Reinstall windows from xubuntu ?

lee508 · 04-19-2009, 01:42 PM

Hi there, recently I decided to try installing linux on to my laptop. I chose Xubuntu 8.10 as it was the most recent and most stripped down version of ubuntu which I heard is great. I have a problem, now I'm trying to delete linux off my pc and reinstall windows from boot disks. The problem is, after deleting the linux partitions and putting the boot disks in, I get a stop error 0x00007b (give or take a zero). Does anybody know the cause of this error and how to get around it ?

many thanks for reading,
Lee

P.S. I remember reading something about the format SATA or other hard disk drives may be the issue. I don't know the format but It's an ACER Aspire 5535 laptop. If this needs extra drivers could somebody forward me to them ?

**Bartender** · 04-19-2009, 03:07 PM

Sounds to me like your laptop is not booting from the optical drive. It's still trying to boot from the hard drive, and now that Linux is gone GRUB is messed up.
That seems like the most likely problem, although "stop error" sounds more like a Windows blue screen than a GRUB error...
Go into your BIOS, make sure it's set to boot from the optical drive first. If you keep getting the same error message, try again. Make sure it's trying to boot from the optical drive. Listen for the optical drive to start spinning up within a few seconds of starting the PC. If you think it's trying to start from the optical drive, but you still get the same error, try popping the Xubuntu CD in and restart. Xubuntu should start to load. When it gets to the first screen, hold down the "On" button for five seconds or log out. We want to make absolutely sure it's going to the optical drive first, not just skipping past the optical drive and going to the HDD.
Then try your Windows boot disc again.
I don't know about this for sure, but I think you'll want to borrow someone else's PC and download gparted live CD, then burn that download to a CD. The reason why is that the Windows CD will only see the NTFS partition. You could go thru the whole rigamarole of re-installing Windows and find that the Linux partition is still sitting there, unusable but taking up space. Boot from the gparted Live CD, and delete all partitions. Then format the entire drive to one primary NTFS partition. Then get out of gparted, then try popping in the Windows disc.
If you have any problems with the gparted LiveCD, such as it can't run your display or won't show the partitions, go back to SourceForge and download a version of gparted from a year ago or so. The most reliable copy I have of gparted is about two years old. It's worked when newer versions did not.
The Stop Error almost sounds like the old blue screen of death, but it's unlikely that you're suddenly having a hardware problem at the same moment that you uninstalled Linux.

lee508 · 04-19-2009, 03:31 PM

Hi bartender, thanks for responding. It is the "blue screen of death", it happens when I try to install windows again (sorry that I didn't make this clear!).

I'll try the gparted method though, thanks!

**Bartender** · 04-19-2009, 07:28 PM

I'm stuck with dial-up so often shoot from the hip instead of doing a little research. Your stop error is a Windows blue screen indicating it can't find a device to boot from
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324103
I'm pretty sure this makes perfect sense, because Windows looks to the Master Boot Record when first starting up. When you installed Ubuntu, the Linux bootloader (GRUB) rewrote part of the MBR. You uninstalled Linux without restoring the MBR to its previous state, so now Windows gets confused. I would have expected to see a GRUB error, not a Windows blue screen, but I'm not an expert.

First off, you're gonna have to get the PC to boot from the optical drive.

If you want to get rid of the Linux partition entirely, and don't mind reinstalling Windows from scratch (reinstalling Windows every few years is probably a good idea anyway) then I'd still recommend using gparted Live CD to entirely wipe the drive, then create one primary NTFS partition, then get out of gparted and pop the Windows CD in.
When you're all done, you can go back into BIOS and tell the PC to boot from the HDD first. This saves you a half second or so at startup.

If you want to leave the Linux partition for further experimentation, and don't want to spend the time reinstalling Windows, try fixing the MBR. A Super Grub Disk is one way to fix the MBR, but if you have a genuine Windows CD you can restore the MBR from that too. Lots of directions online. Google "restore mbr with windows cd".

If you're going to wipe Windows anyway, you might want to try fixing the MBR first just for the educational experience.

EDIT: I just re-read your original post. Did you make recovery discs from the recovery partition? I don't think it's possible to fix the MBR with those. Only a genuine Windows XP disc will do the trick, or some other tool like the Super Grub disc. The recovery discs are only useful for installing Windows with the original drivers for that laptop. When you're done I'd suggest going to the Acer website and downloading/installing the latest chipset/communications/sound/video drivers. That's not absolutely necessary but chances are they've made several improvements to the original drivers.
Oh, hey, another thing - my Acer had a special keystroke to start the recovery installation the first time I tried to do it. After that first time, I didn't have to use the secret keystroke. I don't understand why that was, but sometimes these manufacturers really tick me off. Just something to keep in mind.

vashti · 08-09-2009, 07:12 PM

I have a REALLY old compac n200 laptop. I'd installed xubuntu onto it as I'd heard it was suppsed to be 'lighter' than xp- but it's actually just slowed my system right down.

The only problem is, now that I'm trying to reinstall xp over xubuntu it won't seem to boot from the optical drive. I've gone into the bios to make sure that the preferences say that it's supposed to boot from the CR-ROM first, and the HDD last....

When I put the disk in and reboot, you can hear the disk starting to spin up, and then nothing really happens, it just stops and the GRUB thing starts to just restard xubuntu?

Is there a workaround?

(ps - I'm not too tech savvy, sorry)

04-19-2009, 01:42 PM	#1 (permalink)
lee508 Registered User Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 2 OS: xubuntu 8.10	Reinstall windows from xubuntu ? Hi there, recently I decided to try installing linux on to my laptop. I chose Xubuntu 8.10 as it was the most recent and most stripped down version of ubuntu which I heard is great. I have a problem, now I'm trying to delete linux off my pc and reinstall windows from boot disks. The problem is, after deleting the linux partitions and putting the boot disks in, I get a stop error 0x00007b (give or take a zero). Does anybody know the cause of this error and how to get around it ? many thanks for reading, Lee P.S. I remember reading something about the format SATA or other hard disk drives may be the issue. I don't know the format but It's an ACER Aspire 5535 laptop. If this needs extra drivers could somebody forward me to them ? Last edited by lee508; 04-19-2009 at 01:46 PM.

04-19-2009, 03:07 PM	#2 (permalink)
Bartender Mentally divergent Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Chehalis, WA, USA Posts: 1,285 OS: W2K, Ubuntu 8.04	Re: Reinstall windows from xubuntu ? Sounds to me like your laptop is not booting from the optical drive. It's still trying to boot from the hard drive, and now that Linux is gone GRUB is messed up. That seems like the most likely problem, although "stop error" sounds more like a Windows blue screen than a GRUB error... Go into your BIOS, make sure it's set to boot from the optical drive first. If you keep getting the same error message, try again. Make sure it's trying to boot from the optical drive. Listen for the optical drive to start spinning up within a few seconds of starting the PC. If you think it's trying to start from the optical drive, but you still get the same error, try popping the Xubuntu CD in and restart. Xubuntu should start to load. When it gets to the first screen, hold down the "On" button for five seconds or log out. We want to make absolutely sure it's going to the optical drive first, not just skipping past the optical drive and going to the HDD. Then try your Windows boot disc again. I don't know about this for sure, but I think you'll want to borrow someone else's PC and download gparted live CD, then burn that download to a CD. The reason why is that the Windows CD will only see the NTFS partition. You could go thru the whole rigamarole of re-installing Windows and find that the Linux partition is still sitting there, unusable but taking up space. Boot from the gparted Live CD, and delete all partitions. Then format the entire drive to one primary NTFS partition. Then get out of gparted, then try popping in the Windows disc. If you have any problems with the gparted LiveCD, such as it can't run your display or won't show the partitions, go back to SourceForge and download a version of gparted from a year ago or so. The most reliable copy I have of gparted is about two years old. It's worked when newer versions did not. The Stop Error almost sounds like the old blue screen of death, but it's unlikely that you're suddenly having a hardware problem at the same moment that you uninstalled Linux.

04-19-2009, 03:31 PM	#3 (permalink)
lee508 Registered User Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 2 OS: xubuntu 8.10	Re: Reinstall windows from xubuntu ? Hi bartender, thanks for responding. It is the "blue screen of death", it happens when I try to install windows again (sorry that I didn't make this clear!). I'll try the gparted method though, thanks! Last edited by lee508; 04-19-2009 at 03:33 PM.

04-19-2009, 07:28 PM	#4 (permalink)
Bartender Mentally divergent Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Chehalis, WA, USA Posts: 1,285 OS: W2K, Ubuntu 8.04	Re: Reinstall windows from xubuntu ? I'm stuck with dial-up so often shoot from the hip instead of doing a little research. Your stop error is a Windows blue screen indicating it can't find a device to boot from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324103 I'm pretty sure this makes perfect sense, because Windows looks to the Master Boot Record when first starting up. When you installed Ubuntu, the Linux bootloader (GRUB) rewrote part of the MBR. You uninstalled Linux without restoring the MBR to its previous state, so now Windows gets confused. I would have expected to see a GRUB error, not a Windows blue screen, but I'm not an expert. First off, you're gonna have to get the PC to boot from the optical drive. If you want to get rid of the Linux partition entirely, and don't mind reinstalling Windows from scratch (reinstalling Windows every few years is probably a good idea anyway) then I'd still recommend using gparted Live CD to entirely wipe the drive, then create one primary NTFS partition, then get out of gparted and pop the Windows CD in. When you're all done, you can go back into BIOS and tell the PC to boot from the HDD first. This saves you a half second or so at startup. If you want to leave the Linux partition for further experimentation, and don't want to spend the time reinstalling Windows, try fixing the MBR. A Super Grub Disk is one way to fix the MBR, but if you have a genuine Windows CD you can restore the MBR from that too. Lots of directions online. Google "restore mbr with windows cd". If you're going to wipe Windows anyway, you might want to try fixing the MBR first just for the educational experience. EDIT: I just re-read your original post. Did you make recovery discs from the recovery partition? I don't think it's possible to fix the MBR with those. Only a genuine Windows XP disc will do the trick, or some other tool like the Super Grub disc. The recovery discs are only useful for installing Windows with the original drivers for that laptop. When you're done I'd suggest going to the Acer website and downloading/installing the latest chipset/communications/sound/video drivers. That's not absolutely necessary but chances are they've made several improvements to the original drivers. Oh, hey, another thing - my Acer had a special keystroke to start the recovery installation the first time I tried to do it. After that first time, I didn't have to use the secret keystroke. I don't understand why that was, but sometimes these manufacturers really tick me off. Just something to keep in mind. Last edited by Bartender; 04-19-2009 at 07:39 PM.

08-09-2009, 07:12 PM	#5 (permalink)
vashti Registered User Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 1 OS: vista	Re: Reinstall windows from xubuntu ? I have a REALLY old compac n200 laptop. I'd installed xubuntu onto it as I'd heard it was suppsed to be 'lighter' than xp- but it's actually just slowed my system right down. The only problem is, now that I'm trying to reinstall xp over xubuntu it won't seem to boot from the optical drive. I've gone into the bios to make sure that the preferences say that it's supposed to boot from the CR-ROM first, and the HDD last.... When I put the disk in and reboot, you can hear the disk starting to spin up, and then nothing really happens, it just stops and the GRUB thing starts to just restard xubuntu? Is there a workaround? (ps - I'm not too tech savvy, sorry)