Putting Windows back (not sure if this is the right area for this)

CPUnltd · 2010-08-03 17:24:34

I have an Acer Revo that I'm trying to return to Windows status (in order to sell/give away). I backed it up before first boot with FSArchiver and installed Arch (32 and 64 at different points) and Unity Linux on this machine in its time of use. I used gparted to recreate the original partitions and FSArchiver to reconstitute the original files. No errors in returning the files or partitions at all. But when I try to boot it, I'm getting Grub error 17. I'm unsure as to why I'm experiencing this. As far as I know, I did a complete format of all linux partitions. I deleted them all, one by one, then created the ntfs partitions. After that, I dropped the backups into place. Everything should have worked, unless I'm missing something. Any help on this is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

cesura · 2010-08-03 17:29:22

Can't you just wipe the drive and install Windows from the CD? You said everything was backed up, correct?

Inxsible · 2010-08-03 17:31:45

Also when you are giving away/selling a computer, its always a good idea to use Darik's Nuke and Boot on the drive once. Helps you in keeping your data relatively safer than a simple format.

cesura · 2010-08-03 17:41:56

Inxsible wrote:

Also when you are giving away/selling a computer, its always a good idea to use Darik's Nuke and Boot on the drive once. Helps you in keeping your data relatively safer than a simple format.

I use:

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda

to replace every bit on the drive with a zero.

CPUnltd · 2010-08-03 17:42:06

never heard of darik's nuke and boot (is it in one of the repos?)

don't have an install CD... pre-installed wiith purchase of the system... which I believe means that the smaller partition is a recovery partition, but grub is the first thing to attempt to do anything. I figure I need a lower level formatting tool (could possibly use arch setup to do the formatting that I need to get rid of grub, wherever it is) but what could I actually use that I can run from a livecd or something (this is a nettop, so I am not in the mood to open it back up again in order to remove the drive and connect it to another system).

cesura · 2010-08-03 17:43:48

CPUnltd wrote:

never heard of darik's nuke and boot (is it in one of the repos?)
don't have an install CD... pre-installed wiith purchase of the system... which I believe means that the smaller partition is a recovery partition, but grub is the first thing to attempt to do anything. I figure I need a lower level formatting tool (could possibly use arch setup to do the formatting that I need to get rid of grub, wherever it is) but what could I actually use that I can run from a livecd or something (this is a nettop, so I am not in the mood to open it back up again in order to remove the drive and connect it to another system).

On my laptop, I had a recovery partition, but I blew it away when I installed Linux. I believe you can get disks from your computer manufacturer if you ask them.

Inxsible · 2010-08-03 17:44:57

itsbrad212 wrote:

I use:
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda
to replace every bit on the drive with a zero.

That works too

I created a DNB CD way back when I started using Linux. Early 2004, i believe. At that time, I probably didn't know about dd much . So yeah, a live cd and that command would do just about the same as DNB. I haven't looked into DNB recently so I don't know if its a random 0 or 1 or is it just replace everything with 0

Inxsible · 2010-08-03 17:50:49

@CPUntd,

do you still have windows installed on the machine? Then you can use EasyMBR(or something to that effect -- I cannot for the life of me remember the name of that windows software. It has Easy in its name though)

Or this could also be an option, although you will need to probably create a ubuntu live cd. Not sure, is ms-sys is included in any other distro.

Last edited by Inxsible (2010-08-03 17:52:53)

CPUnltd · 2010-08-03 17:51:22

I'll try the /dev/zero option and see what happens...

Inxsible · 2010-08-03 17:54:13

CPUnltd wrote:

I'll try the /dev/zero option and see what happens...

you do realize that, that will erase EVERYTHING on the drive also your windows partitions (if you have any). Backup everything before you try that.

CPUnltd · 2010-08-03 17:55:59

easyMBR?

Last edited by CPUnltd (2010-08-03 18:04:39)

cesura · 2010-08-03 18:01:50

CPUnltd wrote:

easyMBR?

What's easyMBR? If you mean "Will it erase the MBR?", then yes it will.

CPUnltd · 2010-08-03 18:04:49

that brings up a good point... I got all the partitions, but I'm not quite sure if I got the mbr... how do I go about figuring that out?

cesura · 2010-08-03 18:06:42

CPUnltd wrote:

that brings up a good point... I got all the partitions, but I'm not quite sure if I got the mbr... how do I go about figuring that out?

The master boot record is the first 512 bytes of the disk. If you ran that dd command, then it wipes the MBR as well.

Inxsible · 2010-08-03 18:07:39

EasyBCD. That's the name of the software. Download and install EasyBCD. Then use it to fix your Windows mbr. Then you can use GParted or even your Windows partition program to delete the linux partitions.

Note however: that you will not be running the dd or darik's boot and nuke in this case, since you wanna preserve the Windows partition.

When I sell computers, I simply erase everything and then re-install windows with a username called Admin and give the buyer a vanilla Windows install.

CPUnltd · 2010-08-03 18:16:52

thank you... points taken. I will play around with all this and see where it gets me... will see if I can report any interesting info back here when all said and done.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-08-03 17:24:34

Putting Windows back (not sure if this is the right area for this)

#2 2010-08-03 17:29:22

Re: Putting Windows back (not sure if this is the right area for this)

#3 2010-08-03 17:31:45

Re: Putting Windows back (not sure if this is the right area for this)

#4 2010-08-03 17:41:56

Re: Putting Windows back (not sure if this is the right area for this)

#5 2010-08-03 17:42:06

Re: Putting Windows back (not sure if this is the right area for this)

#6 2010-08-03 17:43:48

Re: Putting Windows back (not sure if this is the right area for this)

#7 2010-08-03 17:44:57

Re: Putting Windows back (not sure if this is the right area for this)

#8 2010-08-03 17:50:49

Re: Putting Windows back (not sure if this is the right area for this)

#9 2010-08-03 17:51:22

Re: Putting Windows back (not sure if this is the right area for this)

#10 2010-08-03 17:54:13

Re: Putting Windows back (not sure if this is the right area for this)

#11 2010-08-03 17:55:59

Re: Putting Windows back (not sure if this is the right area for this)

#12 2010-08-03 18:01:50

Re: Putting Windows back (not sure if this is the right area for this)

#13 2010-08-03 18:04:49

Re: Putting Windows back (not sure if this is the right area for this)

#14 2010-08-03 18:06:42

Re: Putting Windows back (not sure if this is the right area for this)

#15 2010-08-03 18:07:39

Re: Putting Windows back (not sure if this is the right area for this)

#16 2010-08-03 18:16:52

Re: Putting Windows back (not sure if this is the right area for this)

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