Cant reinstall windows XP


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Hey all, im completely new to Linux. My friend gave me a laptop for christmas, it used to be hers. So it was givin to me as a christmas present.. with none of the CD's.

It has the latest version of Ubuntu installed. But i have games i want to play so i Need Windows XP.

I went through to see the partitions at the grub loader screeen, and all the partitions it says is Ubuntu. This is what it tells me:

Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-9-generic

Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-9-generic (recovery mode)

Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-7-generic

Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-7-generic (recovery mode)

Ubuntu 8.10, memtest86+

I tried to install windows XP Professional, so i inserted it in after i set the boot drive to boot from cd.

It takes me through the whole loading process with the Blue screen, loading the kernels and stuff, and then i go to press R=Repair, and it tells me this:

Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer.

Make sure any hard disk drives are powered on and properly connected to your computer, and that any disk-related hardware configuration is correct. This may involve running a manufatureer-supplied diagnostic or setup program.

Setup cannot continue. To quit setup, press F3.

-I tried to go thru with just loading windows, and it gave me the same thing.

Can someone please help me solve this issue? I only have an XP cd from my other computer. No linux or ubuntu cd's...

i do enjoy ubuntu, but i Need XP for certain games and programs too... Thank you all in advanced so much!

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Im confused - if youre loading XP for the 1st time - why did you press ® repair ?

Also, you might have one of the early XP and early model SATA drives where you need to do an F6 install because SATA drivers werent native in the beginning...

If you have to - get another computer and get a partition utility like GParted or something - see if the partition is jacked, or the boot sector. But check to see what brand HDD it has and get the bootable drive utility and boot to an ISO - and set it up for OS install - (like WD's DataLifeguard, or Seagate's SeaTools)

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maybe you'll have to repartition since Ubuntu might take the whole hard drive.

Check with fdisk -l from the console and also df -h to see how big are the mounted partitions

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Well, my computer is fairly new, its a l aptop. its the Acer Aspire 5920, the hardrive is a IDE Toshiba, i believe its 160gb.

I have GParted, i can use that to see the partitions if ud like?

Ill try use fdisk -l and df -h also..

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Okay, in GParted, this is what i have:

/dev/sda1 ext3 / (size)180.55GiB (used)31.65GiB (unused)148.89GiB (flags) boot

/dev/sda2 extended (size) 5.76GiB (used) --- (unused) ---

/dev/sda5 linux-swap (size) 5.76GiB (used) --- (unused) ---

I typed in fdisk -l in console, but it said "Cannot open /dev/sda"

I typed in df -h and it said :

/dev/sda1 (size)178G (used)29G (avail)140G (use%)18% (mounted on) /

anyone know what i should do? :(

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Assuming, it's a proper XP CD, and not an OEM disk, and assuming that you basically want to wipe Ubuntu off and put Windows on instead...

Use a GParted Boot Disk to boot your PC, and erase all the partitions from your drive. Reboot your computer.

Pop in your Windows CD and boot from it, as you did before. Do not try to repair an installation (because there isn't one there to repair), choose to create a new XP installation and procede as usual. When you come to the partitioning phase of the installer, it will detect your drive. Tell it to create new partition(s) and format them in NTFS. Follow your nose, and Bob's your Uncle.

Edit: Actually, thinking about it, the Windows installer might actually find the Linux partitions on your drive, but won't recognise the filesystem. It should, however, be able to remove them anyway and let you create NTFS partitions instead. You might not need to use a GParted CD at all.

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Assuming, it's a proper XP CD, and not an OEM disk, and assuming that you basically want to wipe Ubuntu off and put Windows on instead...

Use a GParted Boot Disk to boot your PC, and erase all the partitions from your drive. Reboot your computer.

Pop in your Windows CD and boot from it, as you did before. Do not try to repair an installation (because there isn't one there to repair), choose to create a new XP installation and procede as usual. When you come to the partitioning phase of the installer, it will detect your drive. Tell it to create new partition(s) and format them in NTFS. Follow your nose, and Bob's your Uncle.

Edit: Actually, thinking about it, the Windows installer might actually find the Linux partitions on your drive, but won't recognise the filesystem. It should, however, be able to remove them anyway and let you create NTFS partitions instead. You might not need to use a GParted CD at all.

Yes,But as i said before. I cant even GET to the partition part of windows because It does not recognize any Hard Disk Drives. Mylast computer had this same problem after it got attacked by viruses. Eventually i had to throw away the pc cause the problem couldnt be solved.. if this becomes the same problem im going tobe so peeved and resort to mac...... lol.

I will burn the gparted disk, Althought I already have GParted on here which is how i showed you guys the partitions,so why would I need it?

Sorryfor the late response!

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You'll need to download an XP CD with integrated SATA drivers. I had the same problem when I got a new laptop this year and wanted to reformat.

As long as you have a valid key, I don't think there would be any harm in snatching it off a torrent site. Just search for Windows XP Sata and you'll find what you need.

Sure you could probably integrate in the driver yourself or whatever fancy **** people do, but just do it the easy way and download an image. :)

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"Vanilla" XP will fail to install on any fairly recent laptop because of SATA drivers, as mentioned above.

Either download a XP image with drivers included, or add them yourself (I've no idea about how to do that, but I'm sure google does).

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