Installed Ubuntu and now I cannot install Windows 7 HP

[utahir]

I am absolutely new to Ubuntu, and wanted to see how the OS worked. So naturally I mounted a usb and installed it (I chose install over Windows 7 Home Premium). The version I installed was Ubuntu 12.10

At the time of the installation I chose encrypt the file/OS, so that when I rebooted I noticed that I had to put in a password before I could use a second password to log into my account.

I though, oh this is great, because if I don't like the feel/accessibility of Ubuntu, I have this spare Windows 7 Home Premium CD here, which I can run and get my previous OS back.

Long story short, I did not like the accessibility Ubuntu provided, and so when I went to install Windows again with the Disk, I found that I could not install on either partition:

(Name) / (Total Size) / (Free Space) / (Type)

Disk 0 Partition 1 / 923.6 GB / 0.0 MB / System

Disk 0 Partition 2 / 7.9 GB / 0.0 MB / Logical

The error message I get is,

Windows cannot be installed to this hard disk space. Windows must be installed to a partition formatted as NTFS

Windows cannot be installed to this hard disk space. The partition is of an unrecognized type

(for both partitions)

I tried going back into Ubuntu and running some ntfs fixes (ntfs3g or something, and ntfsprog) but nothing worked. I feel as though something is wrong either with the mbr for Windows, or the grub file for Ubuntu (both were mentioned in other sites I scanned through).

If there is anything you guys can suggest to repair this, please do, I really appreciate it.

Also, I installed Ubuntu 12.10 over Windows 7 Home Premium on a Dell Inspiron laptop, if that makes any difference.

Thank you!

 

[Aristotelian]

Can you boot into Windows using the CD, then reformat the HDD using the disk utility tools?

 

[skittle]

Windows cannot be installed to this hard disk space. Windows must be installed to a partition formatted as NTFS

This is because linux does not use NTFS filesystem. Your partition is currently formatted as EXT4, which windows cannot use.

Using the windows install cd, when you get to the point where you are presented partitions to install to:
1.) first simply delete the partitions created by ubuntu, then:
2.) either create new one(s) or just click install on the empty space(windows does the rest automatically)

BTW, you can run ubuntu (and most linux distros) right off of the flash drive without installing anything

 

[DJRWolf]

Always install Windows first and Linux after. When you install Windows leave a portion of the drive unformatted to make a Linux partition when you install Linux.

 

[sidh]

Insert the Windows 7 DVD in your disk drive and boot from disk drive.
Then in the settings format the drive on which you want to install the Windows. But this will remove your Ubuntu.
For dual booting Ubuntu and Windows together see the following tutorial
Install Ubuntu along with Windows