BuzzPCSOS I tried to get that point across elsewhere
With windows back in the day sometimes just a simple setup and format did the trick (Before Install)
But for the nasty ones I usually did a disk wipe which got rid of it for sure. (Only sure way)
Also have had HHD start failing in the MBR and just kinda snowball to death Causing issues
along the way.

I agree with what you said,If it is not their cant cause issues
Never really looked deep into why when it was a issue just know what worked.

    • [deleted]

    • Post #8

    What if I want to replace Solus with an operating system?

      [deleted] Now why would you want to do that?

      But to be fair, if you are moving on - a clean disk is nicer than a dirty one ;-)

        brent Strange. In all my installs and reinstalls of Solus and other OSs, I never had to pre-wipe a disk prior to installations. Things just worked as expected.

            elfprince . parted may be a component or backend (do I have the language for that function right?) part of any given installer. which would mean both methods work. I have no idea where I got in the habit of bringing to the solus installer a perfectly formatted GPT disk...when it was going to do it itself anyway? Redundant then.
            [that said I never made my own boot/root partitions, always let installer do what it wanted.]

            You are probably right. If someone brought to the solus installer an entire FAT-formatted disk, and told the installer to put Solus on the whole disk, then I imagine Solus would do the GPT part. My own prep, if it's redundant and it probably is, is just habit for sure.

                5 days later

                brent I know this is an old(ish) thread now but...
                The MBR is a piece of information stored outside of the partitions. If grub (or any OS specific information) has been stored in the MBR then simply deleting the partitions will not clear the MBR. I found that it was necessary to delete the MBR when regressing from some versions of Linux to Windows. Using the Windows installer to clear the disk was not enough to make Windows bootable without first deleting the MBR.
                I don't know how Solus erases the hard drive during install but if the MBR remains untouched then there is a good chance that a Solus install would fail if a previous OS install had written information to the MBR.

                    BuzzPCSOS Well Put that should be posted all over the walls...haha
                    I just couldnt convey it like that. Duh

                      BuzzPCSOS I don't know how Solus erases the hard drive during install but if the MBR remains untouched then there is a good chance that a Solus install would fail if a previous OS install had written information to the MBR.

                      That's why I use Gparted before install (just in case). I agree with @Axios: great post and info about MBR and booting and old debris.

                        my way would be using rufus for a usb drive installer, boot solus, open gparted, make a new partition table, select mbr for old systems or gpt for new systems (will delete existing partitions in the ssd/hdd) then make a new ext4 partition, probably not necessary, then install solus. I thing it's simple.

                          nolan More ways of killing a cat...
                          Any way that the MBR is wiped is good. What I question is the ability of the Solus 'Erase entire Disk' feature used on install to erase the MBR. Certainly MS in all it's wisdom could not manage it (although I can't remember if that was W7 or W10, never bothered with W8)
                          It is an important point because many folks migrating from other OSs may well need to delete the MBR but will rely on the Solus install to do all the donkey work.

                            I think for us that tend to do this method we dont have issues.
                            Was reading on the installers website they recommend you format the mbr so they
                            must know something to.
                            But I am like Buzz why cant the installer handle it?

                              Axios But I am like Buzz why cant the installer handle it?

                              In my experience, Calamares can handle it. I've stopped preparing disks manually, and I've never regretted it.

                                  WetGeek I think individual experiences may vary depending on you running BIOS and a previous OS writing GRUB or a boot virus into the MBR. There have only been a few occasions where my installs failed due to information being previously written into the MBR and these were exclusively on legacy devices that did not use UEFI.