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When I built my current computer I wanted to play around with Linux, so I installed it along with 32-bit XP and 64-bit Vista. I haven't used Ubuntu much at all (never got sound, TV-tuner or video drivers working right) and I'm starting to run short of space on my hard drive. What do I need to do to remove Ubuntu and still be able to boot into either version of Windows? I was thinking that I'd just boot from my Ubuntu CD and change all the Linux partitions into a new NTFS one, and if Windows wouldn't boot after that, use my Vista disc to try and repair the boot loader. (After backing everything up, of course.)

Any advice?

It has been years since I've dual booted a machine like this, Mandrake/win2000 set up. When I wanted to go to Win2000 full time, I could not get the LILO off the boot sector. So I had to drop some money for a new Hard drive.

So sorry I have no real advice just as you said, back everything up.

figmentPez said:

When I built my current computer I wanted to play around with Linux, so I installed it along with 32-bit XP and 64-bit Vista. I haven't used Ubuntu much at all (never got sound, TV-tuner or video drivers working right) and I'm starting to run short of space on my hard drive. What do I need to do to remove Ubuntu and still be able to boot into either version of Windows? I was thinking that I'd just boot from my Ubuntu CD and change all the Linux partitions into a new NTFS one, and if Windows wouldn't boot after that, use my Vista disc to try and repair the boot loader. (After backing everything up, of course.)

Any advice?

Click to expand...

That sounds like it should be good.

In case anyone was wondering, I did finally get around to doing it, after buying an external HDD to backup. I didn't do things quite as I planned. I used the disk manager in Windows to delete the Linux partitions, and getting the computer to stop booting from GRUB wasn't as easy as I'd hoped, but it was pretty easy. The option to repair boot from the Vista install disk doesn't realize that there is a problem to be fixed unless Windows tries to boot and fails. However, there is also an option to go to a command prompt and things can be fixed from there. "bootrec /fixmbr" allowed my computer to boot up again, and hopefully nothing will go wrong with future boots.

Even though I did successfully delete the Linux partitions, Windows doesn't seem to want to format that space now. I'm going to try booting from my Ubuntu CD and see if I can format the space as NTFS from there.

The Ubuntu partition manager will let you at least set it as FAT32.

Shakey said:

The Ubuntu partition manager will let you at least set it as FAT32.

Click to expand...

I got Gparted to format it to NTFS, but only after a bit of work. For some reason the partition kept getting mounted as ext3, even after I unmounted it. Eventually it played nice and I've got a nice new partition to move my media to and clear up some space elsewhere.