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what is the best process to completely wipe an old windows computer and turn it into a linux system? Is it as easy as just formatting the hard drive and installing from a CD?
Linux Installation (1 Viewer)
- Thread starterZack Lee
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It's even easier than that. Most (all?) linux distros will wipe the old drive as a part of the installation process. Here's an overview of how simple it can be:
https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/tutorial-install-ubuntu-desktop#0
But before you do that, I'd suggest a "live" session to ensure all your hardware is compatible.
https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/try-ubuntu-before-you-install#0
Keep in mind, everything runs a little slower in a "live" session, but if you're satisfied with a live session, you will be thrilled with a hard installation. If everything seems to work, and you like the operating system, you should be good for installation.
Step #6 of the first tutorial will look a little different for you, as the installer will probe your system and find another OS already installed and will ask you to verify how you want that system treated...with verbiage to the effect of "erase existing and install new in place of", or "install linux side-by-side, choosing from each at startup", or "something else".
If you're certain about wiping Windows (XP perhaps?) go ahead with what you want, as it is the easiest configuration to perform. If there's any chance you may want to keep the existing Windows install for anything, such as an obscure or esoteric software program that you just can't replace, then a dual-boot isn't much harder to perform. I'd only suggest that you need a minimum of 20GB drive space for the linux installation (around 5GB-8GB for the OS and the rest for files, storage, expansion, etc...) More is better, although not required. Once you get familiar with linux, and comfortable that it's for you, you can always expand the linux partition later on, expanding to fill the entire drive, wiping out Windows in the process. Unless you have WinXP, it's a nice option to keep Windows, IMO, until you're certain; but your call.
Lastly, while the tutorials above use Ubuntu as examples, this process is the same for most (all?) linux distros. Feel free to use the distro of your choice & liking, but the process will look nearly identical, no matter which you choose.
Speaking of which, do you have any idea which Linux distro(s) you may be interested in? There are literally hundreds to choose from, although nearly all are derived from 3-4 "base" distros. Here's a list of the most popular, at the bottom right "page hit ranking":
http://distrowatch.org/
If you tell us what you are looking to use the OS for, and your level of tech expertise, perhaps we can make some recommendations for you to zero in on. And the computer you're looking to install on...sometimes the hardware dictates the choice, or at least narrows the scope of options.
Sorry if this all sounds scary & detailed...it's not...but there IS a ton of choices...perhaps too many. Just trying to pave the road for you so you have a positive experience coming out of the gate!
Post if you need me! Or others...I know there's some other fellas on this forum using Linux. We got your back Zack!
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I appreciate it brother! I have an old desktop and laptop. I messed up my new computer by making it dual boot and now I can't even restore it. Not going that route again.
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now I am just struggling to remember what problems made me venture away from the old computer to begin with. Hopefully software and not hardware issues.
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Not knowing anything more than what you posted, I suspect you mixed & matched boot partitions. Your "new" computer is more than likely UEFI enabled, which uses GPT partition schemes. Older computers use BIOS, which employ an MBR partition scheme. You can't mix & match, or the machine won't boot. I'm SWAG-ing that you installed linux in a MBR partition on a GPT machine and the GRUB (GRand Unified Bootloader) software installed by Linux can't see the Windows OS on the GPT partition. If I'm correct, you can still save your Windows installation by "re-installing" Windows.
You shouldn't have this issue with an older machine. But it's your machine and your call. Installing Linux and wiping Windows isn't a bad strategy for a successful first installation.
Here if you need me...
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it worked for a while but as I recall it was a problem with the GRUB itself and i had to get to linux with a key combo process that I can't even remember. And it could have happened when I updated to windows 10 but seems like I already had that. Now my windows partition is just too small. I have the linux partition plus some allocated space that I can't seem to retrieve. I remember reading up on the process I would need for my specific system but GRUB never worked correctly
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looks like there is a process to just reinstall GRUB
https://askubuntu.com/questions/681422/grub-menu-not-showing-with-dual-boot-uefi-mode-installation
I will have to find my ubuntu install DVD though unless it doesn't matter what version I had installed and can just make a new one.
https://askubuntu.com/questions/681422/grub-menu-not-showing-with-dual-boot-uefi-mode-installation
I will have to find my ubuntu install DVD though unless it doesn't matter what version I had installed and can just make a new one.
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if this is what happened, then you likely had a MBR partition scheme with Win7, or a UEFI scheme with Win8. When you updated to Win10, the Windows boot loader over-wrote GRUB and now your machine doesn't know what to do. It's still there...just can't bring it up.
You can fix by re-installing GRUB. You don't need your original installation disk, but you will need a disk for the same distro. If you installed Ubuntu, use an Ubuntu disk; if you installed Mint, use a Mint disk, etc...
It sounds like you installed Ubuntu. If that's the case, try this:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RecoveringUbuntuAfterInstallingWindows
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Actually, this is the tool I use to repair GRUB issues. From within the live session do the following:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair
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this is great info! I had to figure out what the escape key was for lenovo but finally got into the bios. For now I just set it to legacy only and got into kubuntu. On Wed I will be off and use that boot repair tool! Thanks for the help. I have full confidence I will be back for more 
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well new level of complexity. I had found the kbuntu disk and had it in. It is giving me an install option or live option. Rebooted without the disk in and it says no OS found so it doesn't recognize my original installation. Probably messed it up trying to restore the computer to defaults even though there was an error in that process that supposedly cancelled it out.
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Likely still a GRUB issue. Choose the live session and follow along with the tutorial for Yanni's Boot Repair.
What version of Kubuntu did you install? Since you changed your BIOS to "legacy only", I think the live session "probe" will only see MBR partitions; but it sounds like your BIOS previously allowed for both MBR and GPT. I'd switch the BIOS setting back to whatever it was before, whether hybrid or UEFI only (most likely hybrid). At this point, the motherboard/bios will be able to recognize MBR and/or GPT partitions, so we can cross that off the list.
At this point, we just need to make sure that the version of Kubuntu on live session has UEFI capability. I believe this would have happened around version 14.04 and newer (Ubuntu code for 2014, April). If your version is older than that, you should create a live USB from 16.04 (the most recent "long term support", or LTS version). If it's 14.04 or newer, you're already good.
THEN, move on to the Yanni Boot Repair tutorial.
P.S. Are you familiar with gPartEd? If so, I'd be interested in a screenshot of your partitions from within gPartEd. If not, we can do this from a live session. Just planting a seed here...we'll come back to this later, if need be.
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I am running into 404 errors whether I try to run boot-repair command line or creating a live USB. Both are happening in the second line (update) I read a little about the error but nothing that was advised on those pages seemed to work either.
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I am just now seeing the other info in your last post. I am going to see what I can work out with that now
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disabled secure OS boot, disabled quick boot and set mode to auto instead of legacy only. Now I can't get it to boot from the live cd (which is kbuntu 17.04 BTW)
csm enabled
boot mode auto
boot priority legacy first
quick boot disabled
csm enabled
boot mode auto
boot priority legacy first
quick boot disabled
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