Can't install windows on new (old) laptop

[Dragonwight]

Just on the Ubuntu side of things I would start again from scratch. Boot the machine up using the live copy you have on the USB stick then I would remove all the partitions on the hard drive including the small ones so you have one partition so there can be no confusion. I would go to the Ubuntu website download the latest installer version 11.10 i believe and use that to install it onto the single partition. If your going to install XP on the machine remember the partition will need to be formatted as FAT32 not EXT4 as is currently the case.

With regards to the cd have you tested it in another pc to see if it is bootable? Can the cd be seen in Linux and used?

 

[swee'pea99]

Hi Dragonwight

Thanks for sticking with me on this. I have a shameful admission to make...

I bought this laptop for daughter 2 after I gave one to daughter 1 - so I have two exactly the same. I suddenly (and let's face it, belatedly) had the brilliant notion of taking the HD out of the one that works, and putting it in this one. So I did. And got the usual error message. And I *know* that HD is ok, because it goes straight to WinXP in the other computer. So it's getting increasingly hard to see this as anything but a hardware problem.

What baffles me is the way it does know there's a HD in - it just can't boot from it. And it does recognise a CD (it whirrs for a second when you start up...but then stops) but won't boot from it. (And this is *definitely* a bootable CD). So, the computer knows it has a hard drive (but won't boot from it) knows it has a cd (but won't boot from it), but *will* boot from a USB stick.

One other oddity - in attempting to find out whether it would use the CD at all (ie, not to boot from but to, say, play music) I have discovered that if I double-click on the hard drive, along with all the folders called things like bin, boot, dev & home, there's a folder called cdrom, but if I look in it, I find I'm looking not at the CD I have in the drive (which I can't find anywhere) but at the contents of the USB memory stick. Uh?

Like I say, I'm getting close to writing it off as an unsolvable hardware thing, but it's frustrating, 'cos I can't help feeling there's actually nothing really terminal wrong with it, and if I only knew the right tweak....

 

[wakou]

Seems like it is a HW or BIOS issue. Don't write it off!
First factory reset the BIOS and try again.

You might be able to update the BIOS.

As a last resort 16Gb SB keys are available, you could use one instead of HDD.

 

[swee'pea99]

When you say 'factory reset', does that mean 'Restore defaults' on the bios file menu? In which case, I've tried that. No difference. I did think about updating the bios, but a bit of googling suggests it's a helluva complex geeky orocess, with dire consequences if you get anything wrong - which with me is pretty much a certainty.

 

[trustysteed]

[quote name='swee'pea99' timestamp='1319706504' post='1897391']
When you say 'factory reset', does that mean 'Restore defaults' on the bios file menu? In which case, I've tried that. No difference. I did think about updating the bios, but a bit of googling suggests it's a helluva complex geeky orocess, with dire consequences if you get anything wrong - which with me is pretty much a certainty.
[/quote]



it doesn't work anyway so what have you got to lose?

 

[SavageHoutkop]

it doesn't work anyway so what have you got to lose?

It currently can work off a USB stick; the worst is the whole thing is fried!

 

[swee'pea99]

It currently can work off a USB stick; the worst is the whole thing is fried!

Is the *correct* answer!

 

[trustysteed]

is the *wrong* answer

 

[swee'pea99]

is the *wrong* answer

Please, tell me more. I'd like to try - I just found the intstructions for updating your bios from ubuntu really daunting, and there were warnings attached along the lines of 'screw this up and your pooter will DIE!'

 

[trustysteed]

scaremongering tactics. just follow the instructions and see what happens.

anyone who use the word 'pooter' is by definition a knob trying to be hip and is most likely a spotty teenage arse who ****ed his alienware laptop up trying to overclock it and deserved everything he got.

 

[swee'pea99]

How dare you sir! I'm 50!

 

[trustysteed]

i was aiming that comment at the people posting the warnings!

 

[swee'pea99]

I use 'pooter' all the time...

 

[wakou]

Looks like the waters have been muddied! I have never dared do a BIOS update from or via linux, despite being a linux user for over 3 years...
My advice Swee, if you want to try a bios update (what age is the machine?? what bios version does it have?) is to download "Bart's PE" and make a bootable USB of that. This gives you a 'skinny' windows, you can then use HP's tools and software to do the BIOS update. I am guessing your problem is in fact, something to do with the IDE controller, probs a hardware issue?
BTW, it is all very well for Trusty to be gung-ho and 'just do it' , but it is not his machine, and if it becomes a brick or doorstop due to a failed BIOS update, not his daughter who has to go without.

 

[swee'pea99]

Thanks wakou - Bartspe looks a bit daunting post-pub, but i'll definitely check it out. Sounds promising.