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I accidentally formatted my hard drive which earlier had Ubuntu installed on it.

My computer is x86 and does not support bootable USB and there is no DVD Player installed.

How to repair this?

galoget
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jkp
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  • Network boot possible (probably not)? You are not going to solve this without a bootable device, so install a DVD-player or a second harddrive (which must have a system installed already, a live-system would be ok). Or move your HDD to a different machine and restore a backup (if you have one) . Your question appears to be off-topic, it has nothing to do with Ubuntu... – mook765 Mar 15 '18 at 12:52
  • Is there a working CD player in the computer? In that case you can try with the Ubuntu mini.iso. See this link and links from it. I think Lubuntu, Ubuntu Budgie, Ubuntu MATE or Xubuntu will work better than standard Ubuntu in such an old computer. Try them according to this link – sudodus Mar 15 '18 at 13:40
  • Tried mini.iso bootable from bootable USB but it gets stuck after initrd ready – jkp Mar 15 '18 at 15:59
  • Which version of the Ubuntu mini.iso did you try? Did you check the md5sum? Please tell me, and I will test it. And which tool did you use to create a CD boot disk from the iso file? -- Depending on the computer, you may have better luck with another version, so finally, please specify the computer, brand name and model. – sudodus Mar 15 '18 at 16:27
  • I am using Ubuntu mini.iso 14.04 which have correct md5sum, further I used Ubuntu Startup Disk Creator to create bootable usb . My Computer processor is Intel Core2Duo 32 bits with 2Gb Ram and 320GB HDD – jkp Mar 16 '18 at 04:57
  • There are 4 supported 14.04 LTS mini.iso files for PC computers: 32-bit (i386) and 64-bit (amd64), trusty kernel and xenial kernel at this link. I hope that you are trying one of the 32-bit versions for your x86 computer. – sudodus Mar 17 '18 at 08:22
  • I think Core2Duo has 64-bit architecture (and probably the motherboard too, but I am not sure). So I think the computer can run both 32-bit and 64-bit linux. Anyway, I have downloaded and tested both of the currently supported 32-bit versions of 14.04 mini.iso. I used mkusb to clone from the iso files to a USB boot drive. Both installers work, I installed mini systems without any graphical desktop environment, and the installed systems work for me. -- So I suggest that you connect via wired internet (ethernet cable) and try again. – sudodus Mar 17 '18 at 09:21

1 Answers1

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There aren't many options, and all the options I can think of require another computer.

Some BIOSes provide the option to boot from LAN. Even if there is no OS installed, you should be able to configure the BIOS, or the boot order by pressing a certain key (typically Del, sometimes F10 or F12.

I never tried booting from LAN, and I don't know your computer, so I can't help you. In the chance someone else replies here, posting more information about your computer, or pictures of your screen on boot would be very helpful. (logos, trademarks, boot screens, BIOS menu).

The other method is not likely to work, but you can try swapping the hard drive with another computer with better boot support, reinstalling Ubuntu in this new computer, and then swapping hard drives again. But both computers must at the very least use the same CPU architecture.

Good luck.

ArenaL5
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  • Technically, the OS must be for the destined computer's CPU architecture. If that one is x86, and the other computer is x64, you can still install Ubuntu 32-bit on a 64-bit CPU, and it will work on the 32-bit computer – user8292439 Mar 15 '18 at 14:18