uninstalling vista os? please help?

kerryked

hi when i turned on my laptop yesterday i go the message that my computer had been turned off properly..the two options are to launch repair or start normally..neither of these option work..a grey windows vista screen comes up with a message "this program cannot open click ok to shut down" something like that...it looks to me like vista was completely wiped from the sytem or something..whn i press f8 on startup none of these options work, i want to know now if there is any way to uninstall windows vista (i dont have a vista restore disc but i can get one) and install windows 8 (whic is in pc world for 60 quid)
please can anyone out there give me a hand with this problem?
also even when i start the computer in safe mode i get a blue screen, ill edit this in a while when i get the error code from the blue screen. ive looked on the internet and it seems it may be a hardware problem.
can anyone give me some advice as to what i can do? id prefer to try to get rid of vista and install w8 now..
cheers
the technical information on the blue screen is :
stop: 0x00000024 (0x00190444,0x873c3550,0xc0000102,0x00000000)

cany anyone tell wht this blue screen error is about? hardware problem?

mp22

If you are sure that your hard drive is ok, just put the win 8 disk in the cd drive hold down F12 on start-up and select the cd drive as the first boot device.windows will take it from there.

ressem

Stop error 0x00000024 relates to the NT file system errors.

Before installing a new windows, if you have files on the laptop that you want to keep, it'd be advisable to attempt to back them up to an external usb drive using a bootable Live CD like getdataback http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm.

Also some laptops allow you to check the hard drive using a boot menu that appears at power up time or by holding a combination of keys to bring up laptop diagnostics. Just in case the hardware is the issue instead of just a corrupted file system.

As the others said, a STOP 0x00000024 error is an NTFS file system error. It could be a failing hard drive.

kerryked

so is there any way of checking for certain if it's my hard drive thats the problem? im putting ubuntu on amemory stick to try and boot that on the laptop to see if i can get something going...Also if its help, when the laptop starts there is the option of holding f12 to go to boot manager and f2 to setup utility.

So where can i find out if my hard drive is the problem?
Thanks guys..:/

mp22

Boot the pc with the usb key and see if ubuntu can mount the file system ie places-file system(the same size as the hd)

F12 allows you to select a once off boot device.

F2 you will select the first boot device and set it as default.

kerryked

I tried to put ubuntu on a memory stick and run it from that..it didnt work though..i dont think i did it properly anyway..the desktop i have runs crappy windows ME so im gonna have to wait till i go into school on monday to burn a disc with ubuntu and a disc with the vista restore disc...
If i buy windows 8 and pop in the cd will it run straight away and overwrite vista?..or will i have to delete vista?..