I have the follwoing setup
Maxtor 200 GB
partition in half
1 C:\ windows
2 E:\ Mandriva

Seagate 80 gb:
D:\Ubuntu

Mandriva has never worked for me
so i want to uninstall it
I have tried the partitioner from the ubuntu installation disc but nothiong happens there

My question is:
Can i safely delete the partition with linux on it from windows without messing up grub

I was thinking of using Partition Magic for this

cheers,

The answer is yes but you should do it with Disk Management if you have a NT version of Windows (XP or Win2k). (Right click My computer/manage/storage/Disk Management)

Another bomb proof method is to boot up a Live CD, click root terminal and run the cfdisk program.

The Windows partition should come up as Type 7 (NTFS) or b or c for Fat32. Linux is always type 83.

You need a swap partition to run Mandriva and Ubuntu. If the partitioner doesn't respond in Unbuntu it is most likely you log in as an ordinary user. You need root privilege to mess around system-related files. Type "su" in Ubuntu and then supply the root password should let you become the root user.