Getting rid of Windows 7litie

Hi! II'm stuck with a Windows 7 laptop that won't boot and wonder if there is a way to get rid of Windows 7 and upload Ubuntu "without losing my data on my D: drive" ? Seems this is maybe possible by deleting a partition and creating a new one. Is this right? If so, how do you do it? Thanks!

 

Firstly it's unclear why the system won't boot. If it's a hardware or BIOS issue no operation system can help.

If you're trying to rescue data, I suggest you to move the hard drive to another PC as secondary drive and copy data there. This is safer.

If you want to nuke Windows and run Ubuntu only, just delete the Windows system partitions and make new ones for the Ubuntu install to use. As long as you don't touch the existing data partition you won't lose anything. Make sure you don't select the wrong drive but mistake though.

 

As for my data, using an Ubuntu live CD, I can see it all but to transfer it ( I got 14o GB on my D: drive) I have no other way then to burn DVDs which doesn't make sense. Othe solution would be to buy an external drive would like to avoid that. I have another laptop but swapping the hard-drive to it would give me about just 50 GB of space.
That's why my priority was to keep my D: drive intact if possible. I'm not so familiar with partitions. Using the Ubuntu live CD I went to Gparted yesterday and it seems I have 5 of them. Could you be more precise about all the different steps one would have to go to delete the partition on which Windows 7 is and then how to create a new one and last how to install Ubuntu on it without screwing up my D: drive. Thanks!

 

I don't know why but the first part of my message was cut and couldn't type anything in front of what I had left. The first part was... My laptop won't boot because I had a fan problem and halfway through a clean install, my laptop did shut off and the thing got corrupted. Now, I'm stuck with the "starting services" that send me an error message that says: "Window could not finish configuring the system" and it seems that all (2) the simple things one can do to get pass that blockage aren't working for me.

 

Lesl2, you can install Ubuntu in the space used by C: drive, manually partitioning it. I used this guide for elementary OS, it should work for any Linux as far as I understand. You backup your files located on C: drive to D: drive, then during installation simply delete the C: drive partition where your Windows was installed, and create /swap, /root and /home instead as shown in the guide.

I suggest you wait for some more experienced in Linux members to confirm or decline my advice before following it, though.

 

Why not just re-install W7 presuming you had the fan issue resolved in the meantime?

Once you're done with that, you can add almost any *nix as a dual-boot if you're interested in exploring the world of Linux.

My $0.02 only...

 

Right now the only way I would have to re-install Windows 7 would be to use the 3 DVDs recovery discs I have but by doing so, this would wipe out my D: drive. When my fan did stop during the clean install, I was in the process to rejuvenated my C: drive without touching the D: drive but now, I don't have that option anymore.
I was doing a clean install because Windows told me they had to stop my laptop to prevent any damage but...they never said exactly why they did stop it. After going through their lengthy "start-up repair" they told me they didn't find anything wrong and they couldn't fix it automatically. Last, they told me that if I had recently plugged in a digital camera or an other device, to unplug it and restart the computer...NEVER mentioning that the problem was overheating.
So, I thought I had a mighty virus that was smart enough to stop your laptop before being found while scanning (my sudden stops would only happen when I was scanning for malware). So, I thought doing a clean install would get me rid of that virus.
I did mention in a previous post that I thought I have 5 partitions. Seems ther's more than that but some are so little. This is not as clean cut as when you look at them using Windows( thing that I can't do anymore). So, here is a picture of what I get using Gparted while using the Ubuntu Live CD.

 

I'm reasonably certain that if you were to go with "standard" W7 media you could just nuke the C partition and re-install the OS on it.

You can download an ISO that matches your COA here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...gitalriver-windows-7-sp1-13-languages.604187/

Good luck.

 

You should be able to buy a 32Gb flash drive for about $20, a 16gb for even less.
Copy your important D: drive files to that then you can reinstall whatever OS you want.
We can help you install ubuntu, but could you post a screenshot of gparted showing your 5 partitions.

 

I already did post a screen shot of my partitions ( a few post above). Would like to know for sure which one is the C: drive.
I could buy a 64GB memory card for $27.99 but that still far from 140 GB I have on my D: drive. I could buy a 500 GB external drive for $48.49 (free shipping) but...in reality, most (if not all) the stuff I have on my D: drive is already backed-up on DVDs but...some are more than 5 years old so you never know if they would still work. No matter how I would have that stuff backed, if deleting my C: drive, creating a new partition and then reinstalling or Windows 7 or Ubuntu wind up wiping out my D: drive, I would have to put that stuff back there as a second back up and that's a long process. That's why I would really like to keep it there intact.
So, which one of the partition I should delete ? How do you create a new partition ? Then how can I use my DVDs recovery discs to put Windows back in there ? Thanks for your help.

 

sorry I didn't see your partition attachment. with all the forum icons and stuff broke I must of missed it. also in the part I quoted, I read your "D: drive as 14gb, not 140gb. oops.

as for your partitions..
sda1 - looks like a 12gb hidden recovery partition from the laptop manufacturer. I would leave it untouched.
sda2 - is the 100mb windows7 partition for bootable recovery. Every win7 install has this.
sda3 - looks like a 50gb partition. probably your C: drive?
sda4/5 - looks to be an extended partition 170gb with 140gb used. probably your D: drive.

so now for the big question, do you want windows7 or ubuntu installed?
I would assume if you use your recovery dvd's it will wipe the entire drive and you would lose your D: drive.

If you download a windows7 iso like ajkula66 said you can install windows 7 just on the C: drive. see #7 example here, you would choose custom.
that part of the windows install is similar to using gparted. just choose to install windows on that 50gb partition. It shouldn't touch your D: partition.

If you want ubuntu installed, I would delete sda2 and sda3 in gparted and make 2 new partitions out of them. Ubuntu is probably going to want a swap partition so make a 2gb partition (2048mb) and format it as swap, then take the remainder of the space and create the 2nd partition, and format as ext4. everything should work even though the partition layouts will look sloppy in gparted.

on a side note, did you try booting your laptop to the boot options (keep tapping F8 as soon as you boot), and choose "repair", which should take you to this screen image, where you can try "startup repair" ?

 

Thanks! I would prefer reinstall W1ndows 7 but... (I haven't have time yet to check all you did propose) if for reinstalling Windows 7 you need a "key" then, this won't happen. I never did get a key ( or if I did, I have no clue where it is) when I bought the laptop new and Windows 7 was already installed on it.
P.S. I'm not home now so I can't check it but...if the key is a long number printed on a decal at the bottom of the laptop then...I would think it's erased. That laptop has a lot of mileage riding in a backpack while biking. Maybe that key # was also provided in the documentation that came with the laptop ??? will have to check.

 

It all started by getting this screen ( see "first" picture attached). After getting that "first" screen twice, and every time getting through their lengthy start-up repair thing, I did press on F8 and did get to that "star-up" repair box but... mine wasn't looking like yours. It had 5 options I think but the command prompt wasn't the lowest one. If I remember well, the 4th option was to ???? but this was stated to not remove any virus/malware (since I thought my very problem I had was a virus smart enough to shut off my computer before you did find it out while scanning for malware) then, that wasn't the option to choose. I chose the 5th options for which I can't remember the title but I was pretty sure that this one would reinstall a clear Windows 7 on my C: drive without touching my D: drive.
Now, when I press F8, what I get is this: (see picture F8).
Now, when I start the computer, what I get is these: (see picture 1-2-3-4).
The last picture (4) you can't read clearly the message in the white box but here it is: "Windows could not finish configuring the system. To attempt to resume configuration, restart the computer".
So, you restart the computer and you wind up in the same dead end over, over and over.

 

Picture 1-2-3-4

 

Just found out another recipe that doesn't seems too complicated ( some remedy propose online to fix this problem are simply like Chinese to me). So will try that one.
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...ation-to/bf09c3c5-298b-459f-aed5-4f431b8398f5

 

If there is a key (COA) it will be on the bottom of the machine, quite visible, on a sticker stating "Microsoft Windows 7 blah blah blah" including a 25-character code. It could also be located in the battery bay, and you'd have to remove the battery in order to see it.

Good luck.

 

Or the key might be included in the BIOS and the OS should just activate itself after install.

 

Have you tried F8 then starting in "safe mode" or "safe mode with networking"?
If you can boot in safe mode, you can download and run keyfinder and it will tell you your current windows key - in case you were to reinstall.
But I would think if you can boot into safe mode, I would do that and try to fix windows from safe mode. things I would try would be malware scans with adwcleaner, combofix, and malwarebytes. I would also do "sfc /scannow" in a command prompt box and also "chkdsk /r" which will check the hard disk and fix errors on reboot.

there is probably more to do, but that should get you started!

 

The laptop doesn't boot in Safe Mode. It only boots when I use the Ubuntu Live CD... but that means you have no Internet access then.
All the stickers on the bottom of the laptop are totally erased. There is 2 stickers in the battery compartment. One is pink and is in 2 parts. First 12 numbers then LX.PGZo2:0111
The second sticker is white, starts with SIM followed by other letters and numbers (like 20 of them)

 

" I JUST DID IT " no key required. I followed that recipe and BINGO.

When prompted with error unable to complete installation:

Hit SHIFT-F10 to bring up command prompt.

type: CD C:\windows\system32\oobe

type msoobe

enter

Make a generic account and password. hit finish (if it requests a product key and you have one, enter it now. if OEM/No key required, just finish). Set time/date. Finish.

Restart.



The only difference is after you get the "Starting Windows" window, you get another window with "set up is updating registry settings" for about 9-10 seconds and that's it... you then get the window to type your password. My C: drive is like it was when the laptop was new. Tons of freewares gone that I should re-download. My D: drive seems to be intact. Thanks to all that did provide me with help!