Hello everyone, I'm trying to install Windows 7 on a system running Ubuntu 10.04 but I ran into problems because the hard drive is not NTFS formatted.

How do I get this hard drive to NTFS so I can install Windows 7?

Hello,

I recommend downloading the Gparted ISO and burn it to disc, then using that, you can format the computers hard drive. I use it all the time for my customers who run windows, and never ran into any problems with it whatsoever. Here is the link - http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

Cheers,

Josh

1 members found this post helpful.

It would be helpful for you if you were more specific. I've never installed windows 7 but find it hard to believe that you could not install it simply because there is another operating system with a different filesystem on it. It must have some type of software on the installation disk to create and format partitions. How far do you get in the install? Do you get any error message? Freeze up? What happens?

You can easily use GParted as suggested above.

Boot to Windows 7 dvd and follow instructions.

Not sure you should use anything less than a Windows 7 dvd to format. It's version of ntfs is updated and anything less may not support full security features of it.

It's no good just changing the filesystem - make sure the partition type is x07 as well.

Gparted bootable disc worked, thanks Josh! Big ups, running Windows 7 right now. Thank you!

No problem dude! Mark your thread as solved if you can, and give rep if applicable, thanks!

Cheers,

Josh

im currently running peppermint three on my laptop and im trying to change back to windows 7, basically how do i format my hdd to NFTS

matt

I also am wanting to reformat my hard drive to NTFS for the purpose of installing Windows 7. I can't find any explanation of partitioning on Linux that leads me to success, so I'm willing to start over, overwriting my Ubuntu 13.10, and partition from Windows if I ever have the courage to return to Linux. But I can't find a way to reformat to NTFS. Using the Windows 7 system DVD, as yancek suggested, doesn't work because the Format option is grayed out, deactivated, unresponsive to clicking; apparently it will reformat the drive if the drive is already NTFS, but not if the drive is ext3. I explored all the options on the DVD, but none of them seemed to lead to a solution.

I tried unsuccessfully to make a live CD of Gparted, but I'll spare you the details of that saga, unless it turns out that I must try again to do that.

I did manage, eventually, to get systemrescuecd-x86-3.8.1.iso onto a CD (and checked md5sum), and to boot from it. However, after the initial activity, when I was given a root prompt, I typed gparted (not sure where else to start), and was given a warning that the display could not be displayed (something like that -- I haven't the heart to shut down the computer and reboot from CD, copy what's there, restart, and pick up here again -- if it's really necessary, I will). The screenshots shown at http://www.sysresccd.org/Screenshots did not appear, and I was left with the command prompt.

It seems like I'm almost there: If I can just know the commands for reformatting my hard drive to NTFS, if I understand correctly, I then will be able to install Windows from the system CD. I understand that there's probably more information I'll have to provide in order to get help, like the names or characteristics of my partitions. Can someone please advise?

Thanks.