Changing From a Dual Boot setup (XP/LINUX) back to Single Boot (XP).
A few things before we get started, if you have important stuff on your linux partition(s) back them up because you will lose it all! Like many in this community i experimented with dual booting my machine (XP/Ubuntu 7.10). I really like Ubuntu, but that machine was my gaming rig so i didn't use Ubuntu on it except for the first week while i was screwing around with it. So i decided this setup was not functional for this particular machine. Back to Single Boot it was for me. This is just how i did it (from what i remember). There are no doubt multiple ways to get the desired effect.
What you will need:
1. Copy of XP
2. Copy of
Gparted
The process:
1. Download Gparted and burn it to a disk.
2. Pop in the XP disk and reboot, set you BIOS to boot from CDROM
3. Take a look at all the partitions on your drive, delete the Linux formatted partitions. You'll know they're Linux formatted because it will say unknown for the file system. There should be at least 2, your main Linux partition and the swap partition.
4. Reboot with XP in the drive again. boot into the recovery console. type fixmbr [device_name]. if you don't know the device name you can find it using the map command. you may be asked for the administrative password so enter it.
5. Place Gparted into the drive and reboot, again set BIOS to boot from CDROM
6. You'll have to play with what kind of session you want, just find one that lets you boot into the GUI, might have to try a few.
7. Gparted is very easy to use, just select what partition and chose to extend it to use the full drive, or repartition the empty space into something else if you like.
8. Reboot your machine. Set BIOS to boot from the hard drive. If all went well you'll see that familiar XP boot screen.
9. Windows might go into a check disk scan to make sure the drive isn't damaged because of the detected changes. Windows will start and "Find new Hardware". It will install the new hardware and ask you to reboot in order to fully use the "New Hardware". This is the last time you should have to reboot.
10. enjoy XP all over again.
Other Notes:
All the files on the XP partition should be undisturbed and everything should function the same as before but the partition is larger. If i have left anything out or if i just got something flat wrong please let me know and i will update the post. If you have an alternate way to go hback to Single Boot feel free to reply to this post. Also if you have instructions on how to go back to single boot from an XP/Vista, Vista/XP, Vista/Linux, Linux/Vista dual boot please post it here as well. Happy Hacking!
