How to uninstall Linux?
 

Hi,

I've installed Sabayon Linux in my system together with Windows in the same harddisk.
And every time when i start up my pc, it will load GRUB and asked me to choose which OS to load.
I'm kinda irritated as im not using linux anymore and i wish to uninstall/delete it.
So, i reformatted the partition and i got stuck whenever it loads

So, can anyone please tell me what to do with my MBR and how to uninstall/delete the Linux OS?

thanks.

You need to boot from a Windows floppy and do "fdisk /mbr" or boot from a Windows installation cd, go into recovery mode and do "fixmbr"

Boot from your windows cd, chose the recovery mode kind if boot so you have a commandline.
Type 'fixmbr'
Reboot from harddisk. Now Grub will be gone and only windows will boot.

The latter method, fixmbr from Recovery Console, applies if you have Windows XP. On older Windows (like 98, ME, ..) there is no Recovery Console, so you'll just open a MS-DOS prompt and run the command fdisk /mbr (though it could be \ instead of /, I'm not 100% sure in Windows world).

On Windows XP the Recover Console can be accessed from the Windows cd rom (installation or whatever it's called), or in some cases when it is already installed on harddisk, you can press F8 before Windows boots to open the Windows boot menu and select Recovery Console from there. If it's not in the list, it's not installed on your HD and you will need to use the cd.

EDIT: if you run fixmbr on XP, it will warn you that it might cause trouble and should only be run if your system is broken or something, but as it is your only choice (unless you want to install a 3rd party bootloader which you already have install disc for), don't care about the message, just continue. It takes a small moment after which your system is back to the stage where it was before Linux.

Usually removing Linux is done the other way around: first replace bootloader, then remove partitions. This way you don't have a non-bootable machine, like you do at the moment.

Thanks for all the replies.

But it seems like my laptop doesnt load my xp disc.
It keeps on loading after the 'press any key to load the CD' command.
However, when i try my disc on my desktop it functions well.
I wonder what could be happening.

nevertheless, is there any way i can fix my mbr without the disc? Cause my laptop cant load the disc, so i have no choice.

EDIT: Is there any bootloader program that can overwriter my mbr?

Have you changed to boot from your CD in the systems BOIS?

yes, it booted from cd right till the stage where it shows 'press any key to load from cd'
then it was loading for a long time that i think it stuck there.

if this problem still persist im afraid i have to wipe the whole harddisk clean and reinstall xp again. But i wonder if the mbr still be there?

Hey,

This one may sound dumb, but a friend of mine had this problem. Try actually hitting a key when it says "Press any key to load from CD." When he was trying to do it, he didn't hit anything.

Regards,

Brandon

edit: This WILL take a few minutes to load on older computers. Just be patient.

Have you tried using another windows XP cd? Ask a friend or family member if you can borrow the cd. All you want to do is get to the console and type fixmbr. Do not reinstall from that cd. The activation code is different
from your cd. If the same thing happens with the other cd and skips booting from it, then recheck the bios or maybe the cdrom is having some issues.

all you got to do is go into add/remove programs and click "uninstall linux." It will be there. ;)

Yes if it boots from the cd then it may be easyer to reinstall the hale thing.

As for the mbr thats no problem as DV502 has posted from the Recovery console all you have to do is type "fixmbr"

On a side note... it's funny how Windows screws up the MBR itself. It doesn't use a standard boot loader and instead gives the MBR an equivelant of a 'soft link' to the primary partition, telling it to load whatever OS is present (provided its Windows).

OK, the fixmbr and fixboot commands all make sense to me, but how does he regain the space that is his Linux install, and allow it to be used under Windows? I've only installed Linux/Windows, on dual drives, never on the same drive, and I could never see my Linux Disk under Windows, and vice versa(never tried to be truthful).

Clean install may be easiest, as for me though, I'm Linux 4 Life! :)

IGF

Either format the free space or resize/format the partitions. Windows has a disk manager tool somewhere.

Backups are advisable :)

Hi all,

thanks for the advice.

I cant delete the partition because after i delete it, i would not be able to start Grub and not even load. Then my machine would be a junk. :rolleyes:

Hmm, i did wait for like 30mins until i realise that it couldnt be that long. Then i tried it on my desktop and within a minute, it's done. Anyway, i did hit a button. Dont worry. ;)


I think all i need is to fix the mbr and then format the partition i used for linux. Now i learned my lesson not to install 2 OS on a physical disk. Troublesome. :mad:

yea, i hope it's there.

Ok, I'm trying to get whole of another xp disc. But right now, i have come up with another recovery cd/ bootable cd/ boot up disc. It worked but the same old thing happened. The screen seems to be stuck and nothing goes on after i follow the 'press any key to load from cd' command.


Right now, Im thinking of wiping my disc for sure but how do i reformat and reinstall xp if i cant load from the xp disc? So i thought i might take a risk by reformatting all my partition using norton's partitionmagic and hopefully, it will wipe off my linux plus mbr.

Then i would pray hard the my xp disc can load peacefully and reinstall the whole os. Is this advisable? Any comment in this?

If not i would need to unscrew my harddisk and do a fully reformat and as external drive, which i really hate to do so.

Any advise on both of the solutions?

Is your dvd/cdrom drive working properly? You said your XP cd and a borrowed XP cd did the same thing -- It boots up and then stalls after you press a key. But you said, the XP cd works fine from your desktop. That should give you a hint, that your dvd/cdrom is not able to read the disc. If this is the case, you will not be able to reinstall Xp from that dvd/cdrom drive. If you can find a way to restore the mbr and boot into windows,
you can use the steps below to remove linux partitions
and restore them for windows.

A friend of mine, had a similar situation. He restore his mbr, but he still had the linux partitions. This is what he did to get rid of it and reclaim it for windows.

He booted off a live cd. He used knoppix. He open a terminal window and type sudo fdisk /dev/hda

He deleted all partitions associated to linux like swap
and other linux partitions. He created a new partition
hda2. By default, fdisk gives this partition an id of 83.
You want to change this to the id that your windows has.
To do this press the letter t and press enter. fdisk will ask what partition you want to change? enter 2 and press enter. Now enter the new id. give it the same id as windows. Now you will have two windows partitions listed. Press the letter w to make the changes.

Remove the live cd. Reboot backed into windows.

He open the windows file manager and saw his c drive,
his cdrom drive and a new drive called local e:
Right click on the new drive and format it.

And he was a happy camper. The rest is history.

Is your dvd/cdrom drive working properly? You said your XP cd and a borrowed XP cd did the same thing -- It boots up and then stalls after you press a key. But you said, the XP cd works fine from your desktop. That should give you a hint, that your dvd/cdrom is not able to read the disc. If this is the case, you will not be able to reinstall Xp from that dvd/cdrom drive. If you can find a way to restore the mbr and boot into windows,
you can use the steps below to remove linux partitions
and restore them for windows.

A friend of mine, had a similar situation. He restore his mbr, but he still had the linux partitions. This is what he did to get rid of it and reclaim it for windows.

He booted off a live cd. He used knoppix. He open a terminal window and type sudo fdisk /dev/hda

He deleted all partitions associated to linux like swap
and other linux partitions. He created a new partition
hda2. By default, fdisk gives this partition an id of 83.
You want to change this to the id that your windows has.
To do this press the letter t and press enter. fdisk will ask what partition you want to change? enter 2 and press enter. Now enter the new id. give it the same id as windows. Now you will have two windows partitions listed. Press the letter w to make the changes.

Remove the live cd. Reboot backed into windows.

He open the windows file manager and saw his c drive,
his cdrom drive and a new drive called local e:
Right click on the new drive and format it.

And he was a happy camper. The rest is history.

Copy MBR from other Windows machine using dd.

Try using this utility. Ive found it really helpful:

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

If all these replies has not worked for you and are
are considering to do a complete XP install. Try to
copy all your files to another hard drive. All your files are still there. In your post, you said you can unscrew the drive and connect it as a external device to the other desktop running windows. If this is so, do it. When you boot up windows , you will see a new drive icon added to your windows file manager.

Double click on the icon and you will see all the files there. Just copy the files you don't have a copy of.
for example mp3's, word doc's ..etc. And copy them to the
other hard drive in a temporary folder.

Once you copy the files you want. Shutdown the desktop, remove the attached device and replace it back to where it was and then do a fresh install of XP.

Since your files are safe on the other computer, all you have to do is copy them back to your laptop.

Ok guys, I've done it. I didnt reformat my disk but now it boots perfectly to windows.

And all I used was a program called Super Grub Disk. http://supergrub.forjamari.linex.org/

I need to thanks the programmer of Super Grub Disk, it really save my day. If I ever had a credit card, I would definitely donate some bucks to them.

Nevertheless, after all these trouble, I will still use Linux. Cause it rocks. =]

Cheers and thanks to all who helped.