[SOLVED] How to uninstall

Just some background information first off:
1. Name (Brand) of Computer Tower/System,
Acer Aspire M1610

2. Amount of available Memory (RAM)
2GB

3. Whether Zorin is the only OS on the computer or dual-boot.
Dual boot with Windows Vista

4. Hard Drive partitioning.
140GB for Vista. 100GB for Zorin

5. Graphics card make and model.
GeForce 8400

6. Audio chips/Soundcard
None

7. Wireless Dongle or PCI Card, or Wireless chipset.
NETGEAR Range Max WNDA3100v2 N-600 Wireless Dual Band USB 2.0 Adapter

8. Whether you ran Zorin Live first to check it worked before installing.
No, but I clearly should have.

9. Which version of Zorin you have installed.
Zorin 9 lite 32bit

Basically, I want to uninstall Zorin since my Netgear Wifi dongle won't work on it. I succesfully installed the relevant drivers using the Windows Drivers application but it still won't connect and for some reason attempting to go into its settings produces errors. I've read various solutions but all of them require me to download stuff for Zorin which is impossible since Zorin won't connect to the internet in the first place. This is my first experience with linux and the only reason I chose Zorin was because I heard it's easier to transition to if you've been using Windows your whole life, but in all honesty I'm just tired of it now and just want it out of my computer.

The only problem now is that I'm having trouble just doing that. I tried following the instructions given here, but I'm already stuck on Step 3. I never used a CD to install Zorin: I used a USB stick instead. But trying to boot into the USB just gives me a black screen with this text:


I've also tried uninstalling it through Windows but Zorin doesn't come up on the list of programs to uninstall. Can anyone help?

OK, having checked the specs of your rig (http://acersupport.com/acerpanam/deskto ... 0sp2.shtml) I suspect you may have been having issues because it uses the SIS chipset - SIS is known for its poor GNU/Linux support, especially with graphics.

Now back to your issues. I am having to make assumptions here as we don't know if GRUB is the main bootloader when you boot your pc - if it is you will need a vista disc to restore things back to the mbr so that you just boot into Vista.

Hopefully this article might help - but personally better if you have a Vista disc if possible or create a repari disc if Vista could do that - I never took up Vista following all the bad press it got after launch:

http://robinmonks.com/2011/06/how-to-un ... up-repair/

(I know the article is for netbooks and not desktops but the principle is the same)

Unfortunately I don't have a repair disk and the guide in the robinmonk article doesn't work for me either. No matter how many times I press F8 (before or after the OS options come up), the menu just won't appear.

I looked up several methods to creating my own vista repair disk but to no avail. I came painfully close in one instance only to find out that I needed an installation disk to make it work (which I don't have either).

However, in my quest to find the Vista repair disk, I did find a spare blank CD in the process. If I burnt the Zorin ISO file (that I still have on Vista) onto that and created a bootable CD, would that work? Could I uninstall Zorin using that?

What if I tried replacing Zorin with another linux distro (e.g. Ubuntu) until I find one that's compatable with my wifi dongle? Could that work?

The problem is that this blank CD is non rewritable so I only have one shot at this (unless I reuse the USB). Which out of the two above options do you think has a higher chance of working?

That is a tough call - please take a time to look here:

http://superuser.com/questions/125762/f ... ecovery-cd

and here:

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windowsvi ... -vista.htm

Do you know anyone who has a Windows 7 PC? it would have to match Vista version you have installed as the recovery commands from the dos prompt using a repair disc are the same for 7 as they are for Vista:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/927392

Please be sure to read every thing from all links provided - keep us posted!

Solved.

The robinmonk article does indeed work as long as you're not being retarded like I was. What I was doing wrong was that I would stop pressing F8 when the screen to choose OS would come up and then start pressing again after choosing Vista. The article itself could have worded it better. The instructions make it sound like you only start pressing F8 after you choose Vista but you need to press F8 all throughout. After that it was smooth sailing. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the partition back into the D: drive so now I have a stupid looking extra drive but at least it’s there and useable.

Will mark as [SOLVED]. Glad to hear you have resolved the issue - if you decide to dual-boot in future:

https://vimeo.com/110085401

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showpos ... tcount=145

There are some tools in windows that you can use to "repair" or edit the windows bootloader (or even replace GRUB).
--If I remember correctly the name of the tool I used was easyBCD, don't quote me on that though.
after you are using the windows bootload you will not have the option to boot into zorin, you will then need to go into the disk manager, erase the partition/partitions with Zorin on it and then you can extend you Windows partition to the size of the disk.
-- If I remember correctly windows didn't allow you to extend the partition untill windows 7, so you may have to find some special tool for this, I don't have any in my toolkit =[