The Mitsubishi Pajero Owners Club®

REVOGEL · Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2014 16:10 Post subject: removing windows

Hi guys. I was attempting to press an old PC into service [mine was stolen in a robbery] by installing windows XP when the DVD shattered in the drive with the consequence that an incomplete corrupt version was installed.
Is there any way to remove XP? I have tried downloading/installing Ubuntu and win 7 but all I get is Windows cannot install etc. And of course windows wont allow me to format the drive. Also the DVD drive will not stay closed. Ubuntu is on a flash drive. If I have downloaded it correctly. My knowledge is very limited and goes back to 3.1.1
All help greatly appreciated but will have to be in very basic, detailed terms. Me brain don't work well as I am rapidly approaching 75 years.

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tflnemesis · Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2014 20:00 Post subject:

Hi there, sorry to hear about your woes, hopefully i can give you a few pointers.

If its an old machine chances are it won't boot from a flash drive. Some older machines would but this needs to be set up in the BIOS.

The easiest solution for you is to get on another running machine and download ubuntu again but download the cd version and burn it onto a disc, provided the cd drive on your machine is still functioning ok you should be able to install it from the cd you just burned.

If the cd drive is kaput you will have to hope that your bios supports booting from a flash drive. It can be awkward to get into the bios if you have never done it before, the main 3 ways are by pressing the 'DEL' key or 'F2' or 'F10' from when you switch it on. Once in there look around for 'Boot Options' and see if there any options for boot device 'USB'. If these options aren't available then you will need to use the cd version described above.
Also on an older machine it is unlikely that the mouse will work in the bios screen and you will have to navigate around using cursor keys.

Richard

REVOGEL · Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2014 20:16 Post subject:

Thank you Richard for your prompt reply My pc does support usb boot [I assume thats the same as booting from a flash drive ] but still wont install ubuntu. Unfortunatly I am in the wilds of Guyana but will be able Monday to try downloading on a friends pc and tues try to load it. I have a shiny new PC on order but it will take app 6 weeks to arrive so doing what I can with this one for now.

tflnemesis · Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2014 21:46 Post subject:

If your pc supports usb booting try and and change the boot sequence in the bios so that it looks at the usb first.

It might be that the usb booting it supports is a usb optical drive like a usb cd or dvd rom drive, not a flash drive.

jimmyw · Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2014 22:28 Post subject:

I had a similar issue from booting from a Ubuntu bootable stick. I used the formatting tool within ubuntu to format/partition the drive,and then it installed and booted from it.

REVOGEL · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2014 22:38 Post subject:

REVOGEL · Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2014 23:30 Post subject:

No luck with the usb boot will just have to sweat it out till the new one comes.