How to zero out a drive?

Posted by Mohd Arafat Hossain on Ask Ubuntu See other posts from Ask Ubuntu or by Mohd Arafat Hossain
Published on 2012-05-27T10:35:35Z Indexed on 2012/08/30 3:49 UTC
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12.04

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boot

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format

I'm currently running Ubuntu 12.04 and want to completely format my laptop so I can install Windows 7 (replace Ubuntu).

When I put in my bootable USB with the OS it just shows a black screen with a white blinking cursor on the top left corner. I wait for hours (to be specific 5 whole hours) waiting for something to happen but I get nothing, so I pull out the USB and my Ubuntu 12.04 loads up.

Repeated this several times with putting different boot priority options on top-est that relate to USB but the results are same. I go and visit some sites on the net like this http://www.techspot.com/community/topics/cant-replace-ubuntu-with-windows.175716/ that say I have to zero out my hard drive.

My question is how?

Note: Erasing out all my data is no problem cause I have nothing important to backup.

If I have to lose my primary OS (Ubuntu 12.04) in the process I am ready to as my aim is just to install Windows 7 successfully. Please don't answer that there is something wrong with my USB or my USB reader/port/hardware or the content inside the USB cause they all works fine on my brothers PC as it boots up flawlessly.

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