Best Way To Reformat Win XP To Go To Linux Mint 18

[Lurch]

Hi,

I'm planning to install Linux Mint v18 from a CD. I couldn't seem to burn the download to DVD for some reason. I have a CD RW drive that makes CDs but may not burn DVDs. So I bought a CD for $6.

Can you tip me on how to do this? I looked at my Win XP PC today. It has two 80 GB SATA drives in it and has sat for most of the last 5 years. I tried to right click drive 0 and select "format" but it would not start. It gave me a message something like "Format cannot begin. Close all utilities applications that might be using drive 0 and anything drive 0 is pictured in. So I removed Glary Utilities and other stuff and it still would not let me wipe drive 0. I want to wipe XP off it and install Linux Mint. Thanks for any tips. I googled it but it didn't show the message pop up I got.

[Philip]

You can't simply format the drive that your current/running OS is using from within that OS. You would have to boot the system from that CD you made, and proceed with the partitioning/format from there. To do that, you'd have to insert the CD and make sure the BIOS is set to boot from CD first (before it boots Windows from the HDD). You can change the boot order in the BIOS, just press [Del] (or F1/F2/F10, depending on your BIOS) at the initial boot screen. If the CD doesn't boot into Linux oce the boot order in the BIOS has been changed, the CD may not be bootable.

Since you have two hard drives, you also have the option to simply disconnect the Windows drive and save it just in case you run into issues, or don't like that flavor of Linux. You can then install Linux on the second drive. Some distros can be setup to even share the Windows drive.

[Lurch]

Great ideas. Thanks again. I should be able to get it now.

I used to reformat my HDD about every year or so but with my Win 7 PC I stopped doing that about 5 years ago and am now out of practice.

[ghostwriter]

If your PC can boot from a USB drive, you should get a program that will let you run and install Linux from a USB drive. My particular favorite for this job is Yumi for Windows. Other worthwhile choices are LinuxLive USB Creator and UNetbootin. All of these programs are free.

Given a choice between a DVD disc and a USB stick, I'd go with the USB option. Mint, and any other operating system, will install and run much faster from it.