[okiol]

this is the video.

 

Ah, now I have formatting!

 

It did seem like things took the right amount of time, and I got the right messages that would point towards a complete factory reset. I even got to select my new keyboard langauge. When I was done I clicked a button to restart, and it went into the normal restart mode.

 

When I did the reinstall I got to choose a disc, and it said that this disc has 490 Gb, which is what my windows 7 installation had assigned, because the Linux Mint is using something like 150 Gb if I remember correctly. I don't particularly need the space, but since I don't use the linux installation at all at the moment it feels cleaner to just remove it. Honestly I like the idea of linux and I'd like to try it, but it just doesn't seem supported enough... But that's another discussion.

 

I do have access to other computers, but they are not mine. If it's possible to solve it right away on the computer I prefer that, but if not, that's no problem. Is it possible to do the installation from a portable disc rather than a cd in that case, or does it have to be a cd?

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Hi, thanks for the video link. Following that video, it is the so called recommended way via the control panel, and it should have gone normally as per the video. However the drive partition you chose, was that definitely showing as C drive? If not that may be why it has failed.

 

However I have sent a message to one of the tech guys and I wait to see what he says if this can be rescued.

 

Nev.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi, thanks for the video link. Following that video, it is the so called recommended way via the control panel, and it should have gone normally as per the video. However the drive partition you chose, was that definitely showing as C drive? If not that may be why it has failed.

 

However I have sent a message to one of the tech guys and I wait to see what he says if this can be rescued.

 

Nev.

[okiol]

I am writing this from the same computer, but from the Linux installation, so yeah, the computer isn't destroyed or anything.

 

Yes, it was the C. It was the only available option.

 

Everything seemed to run so smoothly, it really feels to me like it's just this choice thing that messes it up. The choice screen looks like this but with another color: http://cdn5.howtogee...t-14_thumb2.png and there is a sixth option to start windows normally, which used to be the way I started up the computer every day. But now when I do it, is when I get the message that it doesn't exist etc.

Edited by okiol, 30 November 2014 - 06:04 AM.

[Plastic Nev]

In case you have seen the above post and waiting for further information, it is a DVD disk you will need or a USB flash drive. I am not sure if it can run off an external hard drive so best not to try that.

Follow the instructions from my earlier link for downloading and burning the disk or the flash drive. It is important that the disk is burned as an Image file so that it will boot the computer. If not sure which file to download, let us know what the original full operating system is, as in Windows 7 home premium, or Windows 7 professional, etc.

Once you have that, let us know as we will need to format the computers hard drive before installing the operating system again.

If using a borrowed computer at a different location than your own, it may be best to also burn a DBan disk at the same time which will be required to format your computers drive as well, let us know if that is the case. Have a look here about burning a DBan disk.

 

http://www.dban.org/faq/burning

 

Can you also please give us the full make and model of your computer, or if a built for you the make and model of the motherboard. We need those details in order to obtain and install the correct drivers once the operating system is installed. The drivers will need to be installed in a correct order as well once we get them.

 

Edit to add, just seen that you posted while I was still composing mine, any questions before we start please ask, better getting it right than getting half way through and then stuck.

 

Nev.

Edited by Plastic Nev, 30 November 2014 - 06:29 AM.

[ruggie_uk]

Hi, just to add in, that menu you are seeing is the linux grub menu.

 

To remove it, boot from a windows disk, go to command prompt and type:

 

bootrec /fixmbr

bootrec /fixboot

 

That will remove grub, and set windows to be the boot partition.

[okiol]

In case you have seen the above post and waiting for further information, it is a DVD disk you will need or a USB flash drive. I am not sure if it can run off an external hard drive so best not to try that.

Follow the instructions from my earlier link for downloading and burning the disk or the flash drive. It is important that the disk is burned as an Image file so that it will boot the computer. If not sure which file to download, let us know what the original full operating system is, as in Windows 7 home premium, or Windows 7 professional, etc.

Once you have that, let us know as we will need to format the computers hard drive before installing the operating system again.

If using a borrowed computer at a different location than your own, it may be best to also burn a DBan disk at the same time which will be required to format your computers drive as well, let us know if that is the case. Have a look here about burning a DBan disk.

 

http://www.dban.org/faq/burning

 

Can you also please give us the full make and model of your computer, or if a built for you the make and model of the motherboard. We need those details in order to obtain and install the correct drivers once the operating system is installed. The drivers will need to be installed in a correct order as well once we get them.

 

Edit to add, just seen that you posted while I was still composing mine, any questions before we start please ask, better getting it right than getting half way through and then stuck.

 

Nev.

I honestly don't know what it is that I have. I call it portable disc, because it can store files. It's just a black box with a USB port. It does requre its own energy source, though.

 

Regarding Windows 7: I only see a sticker for Windows7, that's it. I'm guessing I have the cheapest possible option.

 

The computer model is: Acer Aspire 5740G. Is that enough information?

Hi, just to add in, that menu you are seeing is the linux grub menu.

 

To remove it, boot from a windows disk, go to command prompt and type:

 

bootrec /fixmbr

bootrec /fixboot

 

That will remove grub, and set windows to be the boot partition.

It sounds like this should probably solve my immidiate problems, but the linux installation will still be there. Is it impossible to remove it?

[ruggie_uk]

No, you should simply be able to remove the linux partition from disk management within windows and reallocate the space.

There is a tutorial on that here http://www.7tutorial...agement-utility

Edited by ruggie_uk, 30 November 2014 - 04:24 PM.

[okiol]

Ok, that's great! I will look at it first thing tomorrow morning. I don't know whether we have burnable DVD's in this house. How do I know whether my unit is a flashdrive or a portable disc?

[ruggie_uk]

If it requres its own power, as you say, its a hard drive. A flash drive is normally tiny, about the size of a pencil eraser.
A hard drive can still be used but I dont know of any software that will make it easy for you to make it an install disk like you can a flash drive but it definity can be done manually

[okiol]

Alright. I do have a Samsung Galaxy S3. Will that work to download the ISO file too? How big is the ISO file approximately? Otherwise I'll just have to go buy a flash drive. It wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, could probably use one.

 

Other than that, I think I'm set, as soon as I'm able to sit down in front of a computer for some time and read through all of the guides and make sure I don't make any more mistakes and do the download and install.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi, sorry I have been missing, I had problems myself with no internet connection since Sunday. However my ISP engineers have been and got that sorted.

 

So, if you either obtain a DVD, or a flash drive, it needs to be at least 4GB for the flash drive as the file is 3.09GB for Windows 7 Home Premium.

Is that the original operating system or was the original system Windows 7 Professional also is it 32bit or 64bit?

 

If it is Home Premium 64bit you need file number X17-58997

 

If it is Professional 64bit you need file number X17-59186

 

To save you searching for it scroll down to the English versions on this page for the download.

 

http://www.heidoc.ne...-download-links

 

Also here is the link again for the full instructions.

 

http://www.sevenforu...indows-7-a.html

 

I actually recommend you obtain a DVD disk, as burning a disk correctly is a much easier job, as you will find in those instructions, as you do need to do some extra work to make a flash drive bootable.

 

Please note, an ordinary CD disk is not big enough, it does have to be a DVD disk as they hold 4.7GB.

 

Nev.

[okiol]

I have bought DVD discs now, and trying to follow the tutorial.

 

I checked, and I have Home Premium version.

 

I have a problem, though: when I'm downloading the ISO file, the download will "finish" way early. The file is supposed to be around 3.1 Gb, but I've tried around 5 times now, and every time, it pops up and looks right: 3.1 Gb - will take 5 hours or whatever. Then after 30 min or 1 hour it just finishes.

 

The different file sizes I've got so far have been: 327 678 kB, 327 678 kB, 524 262 kB, 655 368 kB, 655 346 kb.

 

There is no message that something has went wrong or anything like that. It just seems content that the download is complete.

When I try to do step 1 from sevenforums in-tutorial tutorial about how to burn  a W7 DVD: 

http://www.sevenforu...2]=General Tips

I get the message that the target file isn't an ISO, so something definitely has went wrong. Is there a secondary way to download this?

 

I have used the directlink provided from here, aswell as scrolling and finding it myself with the same results. If these softwares work on Linux aswell, I could try from my own computer.

[Plastic Nev]

If you have a computer running Linux, it should still be able to download the correct file as after all it is only a file.

However I don't know enough about the Linux systems to know if it can burn an image or ISO file to disk.

 

There is a free burning software called ImgBurn, though designed to run on Windows, the authors say it should run on Linux provided you use "Wine", you can have a look here :-

 

http://www.imgburn.com/

 

Otherwise, you can try downloading the file on the Linux machine if you can transfer the file to a Windows one afterwards.

 

Also that program ImgBurn, is a recommended burning tool and in my estimation a better one than the Windows own, so much simpler to just select "Write Image File To Disk" and it just gets on with it to create the ISO bootable disk.

 

I would also delete those obviously wrong downloaded files if you haven't done so already, then you can't be confused by them.

 

A quick edit to add, while downloading the ISO file it may be best to not use the computer for anything else as it could be the reason for the corrupt downloads if there was any intense use while downloading.

 

Nev.

Edited by Plastic Nev, 03 December 2014 - 10:16 AM.

[okiol]

I tried several times both with using the computer and not using it. The very exact times that the download got finished makes me a bit suspicious tbh. I really wonder what happened. The first times, I left the computer, and then I tried to completely remove all of the screensaver alternatives, although it doesn't seem I was successful - something still turned off the screen, but I have no idea whether the processes were interrupted due to that. The last time I attempted to use the computer through the whole process, but it still got interrupted.

 

I'm off to trying to download it on the Linux install and see what happens and report back to you!

[Plastic Nev]

OK keep us informed please.

One thing I should mention, if you download and install ImgBurn, during the install process, watch for and check that you choose the custom install, there may be foist ware to remove ticks from, usually unwanted tool bars etc.

 

Nev.