Erasing Ubuntu

[pookito]

What up, guys. I just have a question to asked. I bought a laptop a year ago, an Acer 1640. I decided back then to install kubuntu. Now, I bought the new Dell with ubuntu in it, and I have decided to give the Acer to my wife. She wants me to have windows only on the laptop. This laptop was bought at wallmart and it did not come with the installation CD. So, all I have to is the computer. I know how to delete the Linux partion by using Qt parted. But, how do I get the grub deleted and put windows complete back where it was? I thank you before hand for the answer.

Pookito.

[dibl]

Re: Erasing Ubuntu

I vaguely recall that the DOS command "fdisk" was pretty thorough at wiping out everything on a hard drive. Do you have an old DOS or Win 95/98/2000 diskette?

[SheeEttin]

Re: Erasing Ubuntu

Windows itself is pretty thorough at wiping your disk...

Er, what?
Anyway, yes, just "fdisk /mbr" should install the Windows boot loader to your MBR. You can get bootable floppies from here. Just stick in a floppy, run the executable, and off you go.

Of course, just installing Windows will also wipe your MBR. (I'm sure it'll be pretty good with the rest of the disk, too.)

[daxumaming]

Re: Erasing Ubuntu

Once you install Windows, Windows would wipe out GRUB. So you really don't have to do anything else.

[pookito]

Re: Erasing Ubuntu

Thanks for the advice guys, the problem was that it did not come with the windows cd. But thanks a lot. I will fdisk grub.

pookito

[jwebster8]

Re: Erasing Ubuntu

Wait! I'm guessing you have a multiple boot system right now, right?

You need to restore the window's master boot record, you don't need to fdisk grub.
The windows version of fdisk can do this.

Try this, boot to windows and get a command prompt (go to run and type cmd), then type fdisk \mbr

then reboot and let me know what happens

if you hose the current master boot record, then without a windows cd, it'll be a pain to revert to the windows bootloader

to get all the hard drive back to a single partition (I'm assuming you have only one hard drive) then you'll need something like partition magic

[dibl]

Re: Erasing Ubuntu

to get all the hard drive back to a single partition (I'm assuming you have only one hard drive) then you'll need something like partition magic

Actually, if you go the DOS/Windows fdisk route, I'm pretty confident that it includes the ability to make and delete partitions (but not as quick and easy as Partition Magic or QParted).

[jwebster8]

Re: Erasing Ubuntu

Yeah, but i dont think fdisk can merge partitions without completely rewriting them. As I understand it, the origional problem was that Pookito has a windows partition and a linux partition with grub as the bootloader. He's trying to get to the case where he has windows bootloader, with one big windows partition for his wife.

I believe he already has windows installed on the windows partition and doesnt want to delete that since he doesnt have the windows cd.

If his wife can live with a c: and d: drive, then of course, fdisk is all the guy needs.

[eggbanjo]

Re: Erasing Ubuntu

Its easy really, just get your wife to boot into windows on a daily basis and i'll bet within a month it would have deleted grub, partitions and all the work on the laptop anyway :P

[dibl]

Re: Erasing Ubuntu

boot into windows on a daily basis and i'll bet within a month it would have deleted grub, partitions and all the work

ROFL !

Yep, prolly so ....

[The Liquidator]

Re: Erasing Ubuntu

I have a very nice Dell Dual Boot laptop and I keep the Windows side of it pristine by using it very rarely. It seems that really I only use it for when I want to update the virus scanner! I keep Windows on because of 2 applications: Dragon Naturally Speaking and Quicken 2002. The latter I have installed on a FAT 32 partition and run via Wine. The former, not a hope. Otherwise I would ditch Windows altogether. There is a world of difference between my own machine and my similarly specced work laptop which is Windows only. Windows degrades with use, that is fact.

I am seriously concerned here. With daily Windows use there is likely to come a time when something will go wrong which means that a reinstall is called for. There is no installation disk. Is there no recovery disk either? If not, what will be done when or if things go pear-shaped? How will user data be recovered?

My advice would be to leave kubuntu available on the machine - the only inconvenience surely is to select windows from the grub menu. If that's a problem, can grub not be configured to use Windows as the default with say a 2 second delay before loading? If things go wrong at least there will be a recovery option which, at the moment, doesn't seem to be in the plan.

Just my thoughts.

ian

[pookito]

Re: Erasing Ubuntu

Guys, you have been so great. thank you for all your advices. Now I know what to do.