I CAN'T believe i did this. wrote over my entire hd with ubuntu!

[clear]

now i cant use a recovery disk to reinstall windows, to factory condition. i even have an xp boot disk, ran it and got a blue screen, so man, what do i do? do i throw my hardrive away? what did i do? what can i do? oh man!

 

[Ijack]

I can't believe that you did it either. Why not use the Ubuntu.

If you want to start a flame war you're in the wrong place; if you want help installing XP there's a forum for that.

 

[linuxhero27]

I would first run diagnostics on the HDD to ensure it's not physically defective. I would then reinstall XP completely fresh, THEN properly dual-boot.

 

[linux_0]

@OP if you want to recover any data duplicate the hard drive to another drive before you do anything.

If you don't care about the data boot ubuntu delete all partitions and start over. Install xp first then ubuntu.

Good luck

 

[TegGhola]

I do despise the fact that large computer manufacturers only ship their machines to users with those lousy worth-nothing "recovery" CDs. Utterly useless in situations like the one the original poster describes.

Oh, and to the original poster: don't throw your hard drive away. There's nothing wrong with it. Just decide whether you need Windows (in which case you'll perhaps need to buy a full installation copy, unless someone on the Windows forums knows how to do a full install from a recovery CD). If you don't need Windows, just give Ubuntu a try.

 

[Guest]

I suppose anothe option is to buy an OEM copy of the OS that came with your PC and reinstall that way. I like to do that since it pretty much eliminates any chances of the bloatware that generally comes with Windows. Also make sure you get the latest SP of the OS on your OEM DVD/CD. And you can download and special drivers from your manufactures website. Just my 2 cents.

 

[dgingeri]

the comment "do i throw my hardrive away?" tells me that this may not be a true question/request/post but more of a forum troll trying to get flamed for "being stupid".

I'm not falling for it. I spot the trap.

 

[audiovoodoo]

You clearly don't work in IT support... I've picked up working PC's that needed nothing more than the fuse changing in the plug on the power lead.

 

[Ijack]

In my years in IT support I picked up a few PCs that needed nothing more than a change to the liveware attached to the keyboard.

 

[audiovoodoo]

You have environments with 'liveware'??

 

[Ijack]

Yep - those things that press the keys and move the mouse. Nothing but trouble.

 

[linux_0]

I'll second that

:lol:

 

[TegGhola]

At my last place of work we used to call that a picnic. Problem In Chair, Not In Computer.

 

[Devastator_uk]

I've had it where the user plugged the PS/2 keyboard and mouse in the wrong ports and insisted it was faulty, took over 30mins on the phone to convince him to swap them over.

 

[randomizer]

At my last place of work we used to call that a picnic. Problem In Chair, Not In Computer.

That's a better acronym than PEBKAC (Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair).

 

[amdfangirl]

Nah, PEBKAC is cooler.

 

[audiovoodoo]

I lost 30 minutes of my life trying to explain to a user how to open Tools->Internet Options in IE today (I know.. it pays the bills though).

She insisted that I talk to her and not her IT department and wonders why it's still not working

 

[kyeana]

Had a new user (with his own laptop) today insist that he didn't want to use SMTP Authentication with our email system, cause none of his other emails used it and it was a waste of time... It took a few minutes to convince him it was necessary.

/sigh, although as audiovoodoo says it does pay the bills

 

[amdfangirl]

The difference between my job and your jobs is that, myself being tech support doesn't actually earn me any money.

*sigh*