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View Full Version : [ubuntu] xp hard drive crashed / prob inst linux



kozmo531
July 26th, 2008, 05:27 AM
hello everyone. i will be as brief as possible. i have a compaq presario with xp. Amd sempron, 256 ddr ram, 80 gig hard drive.) it ran fine until kids used limewire. it crashed. i tried a rescue--no good. i formatted w/ killdisk - same result. xp was pre-installed and of course microsoft will not give me a copy of xp even though i have the product key. because its "compaq's problem" . i am tired of giving money away to a company who wants to monopolize the market but refuses to stand behind their many flawed products. i heard about the ubuntu release of linux from a friend and was very interested. tried too install many times--failed. do i need to create a partition first--if so how--as i said i lost everything and have just installed a new hd. i have no os at all. please help. thank you in advance.

sincerely'
kozmo

logos34
July 26th, 2008, 06:16 AM
With that amount of ram you'll have to use the alternate cd (the live cd requires at least 384 MB). Download it here--check the box "Check here if you need the alternate desktop CD. This CD does not include the Live CD, instead it uses a text-based installer."

Choose "Guided install--use entire disk" option. It'll paritition everything for you.

mikewhatever
July 26th, 2008, 06:34 AM
What was the problem? Did it hang or showed errors, or anything else? You don't have to create partitions prior to booting from CD, since there is a partitioning utility integrated into the installer.

Xubuntu would be a better choice for your PC. It's lighter and should run faster once installed.

logos34
July 26th, 2008, 10:28 AM
Xubuntu would be a better choice for your PC. It's lighter and should run faster once installed.

+1

I don't know what I was thinking. Even if you manage to install ubuntu, the gnome desktop is going to eat up all that memory, slowing everything down.