How to Uninstall Linux in the best way?
 

Hi
I'm dual-booting MandrivaLinux and Windows® XP® ( ;) ). I have one hdd so i partitioned it to install linux.
I've used Linux for a while but now I need the space for windows, so i'm going to uninstall linux..
My question is.. read the Subject...
I thought of just use partition magic and erase the linux partition and then resize it with the windowspartition. But will there be any complications to start windows after that? because now im booting with lilo and if i erase the linuxpartition lilo can't start i guess.. or will it go back to normal, windows starts automaticly?
Thanks for answering...

I see two options:

1)IF you made /boot a seperate partition, then deleting the main Linux partition will be okay.

2)IF you did not put /boot on a seperate partition, then you will have to boot up with an ESD and run fixmbr after you delete the Linux partition

The only thing you need to worry about is the boot loader. Since linux will have overwritten your mbr you need to erase it. To do so from windows go to the command line and type the following:

for win98: fdisk /mbr
for winXP: fixmbr

as for the partitions, partition magic is fine.

Boot from your XP CD, enter the recovery console and type fixmbr. Once you've done that, provided you didn't get any errors, just use Partition Magic to delete the linux partition. Welcome more disk space :)

You can also delete partitions from within Windows. There's a thing for that under Control Panel > Computer Management, IIRC.

FYI: If you want to avoid problems with space in the future, you could make it have 4 partions:

1)/boot (LILO)
2)WINDOWS
3)/ (Linux)
4)A fat32 partition to enable both OS's to access it. You could use to store all non-os depandant material such as docs, music, save game files, movies, images, etc.

Thank you all for your fast answers. I think I know how to manage it without problems now.. :)

EDIT: It worked fine, no problems.. I used the xp-disc and typed fixmbr in the recovery console, after that i used partition magic to resize the xp partition. Thanks UnderDark for the future tips will try that later when i have bought a new hdd.