How to re-instate windows 7 and remove Linux

[chickendinner]

Hi,

I'm hoping to re-install/recover windows 7 on my laptop and hopefully install windows 10 afterwards. There's a chance windows 7 may have been removed during Linux installation as I've tried pressing F4 during startup but no recovery options. Samsung RV711

Should Ubuntu be removed first before attempting to restore windows 7? How do I delete/remove Linux from my windows 7 laptop? I've tried the Microsoft Windows iso site but it came up with an "ERROR: The product key you've entered appears to be for software which was pre-installed by the device manufacturer. Please contact the device manufacturer for software recovery options." I don't have the recovery software but if my memory serves me well I do have the SP1 disk - i think.

 

[samuria]

Welcome to the forum. If you can post a screenshot of all your partitions so we can see the state of your drive normally Linux will kill the recovery hotkeys but should have left the partitions

 

[mrjimphelps]

The install key you have applies to the OEM version of Windows that came pre-installed on the laptop. There may be a recovery partition on the hard drive which contains this software; if so, you can do a Windows factory install which will wipe the drive and reinstall Windows, fixing all of this in the process.

I looked on the Samsung website, but I couldn't find any sort of factory restore disks or download for your computer. If you can order a set of factory restore disks from Samsung, you would achieve the same thing as restoring from the recovery partition.

At any rate, if you do a standard Windows 7 install, you have the option of removing all partitions and then creating one new partition for the entire hard drive, then installing Windows 7 into that partition. Doing that will clear up the problems you are seeing. But if you want to go this route, you will need to obtain a legitimate retail license for Windows 7, something that isn't easy to find these days.