Format ubuntu

lol that was my suggestion ^ there
however, pirated content is not promoted here and is frowned upon.

I'm new to this forum but this thread is timely. I just purchased a Compaq laptop used (EBay) with AMD 64 3200+. The laptop came with UBUNTU installed...no Windows. I was pleased because I have an interest in UBUNTU (have 7.04 disk already), but need to install a "dual boot" with Windows for software purposes. It was suggested by the seller that I simply reinstall Windows then reinstall UBUNTU. I decided to do just that using Compaq recovery disks (we have another Compaq LT)...but Windows hung on the final reboot (3rd disk) with the following message sequence:

GRUB loading stage 1.5.
GRUB loading, please wait...
Error 17

Obviously GRUB did NOT deinstall when XP reformatted. Now it won't even read an UBUNTU 7.04 disk to reinstall. I have adjusted the boot order (setup utility seems dated actually), attempted various bootdisks, "Boot 'n Nuke" etc, but I cannot get past the above error code! ( Any ideas? It will not read ANY disk at boot now. Please?

it won't even read a windows disk?
do you have an actual windows xp install disk? because if so, you'll need to use it to fix the mbr (and then make a new one later)
if you can't boot from a disk while the hard drive is present, try removing the hard drive and see if you can then boot from a disk? this shouldn't be the case considering if the cd is set to boot before the hard drive it should. BUT sometimes technology is crazy, lol

Uff da...remove a laptop HDD...I am without fear when it comes to desktops but definitely reserved about the idea of delving into laptop HW. But if all else fails............if I do so and manage to pop up DOS or something else (Boot 'n Nuke e.g.), do you think it would be a problem to plug the HDD back in on the fly? But yes its true...it will read NO disk...no command line...boot order is CD-ROM first etc. What a terrible and disappointing intro to UBUNTU.

Ah...we have joy...successfully installed Win 98 (apparently more complete HDD format) and then XP and things work fine. Thanks for your suggestions!

hey, glad you got it back up and running :]

hi, i get a problem that when i boot to a windows xp install cd, it says:

Windows XP Home Edition Setup
Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer.
Make sure and hard drives are powered on and properly connected to your computer, and that any disk-related hardware configuration is correct. This may involve running a manufacturer-supplied diagnostic or setup program.

when i installed my ubuntu, i did make the hard drive separately as two logical, one is in form EX3 which contains my ubuntu, and another one is in form FAT32 which i m planning to install windows in.

sounds like you need to load sata drivers for your hard drive. whats the brand and model of your computer? do you have a floppy drive?

im using IBM ThinkPad laptop, only has CD-ROM and it's IBM ThinkPad T60 if u need to know the model

are you trying to reinstall windows with the disk that came with the laptop? i'm guessing not.. so if not, a quick look at google has a similar problem here wondered if you were trying to install windows with sp2 (seemingly not), and if not, suggests to slipstream sp2 into your disk (which they say to google as its fairly easy).

..although, you may be able to switch HDD settings from SATA to Compatibility mode in the BIOS for Windows XP setup to see your HDD and install Windows.

im going out now, i ll have a look at google when im back, but what im trying to do is to install a dual-boot on my laptop, i did successfully when the windows was installed first on my desktop, but now the situation is Ubuntu gets installed first, one way i can think about to solve the problem is to format the hard drive and install windows, then install Ubuntu as i did before, but i don't know how to format the whole thing, i used window's 98 's floppy to get into like a DOS system to complete the formatting quite long time ago, but since i don't hv floppy drive now, i hv no idea that what i can do =.=:

BTW thx for ur help

no problem :] thats why i'm here.


what i would suggest doing, is looking in your bios to see if you can switch your hdd setting, and if that works boot up your windows cd. once there, you'll be prompted for where you want to install windows. at this point, you should be able to delete all partitions on the hard drive. after they're deleted, create a new partition for windows, but dont use the suggested size (as it will be the entire drive), but input your own value for however big you want your windows partition. leave the rest of the drive unpartitioned, install windows, and then you may proceed with installing ubuntu on the unpartitioned space.

but thats just me >.<
good luck =]

i can get to bios and the Windows xp cd can be booted (does ur mean of boot up is getting to the blue screen with a reading file at the button of the screen). after computer reads my cd, it says

Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer.
Make sure and hard drives are powered on and properly connected to your computer, and that any disk-related hardware configuration is correct. This may involve running a manufacturer-supplied diagnostic or setup program.

and only one option there is pressing F3 to quit. ./cry

well getting into the bios is a step in the right direction,
you need to find an option where you can choose your hard drive setting, it would probably be something like hard drive controller. in any case, you need to change it from sata to compatibility mode.

once you make this change you should be able to boot the cd without getting this error

hi all, after 3 days working, finally solved out. I just wanna do a summary that might help ppl who has the same problem with me.
Just make one thing clear that im just a beginner with linux, and also i hv not used formatting a lot. So what u find i did wrong or there is better way to do that, i'd like to know, and thx for the help.

My problem is i hv a Lenovo ThinkPad T60 laptop with Windows XP home edition originally, when i made it duel boot with Fedora, the installation broken the recovery part of the disk, so i can't recovery from disk to get Windows XP from disk. That why im trying to install the Windows XP from CD. when i boot from CD, it came up with


Windows XP Home Edition Setup
Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer.
Make sure and hard drives are powered on and properly connected to your computer, and that any disk-related hardware configuration is correct. This may involve running a manufacturer-supplied diagnostic or setup program.

i thought the reason why i was getting the problem was because the type of disk was not compatible with windows, 'cos i think everyone knows that linux system is using EXT2 or EXT3, and windows is using FAT32 or NTFS. So i was trying to format my disk.

There are 3 ways i hv tried to do so:

1, the tool in linux fdisk
it is useful tool, but if u try to format the whole disk, u need a ubuntu live CD, 'cos before u format a disk, u hv to unmount it first, and obviously if u are in the Ubuntu system, u can't unmount the disk which is running Ubuntu.
When u are using live cd to delete the partitions, u will find u can't delete a partition which called 'swap', that is because the swap is used to help running the live cd. Therefore, u hv to delete the swap partition in Ubuntu system, and delete the Ubuntu partition in live CD ( IF U HAVE A VERY SMALL MEMORY, U HV TO BE REALLY CAREFUL THAT IS U DELETE THE SWAP, U WILL GET VERY VERY SLOW WHEN U RUN THE LIVE CD, i hv not tried to install windows when u still get a swap partition in disk.)

2, the command line in linux mkfs
same here , u need live CD, then use the command line 'sudo mkfs.ext3 -L (ur disk label_name) (device name) there are 4 places can be changed,
ext3 can be changed to ext2
-L can be changed ( i don't know others sorry, but search it on some ubuntu forum, there are many answers)
(ur disk label_name) names are really depend to urs, but the main disk which contains ur ubuntu OS may called '/' ( mine is, and always is)
(device name) some forms that like /dev/sda

3, low-level format
it is really powerful tool to delete all things in ur hard driver, ( EVERYTHING ), so be careful to use it. There are many of them, i used the one called DBAN (Darik's Boot And Nuke 1.0.7), download it and burn it on a CD then reboot it ( if u don't hv 2 computers or the one u hv is completely dead, u may need help from ur friends ), there is a tool to burn CD in linux -- K3B

Finally, my solution didn't come up from them. My problem is because my disk has switched to SATA which is a new thing, it has many advances. but my problem just because SATA protect the hard driver from installing windows from CD, when this comes to be ur problem. just swich it to COMPATIBILITY in BOIS.

Appreciate u read all of this