12 hours later: I'm out of even nonsense ideas. PC is ewaste, be a year or two before I can afford a cheap one from Walmart or smth. I sometimes amaze myself, followed a straightforward installer so wrong it killed my PC. That's actual talent, really.

Least I still got the phone.

Installed Nobura so wrong it killed my windows install, isn't installed, and I can't install any os to any drive

If I get my computer back up I am learning the lesson I am too incompetent for linux

This is a total replacement of original title and body text

    • Gorb [they/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 hours ago

      If you still have windows on the drive you can use a windows boot drive and potentially might be able to recover it and the boot files.

      Otherwise the drive can be wiped and setup again using diskpart https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-to-format-hard-disk-during-installation-of/cc409a0a-5c64-4fa4-951a-061b8a4215b6

      I hope there isn't important data in the drive. If you have something to backup your data with I'd suggest that first

      • ComradeWizardmon
        hexagon
        ·
        1 hour ago

        Already tried wiping the drive with gparted usb, tried installing to a backup empty drive with all the rest disconnected. Tried the cmos button.

        Prolly just have a wrong boot usb but can't make another. I'll see about buying one in a few months