Remove Linux and install XP
Community Forums/General Help/Remove Linux and install XP
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| Hi, I just bought a new laptop this morning, comes with Linpus Linux installed. What I want to do is format the hard drive and install windows XP but when I boot from the CD it crashes with BSOD after copying the files for windows setup. I have no idea how to use Linux at all, I just want it off the computer and now it comes up with error messages when booting Linux :s What do I need to do? |
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| the *easiest* way to proceed is to return the laptop for one with XP already installed. If you do wish to try to work with the laptop you have: If the laptop in question didn't come with the windows disc that you're using, then there's a good chance that the disc doesn't have the necessary driver files to deal with your hardware -- especially the harddrive controller drivers can be to blame there. (Some HD's have fancy features like Native Command Queueing, and unless the drivers properly administer that it can waltz all over itself and lead to a crash. Check the laptop manufactuere's website for windows drivers, then look for the SATA drivers. Now, there's a bit of a catch here: Since Vista has been out for a while now, it's not unlikely that the laptop in question has some new components for which there may not be any XP drivers. Especially with name-brand computers that are designed in-house by a large company, they may only make production lines for specific OS versions, and not bother making drivers for non-supported operating systems like XP. If this is the case, you're pretty much screwed. If there are XP drivers available, there is another catch: Unfortunately windows XP will only load extra drivers from a floppy, (early in the boot process you get a quick prompt telling you to press F6 to load 3rd party storage drivers. If you hit it, it will look at your floppy drive and get the drivers from there. If you don't have a floppy drive you're somewhat screwed, since it can't load it from a CD or flash drive. Your only choices at that point are either: 1) Get a cheap external USB floppy drive and use it to load the driver or... 2) Make a custom slipstreamed XP install CD that rolls the necessary drivers for you into the actual install disk. Works, but somewhat time consuming. check this link for a how-to on making a custom XP install disc: http://www.maximumpc.com/article/How-To--Slipstream-your-XP-installation |
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| Why would you buy a laptop pre-installed with Linux if you don't want Linux? |
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| Why would you buy a laptop pre-installed with Linux if you don't want Linux? Because the same spec laptop only comes with linux or vista starter. The vista laptop costs $200 extra and I have a few unused XP installers at home. |
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| just delete any and all the linux partitions using XP and then install, if you don't want linux, then you don't need to preserve them. Be aware that some laptops will have a partition that stores system information and sometimes drivers. |
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| Thanks everyone :) I got it working eventually. I needed to change some harddrive settings in the cmos. Took a couple of hours reading forum posts and farting about on the command line (no GUI installed). That was my first/last experience with Linux :/ |
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| Ugh limpus is the devil and a very BAD linux distro, use Ubuntu-eee instead, works great (but use ext2 not ext3 filesystem!! -so it wont burn out the SSD drive (unless it is the HDD version of course). If you do have the SSD version then i wouldnt reccomend XP, but if you are insistant use FAT32 FS instead of NTFS (for similar reasons to ubuntu, however windows constantly chews disk even more, so make sure you do not use a journaling FS) |
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| send the vote for eeebuntu :) |
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