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I have a Dell Inspiron 15 5000. It came with Windows 10 and I have installed Ubuntu 20 without formatting and partitioning.

Now I would like to put back Windows 10 because this is a company laptop. I have created a bootable USB with Windows 10. I am booting from the USB and the Windows setup is started. I am stuck on the below screen where there is no drive to install Windows.

enter image description here

I have an idea that I have to create a partition of format NTFS, but I am not sure if that is the right way and I do not want to damage the disk. Within the existing Ubuntu OS, I can see a partition that I think I can format, see screenshot below.

enter image description here

I am not sure how to continue, I need some guidance. I do not need any files from the Ubuntu OS, I would like to clean it and install Windows.

Edit

Is this the right way to format the disk?

enter image description here

teebo
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    So, this computer had Windows and then you put Ubuntu on. Now, you want to erase Ubuntu completely and put Windows back? There isn't anything you could do that would "damage the disk". That is, you can try one partition type and if that doesn't work, try another. Trying many things would not "damage the disk". It will obviously destroy your data, but since you're willing to have all of it wiped, then there is no harm. If the disk is "destroyed", then that's from normal wear and tear... (i.e., it was dying anyway) – Ray Nov 03 '21 at 06:17
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    Creating an NTFS partition might be the right way to go. However, I wonder if erasing all partitions and giving it a blank disk (i.e., the same condition as if you bought a disk brand new) would prompt Windows to format it properly. You're using a Windows installation CD/DVD? – Ray Nov 03 '21 at 06:18
  • @Ray I have downloaded a Windows 10 ISO and made a USB bootable with it – teebo Nov 03 '21 at 06:29
  • @Ray so from the free space that is highlighted in orange in the attached image, should I format that? and how much space should I give it? – teebo Nov 03 '21 at 06:33
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    Just to check I'm understanding you correctly -- you want to erase everything you had on the hard disk, right? You are removing Ubuntu? If so, you should give it everything on the hard disk -- there is no reason to give it less that what is available. Or am I misunderstanding something? – Ray Nov 03 '21 at 06:37
  • @Ray yes you got me right, OK I see, so looking at the second screenshot I have, I can format the orange section volume of the disk to NTFS and then what would be the next step? Will I then reboot to the USB and then start the Windows setup I should be able to continue from there? – teebo Nov 03 '21 at 06:42
  • So, forget Ubuntu for a moment. If you built a computer from scratch, you would put in a newly purchased hard disk into the computer. A hard disk with no partitions at all. Then you boot up the USB and...Windows should install? Why don't you give it a try... I don't know if it'll work but given you have no concerns in terms of data loss, try anything and if that doesn't work, try something else... – Ray Nov 03 '21 at 06:59
  • Does this answer your question? How can I install windows 7 over ubuntu? – karel Nov 03 '21 at 08:15
  • Does this answer your question? How to remove Ubuntu and put Windows back on? – Pilot6 Nov 03 '21 at 10:05
  • Just be sure to use gpt partitioning & boot in UEFI boot mode as your Product Key is in the UEFI and only works in UEFI boot mode. Windows also wants multiple partitions in UEFI mode, so best to just let it install to unallocated space. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn898510%28v=vs.85%29.aspx#RecommendedPartitionConfigurations – oldfred Nov 03 '21 at 14:07

2 Answers2

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Just format the disk and don't create any partitions.

Choose the whole disk on the left side of the Disks application and then from the drop down choose "Format" and when it asks for the partition scheme, choose GPT. That's all you need to do.

Since the Windows installer will need to create several partitions it's better if the disk is totally empty.

Nmath
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The answer above was very helpful to solving this. One step that was missing was that I could not format the disk because it was being used. What I had to do was to create another bootable USB with Ubuntu and instead of installing it, I have selected "Try Ubuntu", once I was in Ubuntu, I then started the gparted application and I was able to format the disk.

After that, I still could not see the partition in the Windows installation setup.

What solved the issue was to change some settings in the BIOS setup > Storage>

Instead of having select RAID on I switch it to AHCI/NVMe . enter image description here

I don't even know what that means.

I am assuming the selection was changed by Ubuntu automatically when I first removed Windows and installed Ubuntu. After this I could see the partition in the Windows setup. I had to format it and create a new volume of the maximum disk size to be able to continue with the setup.

JFTR Downloading RAID drivers and having theM extracted driverfolders in the root of the Windows bootable USB could not solve the issue.

teebo
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