how do I install a new OS on a laptop?

[Semidevil]

so i have a laptop that I reformatted. midway the xp installation, I got all sort of errors, so it did not install succesfully.

I want to try to install ubuntu on it.

How do I do it?

do I simply download it to my desktop, burn it on a CD, and put the CD in the laptop, turn laptop on and it will automatically know I want to install it?

 

[Lord Banshee]

Pretty much

Some ubuntu ISO are live CD meaning it will boot to a desktop GUI from the CD. then there is a icon on the desktop that says "Install blah blah"

 

[Semidevil]

I just d/loaded ubuntu on my desktop and burned it on a CD. I stuck it in my laptop, made sure it boots from the CD first, and when I turned on my laptop, it still gives me an option to:
install Windows XP professional
windows xp setup.

I'm not sure why it does that. If I dont do anything, it'll go ahead and continue with xp set up and give me all sort of errors.

maybe it remembered that I tried to install xp last time and failed, so it wants me to continue.

any idea how to fix this? I want to just start from scratch

 

[Lord Banshee]

right when you turn your laptop on you have to go into the bios, maybe press delete, F1, F2, Function 1... something it should say. If it does you might need to press escape first if there is a big picture right when you press power.

In the bios you need to set the CD-ROM as boot first then your hard-disk.

 

[Semidevil]

I did, but I"m still getting the same errors. it sounds like it is trying to boot from CD. I can hear it working inside the laptop, but then I get a:

PXE-E61: Media Test Failure, check cable

error message. I"m not sure wht that means and if this is related.

 

[montag451]

You might have to try a different cd - is the ubuntu on a cdr or cdrw disc?

 

[Nothinman]

The PXE error shouldn't be related, it's most likely just telling you that a network cable isn't plugged in so it can't boot via the network.

But since the XP install failed too you might have a hardware problem, does the laptop support booting from USB? If so and you have an external USB disc drive you could try booting from that.

 

[RebateMonger]

OS Installation errors, especially with Wndows, are often due to memory or hard drive errors.

I'd burn a memory tester onto CD (either Memtest86+ or Microsoft's System Memory Tester) and test the memory overnight. Then I'd run your hard drive maker's diagnostics, too.

 

[MadAmos]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
OS Installation errors, especially with Wndows, are often due to memory or hard drive errors.

I'd burn a memory tester onto CD (either Memtest86+ or Microsoft's System Memory Tester) and test the memory overnight. Then I'd run your hard drive maker's diagnostics, too.

+1 I spent way too many hours on this once and it turned out to be a bad hard drive.

Amos

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
OS Installation errors, especially with Wndows, are often due to memory or hard drive errors.

I'd burn a memory tester onto CD (either Memtest86+ or Microsoft's System Memory Tester) and test the memory overnight. Then I'd run your hard drive maker's diagnostics, too.

:thumbsup:

Last time I had trouble during installation on a family members laptop, I booted up Memtest86+ and got thousands of errors right away.