Not sure how to report this on here but here goes. With the advent of Windows 10 discontinuing I thought I’d give Ubuntu a try again. This was a few weeks ago and it installed without to much trouble, But as its so confusing and difficult for me to understand and use thought I’d return to Windows for the time being. Big problem. Installation of Ubuntu rendered my hard drive useless and was unable to initialise and format it. Thinking this was a hard drive fault purchased another. This week thought I’d try again. Still unable to get used to how Ubuntu works, and how to install programs etc, decided to uninstall and return to Windows and update to Windows 11. Same problem My brand new drive rendered useless. Whats going on with this? Anyone else had the same problem?
What do you mean you aren’t able to initialise or format it? Why do you think the drive is useless?
Errors from trying to install Windows?
@chris301up I moved your post to the correct category and added tags.
Thanks
Thanks. Don’t know what you mean by tags. Sorry I’m old fashioned
Well to answer your response. It no longer can be detected, initialised or formatted for use. Doesn’t matter what formatting program I use.
Do you have the USB with Ubuntu on it that you originally used to install?
If yes, boot the computer and choose to Try Ubuntu, not installing.
Then open a terminal with Ctrl+Alt+T and type this command:
sudo fdisk -l (lowercase L not 1)
Copy the output and paste it back here in a reply. Highlight the text and use the </> icon in the composer to wrap with code tags.
Sorry no. I have Ubuntu on a CD not a USB. I need to reformat the hard drive so that I can go back to Windows. But it just won’t detect it any longer since Ubuntu was installed. Not even with Mini-Tool Partition Wizard or AOMEI etc.
CD is also fine, as long as you can boot the computer with it.
Make sure to allow booting in BIOS from the CD and then the rest of the instructions are as above.
I don’t think you understand? Yes I can boot from CD/DVD but because the hard drive is now invisible (due to not being able to format any longer) Windows will no longer install.
Please try the idea anyhow
Ok. I’ll take the bottom off my laptop again tomorrow, fit the hard drive back in and do what you suggested. Thanks
If I understand your situation, you installed Ubuntu and didn’t like it and tried to install windows over it, is that correct? Did you try to ‘uninstall’ Ubuntu as that is completely unnecessary. All you have to do in format the partition(s) of Ubuntu during the install of Windows. A windows installer should be able to simply overwrite everything on the disk regardless of what is on it. Have you actually been able to boot and try to install windows and if so, do you get any warning/error messages? Running the command suggested and posting the entire output and indicating which drive is new/old might help.
Yes. I wanted to use Ubuntu but simply could not get used to it so decided to return to Windows. No I didn’t try to uninstall Ubuntu, but I think this is where the problems occurred? The hard disk became ‘invisible’ during re-installation of Windows. I’ve tried many different formatting/partitioning programs, but they simply return a message that the hard disk is not initialised and therefore will not partition or format. I’ve even tried it through a USB connection. I will re-install the hard drive into my machine tomorrow and try Ubuntu to format it. As I mentioned, this is not the first hard drive to suffer this problem. Thanks for the info.
This seems like a Windows support issue more than an Ubuntu support issue.
Ubuntu installed and worked. You just didn’t like it. Your disks were fine.
The problem occurs with whatever method you are using to install Windows.
While we are open to helping, be aware the our knowledge of your Windows install method may be limited. When I use an official Microsoft Windows 10 installer on USB, it happily overwrites Linux systems without any problems at all.
Hi everyone. Just fitted the hard drive back into laptop and was able to use the msdos formatting facility from the Ubuntu CD. This seemed to work and completed the formatting task. Refitted my working hard drive with Windows 10 installed, plugged in the formatted drive into the USB port, but still nothing. Hard drive still invisible to Windows. Have just run Ease US Disk Management program and it now reports a few faults with this. Looks like, as I suspected, installation of Ubuntu as caused some sort of issue? I’ll just have to bin this hard disk and start again. Thanks everyone.
No (again).
A few details you need to understand:
- Windows is strict about the partitioning type - MBR (‘msdos’) is required for old BIOS mode installations and GPT is required for any current UEFI mode installations.
- Windows installer CANNOT change the partitioning type / create a new partition table (that must be done previously with 3rd party tools or by running commands BEFORE starting the actual installation)
- ANY mismatch will result in the Windows installer NOT “seeing” the drive
In conclusion, this whole issue is a result of misunderstandings and lack of knowledge about partitioning and installation of Operating Systems.
Again, you can use any Ubuntu live session and while there run Gparted to create a new partitioning table of the required type (c.f. #1 above). You probably want GPT for obvious reasons. This suggestion - Gparted - comes because it’s actually easier to do that from a live session than using command line (diskpart, google that) in the Windows installation media.
Again, there’s nothing wrong with your drives that could have arose from installing Ubuntu. You just have to learn what I commented above and then you should understand how to prepare for the installation of different OSes.
Again, although you can do it, you shouldn’t format drives just for installations unless you know what you’re doing and you aren’t there yet. Better to leave unallocated space (meaning, no partitions) and let the installers create what they need.
In a nutshell, make sure the drive is GPT before starting the Windows installation for any machine from ~2012 or newer (require or strongly suggest UEFI mode), no need for partitions.
It can’t be stressed enough that all this time and effort trying to help you is done as courtesy. This isn’t an Ubuntu problem or support issue. This is something you MUST know beforehand if you intend to install ANY OS.
Good luck.
What the tool reports is hardware faults, nothing to do with installing Ubuntu. Just another thing you should start understanding: The difference between logical and physical errors in a drive.
Check the BIOS and see what is being used for HDD support AHCI/SATA/RAID and possibly Intel RST because if the Windows installer doesn’t have the drivers it can’t see the drive
Yes, this could be a problem but, with Windows, it usually isn’t (except for old Windows 10 builds and Intel RST). BTW, AHCI is recommended.
The main issue here is the OP systematically formatting with MBR then booting the installation media in UEFI mode. The Windows installer won’t show a MBR drive as a candiadate for installation because, as explained above, it strictly requires GPT.