Laptop Issue

lemonkettaz

lemonkettaz

lemonkettaz

Soldato
Joined
28 Nov 2005
Posts
13,001
Hey guys.

To cut a long story short i tried to install ubuntu on my laptop but now i cant reinstall windows anymore and ubuntu isnt running on it...

i tried a nuke and boot program but it still didnt clean my hdd to enable me to put a windows disk in and install it again...

for some reason it still tries to load into windows and i get a check sum error or something and it just doesnt load into windows.

when i try to just put the reinstall disk in it cant detect the hard drive to format and reinstall...

what can i do? other than buy a new hard drive

x
 
When you boot to the windows CD, doesn't it give you the option to make a new partition or delete the existing and create new?
 
OK...you got the windows CD in the drive, and the boot order set as CD first then HD?

You hit any key to boot from CD...etc then what happens?

I noticed you said "reinstall disk"...this just an XP CD or something that came with laptop for restore it?
 
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I press a key to get into the installation process..

it loads of the default drivers at the bottom of the screen... then i hit f8 to continue after all the terms and conditions...

but before i get to the point of formatting or selecting a hard drive it says it cant detect any hard drives connected to the computer...

yet it can find one in bios because you can do the scan.. plus it loads from the hard drive because it tries to get into the previous install of windows..
 
Strange.
What laptop are we working on and whats the make of hard disc?

Sounds like you got some sort of boot loader on it giving you grief.
 
If you have a floppy drive, goto bootdisk.com and download the win98 boot disc, then boot from said disc, at the a: prompt type Fdisk and use it to delete the None DOS partition, if you dont have a floppy, create a bootable CD with the win98 files on.
 
Its a HP Pavilion, not sure on the hard drive make.. probably fujitsu or something definitely SATA...

however i dont have a floppy drive :(

why would ubuntu caused this much grief... is it mix of linux/dos or something?

looks like i will have to buy a laptop hard drive.. however i cant find any hp pavilion specific ones.. would any 2.5" sata drive do?

edit: dont have any copy of win98 either
 
As i said, goto www.bootdisk.com, you can download the files needed to create a bootable win98 CD, this will then let you run FDISK, which in turn will allow you to delete all partitions off the drive, you will find there is an unknown partition, this is why windows cannot see it as it cant read the format, but FDISK can delete it!
 
Chances are if you buy a new HD it'll still do the same thing when looking for hard-disks at the XP install stage. What sort of bios options are there to change for the HD?
Look in bios or take the HD out to find the manufacturer and download tools from their website to clear disk? They've usually got burnable iso files dont they?

Edit: Laptop sata drives use same connections as desktop, I take it they can be plugged in and read as normal? Got a spare PC to install disk in?
 
Can we have the model number or service tag of the laptop?

I'm thinking SATA drivers....
I know some file systems are a pain to delete, so try adding delpart to the USB stick.
 
actually i can find the drive...

it has no name or nothing just size...

i can create a partition on it, but it only goes up to 2gb... and it never has it as the number 1 drive.. always number 2.. which is D:
 
To remove Linux from your computer and install Windows XP, follow these steps: 1. Remove the native, swap, and boot partitions used by Linux: a. Start your computer with the Linux Setup floppy disk, type fdisk at the command prompt, and then press ENTER.

NOTE: For help with using the Fdisk tool, type m at the command prompt, and then press ENTER.
b. Type p at the command prompt, and then press ENTER to display partition information. The first item listed is hard disk 1, partition 1 information, and the second item listed is hard disk 1, partition 2 information.
c. Type d at the command prompt, and then press ENTER. You are then prompted for the partition number that you want to delete. Type 1, and then press ENTER to delete partition number 1. Repeat this step until all the partitions have been deleted.
d. Type w, and then press ENTER to write this information to the partition table. Some error messages may be generated (because information is written to the partition table), but they should not be significant at this point because the next step is to restart the computer and then install the new operating system.
e. Type q at the command prompt, and then press ENTER to quit the Fdisk tool.
f. Insert either a bootable floppy disk or the bootable Windows XP CD-ROM, and then press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to restart your computer.

2. Follow the instructions on the screen to install Windows XP.

The installation process assists you in creating the appropriate partitions on your computer.


Source...can you modify that?
 
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yeh ive done all that....

still doesnt find my hard drive in windows setup....

its like its saying the usb pen is C: and the primary dos partition im creating on my hard drive is D:

i can never change that
 
Have you tried for a manufacturers tool to wipe the disk? Hitachi do bootable iso's, imagine others do also.
Tried poking around the bios also on the offchance you can change the sata mode to get Windows to detect it?
 
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