Sunday, October 24, 2010

complete removal o linux in windows dual boot env

It's quite strange for me to start my blogging experience with linux removal post, but OK, let's do that.

Situation I've experienced recently was Ubuntu Linux installed on some Windows Vista preloaded notebook. I had dual boot setup there with GRUB as a boot loader and linux and windows living on one PC in parallel. For each I had a separate partition on HDD.

OK now the problem for me was: How to get rid of Ubuntu installation without a need to reinstall windows? My goal was also to reuse disk space in Windows previously occupied by Ubuntu.

So here comes the solution:
1. restore the windows bootloader (get rid of GRUB/LILO)
that can be done using EasyBCD (http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1)
steps:
a) download & install
b) make sure boot settings are OK (in "View Settings" section)
c) open "Bootloader setup" and click "Write MBR" button
d) done

2. resize windows partition to reuse linux occupied space
can be done using Easeus Partition Manager (http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm), my advantage was that it was a home used notebook only => free edition fit me well
All I had to do, was removal/deletion of linux partition/s and resizing of windows NTFS one

And that's it. For me it fit well.

Feel free to share your ideas in comments section.

pb