Uninstall Ubuntu

[Barny]

Im sure your all fed up hearing this, but. I installed Ubuntu side by side
with my current XP. It automatically partitioned my hard drive to accommodate
it. I then decided I don't like it but Im unable to uninstall it. No matter
where I look no ones instructions seem to work!
Booting up is also tricky now as there is something at startup called 'grub'
which defaults to Ubuntu unless you catch it in time to select XP.

Can anyone please help. I want to remove startup Grub, Ubuntu o/s, and
reclaim back all my harddrive by removing the partition.

 

[Paul]

Im sure your all fed up hearing this, but. I installed Ubuntu side by side
with my current XP. It automatically partitioned my hard drive to accommodate
it. I then decided I don't like it but Im unable to uninstall it. No matter
where I look no ones instructions seem to work!
Booting up is also tricky now as there is something at startup called 'grub'
which defaults to Ubuntu unless you catch it in time to select XP.

Can anyone please help. I want to remove startup Grub, Ubuntu o/s, and
reclaim back all my harddrive by removing the partition.

It says to try "fixmbr" from the recovery console, here. The implication
is that the first sector on the disk, sector 0, has had the code section
replaced, to point to the rest of the grub boot loader. The WinXP
recovery console has a command, to put the WinXP version of that code
back in place.

http://tr.opensuse.org/SDB:Uninstalling_the_Boot_Manager_GRUB_from_the_MBR

As always, if you do a backup of the entire disk, if this advice doesn't work
out, you can always put everything back the way it was. For example, you can
use your Linux LiveCD, and the "dd" command, to copy one disk to another for
backup purposes. And using such a sector by sector backup method, means it
doesn't matter what file systems are in use, they'll all get properly
backed up.

The MBR is a single sector, jam packed with goodies. They mention here, for
added fun and complexity, that the primary partition table entries (four 16
byte records, out of the total 512 bytes), can be moved to some other sector,
so some boot loaders can be so damaging as to hide the proper partition table
entries. Which to me, is a scary, single direction approach to modifying the
MBR. If that were the case here, you'd want to find out where the 4 * 16 bytes
of your partition table went.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record

Major parts (simplified view)

Code area (how Windows starts to boot) 446 bytes
Partition table 4 * 16 bytes 64 bytes
Signature AA55, proof of ownership 2 bytes
Total 512 bytes

A tool like FIXMBR in WinXP Recovery Console, would overwrite the 446 byte part,
and should keep the other 66 bytes. Plus or minus.

While you're in Linux, you can make a copy of the MBR, for safe keeping.
Of course, if you backed up the entire disk, you'd also get a copy that
way. To back up the MBR would look like

dd if=/dev/hda of=my_mbr.dd bs=512 count=1

What that would do, in either Windows or Linux, would be to write a file
called "my_mbr.dd" in the current working directory. You have to figure
out the name of the disk, such as /dev/hda, as well. It isn't a given that
is the name. If you didn't like the results of your FIXMBR attempt, then
putting the MBR back, should repair it.

dd if=my_mbr.dd of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1

The purpose of using block_size and count in the second instance, is
as insurance to guarantee that no more than sector 0 is affected. The
first command, uses block_size and count, to limit the amount of stuff
captured, to just one sector.

Doing the following, can back up a whole disk to another disk. Sure, there
are other details to worry about (like having enough room to do the command),
but this is the basic idea.

dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdb

That basically makes a "clone" of hda to hdb. I've made backups a few
times like that, when doing surgery where I didn't know what I was doing
As long as you have your "clone" backup disk, and a Linux LiveCD, you can
reverse that and put it all back.

Safety first and have fun,
Paul

 

[Thee Chicago Wolf [MVP]]

Im sure your all fed up hearing this, but. I installed Ubuntu side by side

with my current XP. It automatically partitioned my hard drive to accommodate
it. I then decided I don't like it but Im unable to uninstall it. No matter
where I look no ones instructions seem to work!
Booting up is also tricky now as there is something at startup called 'grub'
which defaults to Ubuntu unless you catch it in time to select XP.

Can anyone please help. I want to remove startup Grub, Ubuntu o/s, and
reclaim back all my harddrive by removing the partition.

What you'll have to do is use a partition editor to blow away ubuntu.
There is no way to uninstall it because it's an operating system, not
a program. After removing it, you'll have to drop to DOS and run fix
boot and fixmbr to blow away the grub boot loader. Back up what you
don't want to lose though.

- Thee Chicago Wolf [MVP]

 

[Paul]

Just a thought. Why can't you just delete all the files from the
entire ubuntu partition while booted to XP? Then all you have to do
is fix whatever file controls the dual booting.
Just a thought !!!

And if you accomplish this, use something like Partition Magic to
change your partitions, unless you want to leave them as is....

If you install WinXP, then install Ubuntu, something like Grub might be
your boot loader. If you delete the Ubuntu partition, you might be trashing
the few files that Grub uses. Then you wouldn't be able to boot the machine,
at least until you fixed things. You'd then be in a situation, where
you're forced to fix it, so you could use WinXP.

I would prefer to attempt to fix it, while the Ubuntu partition is still
present. And do it in a way that is reversible. Such as back up the MBR,
try to use Fixmbr to make WinXP work alone, and if that didn't work, I
could always put the MBR back (so I could continue to use the machine,
while I figure out what to do next). Deleting the partition first, using the big
hammer, only forces the issue, and means you're looking at a dead machine
until you figure it out.

So whatever way you do it, you should have a fallback plan if your attempt
fails.

Paul

 

[Keith Snyder]

Im sure your all fed up hearing this, but. I installed Ubuntu side by side
with my current XP. It automatically partitioned my hard drive to
accommodate
it. I then decided I don't like it but Im unable to uninstall it. No
matter
where I look no ones instructions seem to work!
Booting up is also tricky now as there is something at startup called
'grub'
which defaults to Ubuntu unless you catch it in time to select XP.

Can anyone please help. I want to remove startup Grub, Ubuntu o/s, and
reclaim back all my harddrive by removing the partition.

Use rescue mode from your WinXP install CD. As your machine boots, you may
have to hit a PF key to drop into boot time options to select "boot from CD"
if that is what your installation medium is, and you don't already have boot
from CD set. It doesn't hurt to make sure.

Then continue with the boot. You should be booting from the CD. At some
point, you will be asked if you want rescue mode. Reply yes. That should
drop you into a DOS command line. From that command line type
/fixmbr

When you installed Linux, grub replaced the Master Boot Record with its own.
grub also squirreled away the original Windows MBR. You cannot just wipe out
the Linux partition, it can make your machine unbootable.

Alternatively, this does not restore the Windows MBR, but it will cause grub
to boot WinXP instead of Ubuntu. Get hold of the grub documentation and read
it! Granted, it is not a fun read, it is English written by a German but it
can be done.

Boot up Ubuntu, log on as root with your appropriate password, then use
gedit to edit grub's menu. IIRC, it is located in /boot/grub/menu. There
will be an uncommented line saying "default n" where n is the number of a
bootable operating system. There may be several Ubuntus due to updates. Look
thru the list of bootable OSs, then counting from zero, change "n" to the
position of Win XP. Make sure you count from zero. Save menu and reboot. Now
you will default to Win Xp.

Been there, done that.

 

[mycomputer3]

Alternatively, this does not restore the Windows MBR, but it will cause grub
to boot WinXP instead of Ubuntu. Get hold of the grub documentation and read
it! Granted, it is not a fun read, it is English written by a German but it
can be done.

I wont allow any thing having to do with Linux anywhere near my
computer !!!

There are so many different versions of Linux that no one knows what
the hell is going on with it. I hate MS, but at least we all know
what XP or Win98, or Win7 is, and there's always someone to help.
Linux is only for geeks, who want to spend all their time tinkering
with computers that they really cant use for anything. I once tried
to install it on an old computer that I planned to toss in the trash.
The version I got was supposed to install on this old computer.
Halfway thru the install it crashed and locked up. I tossed the
computer in the garbage with the linux cd still in the drive.

If linux was as good as a few people say, they would have settled on
one version of it years ago, and made something of it. I hope that
sometime soon there comes an OS from another company besides MS, but
until that day, I'll stick to a MS operating system which is
universally recognized and has support (IN ENGLISH).

 

[Billns]

I wont allow any thing having to do with Linux anywhere near my
computer !!!

There are so many different versions of Linux that no one knows what
the hell is going on with it. I hate MS, but at least we all know
what XP or Win98, or Win7 is, and there's always someone to help.
Linux is only for geeks, who want to spend all their time tinkering
with computers that they really cant use for anything. I once tried
to install it on an old computer that I planned to toss in the trash.
The version I got was supposed to install on this old computer.
Halfway thru the install it crashed and locked up. I tossed the
computer in the garbage with the linux cd still in the drive.

If linux was as good as a few people say, they would have settled on
one version of it years ago, and made something of it. I hope that
sometime soon there comes an OS from another company besides MS, but
until that day, I'll stick to a MS operating system which is
universally recognized and has support (IN ENGLISH).

There's also a Macintosh OS with support in English. <g>

Bill