<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;">Thanks for the reply, however I am not looking to back up anything. I just want a clean wipe of everything that is on the HDD. I can't afford another HDD right now so this one will have to do. I want to fully erase everything that has to do with Windows and all file data back to the original drive so that I can then load Ubuntu on it. I don't care what gets deleted (except whatever I need to allow me to start from scratch). --- On Fri, 10/2/09, dean <deanubuntu@gmail.com> wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: rgb(16,16,255) 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px"> From: dean <deanubuntu@gmail.com> Subject: Re: Help with installation To: "Ubuntu user technical support, not for general discussions" <ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com> Date: Friday, October 2, 2009, 6:25 AM <DIV class=plainMail>Michael White wrote: > Hi, I have been thinking about making a switch from Windows to Linux > for awhile now. Yesterday my desktop caught a really bad case of > spyware. Now all I want to do is format my hard drive and load Ubuntu > onto the desktop. I was wondering if you guys would be able to assit > me in how to do so. I was running Windows XP SP3. Any help would be > appreciated. > > If your thinking of doing a totally switch with no Windows I would probably recommend getting a spare drive to back your data up so you can convert any drives to ext3/ext4. I find NTFS-3G to be a CPU hog and it isn't needed if your going 100% linux. -- ubuntu-users mailing list <A href="http://us.mc1116.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com" ymailto="mailto:ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com">ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com</A> Modify settings or unsubscribe at: <A href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users" target=_blank>https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users</A> </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></td></tr></table>