Installing linux is going wrong?

[Doodle]

Hi guys, today I was trying to install a linux-based OS and when I was trying to install it a windows popped up and said "You need a partition to continue" So I tried making an extra one on the installer but it didn't made one, but it took alot of space up on my hard drive (about 100GB) Can anyone help me out?

 

[johnwillyums]

Hi Doodle and a very warm welcome to the forum.

So have you created a partition? Most Linux distros contain a partitioning tool.
I assume you are trying to create a dual boot with Windows if so see tutorial here ; http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/116098-dual-boot-windows-7-ubuntu.html?ltr=D

If you have already created a partition it is too big. Given that you can read and write to Windows, everything you create in Linux can be stored in Windows. So you don't really need more that 30 or 40GB for Linux.
Remember that Linux uses a different file system , so Windows literally cannot see it.
There are 3 tutorials about partitioning on this page ; Tutorials - Windows 7 Forums

It would help if you went to your user CP and filled in your specs. Also let us know what Linux distro you are trying. I would recommend Linux Mint as it is very simple to use and comes with proprietary drivers etc

Hope this helps, John

 

[Doodle]

Hey, thanks for the reply! I'm trying to dual-boot Mandriva OS (I wanted to try it out)

My specs are :

HP pavilion dv6 Notebook PC
AMD Turion dual core
4Gb Ram

Those are everything I could find (Sorry, I don't know alot of Computers.)

 

[Doodle]

But I want to actually delete the Linux partitions that I can't find

 

[outlawed]

Just for reference, you made sure to let it complete the process of creating the new partition right? Splitting the HDD into partitions can take some time, especially considering you wanted a 100GB partition. That will take some time to complete as it has to split your primary partition, shrink it and then grow your new partition for primary/swap space.

 

[johnwillyums]

Hi Doodle. So, have you successfully installed Mandriva and now want to get rid of it? Can you boot into it?
Normally, if you install Linux after Windows you get GRUB (the Linux boot loader) come up first and you can choose which OS to boot.
If that is not the case something has gone wrong.
If you can boot Windows then go into control panel>system administration>disk management. This should give you a graphic of your hard drive(s). The Linux partition will show as empty space.
So, say you see 100GB of empty space and it does not say NTFS, then this is your Linux install.
You can get rid of it by reformatting the partition as NTFS. Then you can use it for anything you like, say storage etc.

Hope this helps, John

PS. reformat by right clicking on the partition and using the drop down menu