Removing Linux Q4OS...

[sonnenc]

Hi all,

I bought an older Panasonic Tough Book CF-19 and it has Linux Q4OS. I bought the tough book for running a program called T5 Suite (a car tuning software for SAAB). So far, I have purchased a windows 7 DVD with access code. The tough book does not have a disc drive, and I plugged an apple DVD drive in and tried to install its driver. I work in a computer department at my college and a colleague loaned me one of their DVD drives but from my research it may take more than downloading the driver to be used with linux.

See link: https://www.cmos.blog/use-apples-usb-superdrive-with-linux/

I don't mean to offend anyone by removing linux, but the software that I intend to use is best suited for Windows 7.

My question:
Should I try to figure out that guide, or should I try to use a different DVD drive that may not be so challenging. Or, are there any other suggestions to get me back to windows...

I really appreciate the help, I am totally lost here.

-Chase

 

[KGIII]

Yay @ the SAAB bit. (Don't get me started.)

I would look for a clean Win 7 .iso, download that, and write that to USB (like writing a .iso to DVD).

Then, you just boot to the one time boot menu and select the USB. Then, you can format partitions or whatever you need to do to remove Linux. Just writing the OS over Linux should do the trick. It should remove all remnants of Linux. Basically, you're just doing a clean install of Windows.

Also, does the software run in a more modern/supported version of Windows? If so, I'd opt for that just to have support and updates.

 

[sonnenc]

It does run on windows 10, but from what i've been told, it is best suited for windows 7. I think it was developed long ago and there have been recent updates but there's this whole risk to "bricking an ECU" bit I don't want to worry about.

Could download what is on my windows 7 installation DVD to a USB on a different device correct? I tried finding a clean Win 7 .iso before I bought the DVD and I couldn't find anything that seemed legit. A co-worker also gave me a "USB with windows 7" on it, and supposedly it did not need an access code. We plugged that in and when I would click on the set up.exe it would just download that to my "documents" when I would go into the documents it would not show up. I just assumed that his cracked version of Win7 just wouldn't work.

Glad you're a Saab supporter thank you for the guidance

Chase

 

[KGIII]

As you do not have a DVD reader with that device, I can't be sure. I suspect there's a way for you to do this on one of your Windows devices that has a DVD reader. However, I know next to nothing about modern Windows and I'm about to step away for a while.

I don't suppose you have a buddy with a USB DVD reader that you can use for an hour or two. (If you feel like spending money, they're fairly cheap and any of them should work just fine.)

There's bound to be some Windows software that will let you write that data to an .iso which you can then use to create a Windows 7 thumbdrive. (It's not worth risking bricking the ECU, those are just going to get more and more scarce.)

I have a pair of 900S Tubro examples, which might be more interesting on another day. Hopefully, we have a Windows user who can guide you further. I simply don't have a clue when it comes to Windows. I haven't used Windows for a long time.

 

[wendy-lebaron]

Welcome to the forums. I hope you could keep your computer offline after you succeeded installing an ancient copy of Windows on it.

 

[Brickwizard]

Linux comes with its own hardware drivers, if you are installing W7, then I suggest you first install the Panasonic motherboard & hardware driver pack, [if you did not get the original medium you can download from https://www.bestadvisor.com/news/panasonic-toughbook-cf-19-drivers], just pick the correct one for your OS. then you can install windows