Boot issue

[eryic]

I have an old computer currently running ubuntu (emachines W3503) and i'm trying to get windows on it. I do not have the system restore disc. Whenever I try to boot something from a USB (ubuntu 11.04 or windows XP) it doesn't work and gives me a blank black screen with a blinking underscore. I need to get windows running on it. What can I do, why is Windows not booting?

 

[iPwn]

Welcome to CF!

Could be a corrupt installation on the USB drive. Is this a USB Harddrive or small thumbdrive?

 

[eryic]

it is a small thumbdrive, sandisk 8gb. I had a 4gb drive that worked to install ubuntu before, but unfortunately I don't have that anymore, or another thumbdrive.

 

[iPwn]

Sigh...sandisk...

While I don't believe it's completely impossible to do, I've never had any luck installing anything from a Sandisk drive... from what I can tell, they have some sort of boot sector protection on their drives... Let me look around the interwebz and I'll try to find an old guide that I used when making my USB Harddrive bootable, may work for your Sandisk drive.

Edit: Found it, try this guide:
http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-windows-7vista-from-usb-drive-detailed-100-working-guide/

Also... if you don't have the recovery disc, where are you getting the Windows installation files from?

 

[The_Lucas]

Sigh...sandisk...

While I don't believe it's completely impossible to do, I've never had any luck installing anything from a Sandisk drive... from what I can tell, they have some sort of boot sector protection on their drives... Let me look around the interwebz and I'll try to find an old guide that I used when making my USB Harddrive bootable, may work for your Sandisk drive.

I have a 4 GB SanDisk drive that I've used to install Ubuntu and other distros without a problem.

Have you tried reinstalling the OS to your drive? It may have hiccuped at the time.

 

[dude_se]

booting from a usb is a pain. took me ages to get the xp setup on one to stick on a netbook.

 

[iPwn]

I have a 4 GB SanDisk drive that I've used to install Ubuntu and other distros without a problem.

Apparently everyone has a Sandisk drive, and when I couldn't install with mine to my netbook, I had to borrow my mother in laws... turned out to be Sandisk. That didn't work so I asked a friend and it turned out to be Sandisk with the same trouble. How old is yours?

 

[The_Lucas]

Apparently everyone has a Sandisk drive, and when I couldn't install with mine to my netbook, I had to borrow my mother in laws... turned out to be Sandisk. That didn't work so I asked a friend and it turned out to be Sandisk with the same trouble. How old is yours?

I got it last year. It's a SanDisk Cruzer, with U3 support, though I took U3 off. Maybe that's the problem here.
I think the model number is SDCZ6-4096RB.

 

[iPwn]

Maybe that's the issue, explain how you took off U3 and that may help eryic.

 

[The_Lucas]

Maybe that's the issue, explain how you took off U3 and that may help eryic.

I uninstalled it using the option in U3's preferences, though deleting all the partitions using the appropriate utility will work as well.