup is and what your intentions are.

Windows 8 and almost any current version of linux should allow you to edit the partitions.


Wonder if this is some secure boot deal or encrypted type drive?
Othewise my guess would be real data problem such as controller or drive issue or ram or cpu.

Agree but they don't. Win doesn't even get there, Linux says install not possible with this partition setup but then refuses to allow me to change it - you can not do this. GPart says it has changed the partitioning, but then Linux 13 install reports the same partitions and refuses the install or to change the partitioning.


I have never seen this in over 40 years in the trenches. Fascinating.


Maybe I just obey my American masters and forget the Analysis Paralysis and outgun the bastards - ie go out and buy another one - this one is garden furniture right now.


Pete