Can't replace Ubuntu with Windows

[panoma]

Currently I have ubuntu as my OS, but I want to replace it with windows vista. But when trying to boot from the recovery vista disc, a _ sign just blinks on the top left corner as if it's loading, but after a while it just loads up ubuntu. I've tried setting cd/dvd as the first boot option in BIOS.

When I tried to install windows from the cd while in ubuntu I received the following error message:

"This computer does not have enough space for temporary files. Windows installation needs atleast 448 megabytes (MB) of space of any partition for temporary files. To install Windows, free enough space and restart the installation.

error code: 0x80004005"

I have around 200 gb of free space on my drives though. Does anyone have any idea what I need to do to be able to install vista again? I'm completely lost by now

Thanks in advance.

 

[Leeky]

The issue is probably due to Linux partitioning, which will not be recognised by Windows.

You will need to resize (or remove) one of your linux partitions and reformat it as NTFS. It seems odd though, as I've never experienced this, I just throw in a Windows disc and remove the partitions when you get to the disk utility part of the installer.

 

[panoma]

Thanks for the quick reply, Leeky. Could you elaborate a bit on how to resize the partitions, as I've never done anything like that before. Cheers.

 

[SNGX1275]

Are you sure your Windows disk is bootable? Its less common now, but several years ago a lot of people were copying Windows disks by just copying over the files, which doesn't carry over the part that makes it bootable.

Not to answer for Leeky, but, you can resize your partitions with gParted. But since you are looking to replace ubuntu with windows, I would think resizing is unnecessary. If you are sure your Windows disk is bootable and your optical drive is functioning properly and it still won't boot, then maybe Leeky is on to something with resizing and making an ntfs partition.

 

[Zen]

About a month ago I made the switch back to Windows XP Professional 64bit, I just slapped in my old XP O.S. install disk and made the switch in BIOS for the CD drive to be the first boot device and away I went! Windows saw all of my hard drive, but told me that it required formatting. I picked the "slow" format option as to make sure all the drive didn't have anything remaining from Linux. I agree with SNGX here, did you make sure your O.S. disk is even bootable? I will suspect that this is a solved issue, for since the last post here dated 01-05-2012 nothing else has been said.

 

[penn919]

I agree. It seems as though you've got a problem either with the CD disk or your disk drive might be borked. If you don't intend on dual booting, I see no reason to fool around with partitioning. Like zen said, if your drive needs to be formatted, the installation wizard can do that for you.