Installing Windows 7 over Linux(SLED 11/Suse 11)

[Vissewalde rex de Gerzika]

Ok, so I bought a laptop that has Linux(more specifically Suse 11 (otherwise known as SLED 11)). I want to install win 7 over it because I am completely unfamiliar with Linux and dont really have any time/or wishes to learn how to use it.

I did some searching and found out I should use Gparted live to delete the Linux partitions, then proceed with installing windows. I have Gparted live burned on a cd and have everything else ready, the problem is with actually booting into it. It just dosent happen, I have checked into BIOS and optical disc drive is the first on the list, but when the laptop is starting up, nothing different happens, it just starts up like normal. Any advice? I tried googling, but I found nothing that would really help me, probably because I am a noob when it comes to linux.

Machine(if this helps at all): HP Probook 4540S

[Ybbon]

Did you burn it as an ISO? Whatever OS you have it should read the BIOS first and if the BIOS says boot from CD, that's what it will do so long as you have a bootable disk. Do you have another boot disk of any other OS you can try?

[Vissewalde rex de Gerzika]

I did burn it as ISO, everything seems to be fine AFAIK. The BIOS dosent say ''boot from CD'', it just has a boot priority list and optical disk drive is on top, is that enough? I might try installing Gparted on a USB stick, but to boot from it I must change to boot mode from legacy to another one(forgot the name) to have the option of ''Generic USB device'' available at all.

[Ybbon]

yeah boot priority list is fine, pretty sure that's what mine says too. I haven't gone to windows only the reverse, windows to linux (mint and ubuntu not SuSE but the principal is the same). I have an old worrks laptop that is basically gathering dust right now, I'll take a look at that later if you still need help. I probbly have a GParted boot disk I can play with.

[karamazovmm]

the problem is the boot root try to install windows that way and see if you can get the boot info from HP, I don't remember the specific name of it, I think it was mrboot or something. linux uses a boot loader and that interferes to the windows boot loader, thus you "need" to erase that, and thats what you read. try to install windows and a grub screen should appear to you

[Vissewalde rex de Gerzika]

yeah boot priority list is fine, pretty sure that's what mine says too. I haven't gone to windows only the reverse, windows to linux (mint and ubuntu not SuSE but the principal is the same). I have an old worrks laptop that is basically gathering dust right now, I'll take a look at that later if you still need help. I probbly have a GParted boot disk I can play with.

Thanks, any help would be appreciated.

the problem is the boot root try to install windows that way and see if you can get the boot info from HP, I don't remember the specific name of it, I think it was mrboot or something. linux uses a boot loader and that interferes to the windows boot loader, thus you "need" to erase that, and thats what you read. try to install windows and a grub screen should appear to you

You're gonna have to explain a few things to me.

1. boot root
2. ''install windows that way'' - what way?

linux uses a boot loader and that interferes to the windows boot loader, thus you "need" to erase that, and thats what you read. try to install windows and a grub screen should appear to you

Yes, this is what I read when I was trying to figure out what I need to do this sucsessfully. Use of Gparted to get rid of grub(whatever that is) was reccomended in at least 3 places, so I am trying out that, but so far no luck.

I dunno, maybe I am just missing some silly little part in this process that everyone expects everyone to know? Is there a specific key I should hold to boot from the disk? Or I should keep the disk tray open when the laptop is turned off and close it while it is booting?

[atraps]

Gparted isn't needed. Just use the windows disk to delete all the partitions and proceed with the windows installation like normal. If the laptop won't let you boot off the optical drive go in the bios, look for system configuration, uncheck the "secureboot" option, and then choose "legacy" as the boot mode.

[Vissewalde rex de Gerzika]

Gparted isn't needed. Just use the windows disk to delete all the partitions and proceed with the windows installation like normal.

From what I read the widows disk is not as good at getting the job done as Gparted because it was not showing some of the partitions or something.

If the laptop won't let you boot off the optical drive go in the bios, look for system configuration, uncheck the "secureboot" option, and then choose "legacy" as the boot mode.

This wont work because the boot mode is set to legacy by default and secureboot is grayed out when in that mode. There are 3 boot modes available in total and only one of them has secureboot not grayed out. All 3 of them have secureboot unticked by default. I have tried all 3 modes in default settings with the only changing the boot order for optical disk drive to be the top one, none of them work and the last mode dosent even boot into linux.

[karamazovmm]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_...boot_partition

from what it looks like you are going to need to get the boot mgr

given that you probably have tried an entire drive format and it didn't work, one thing you can do is to try to boot into one of those live CDs and format the HDD completely, that would remove GRUB

[Vissewalde rex de Gerzika]

I havent tried an entire drive format. I am almost certain that the problem why the disks arent being booted lies within BIOS, I might try and fiddle with the settings a bit more and see if I can get some results. Also, what is the diffrence between formatting completely and just deleting the partitions? Is pretty much the same thing.

[Vissewalde rex de Gerzika]

I forgot to mention That there is also a option "clear secureboot keys'' possible when I select the 3rd boot mode, perhaps I should try this?