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Looking to uninstall Linux to get rid of GRUB

T

TJN23

Golden Member
Hey guys,

Basically I want to remove a 2nd hard drive from my system and give it to my brother.

I have a master 40 gig hd with Windows XP on it.

I have a second 80 gig slave hd, the first 60 used for data storage (NTFS), and the remaining 20 is a Linux Red Hat partition.

My current setup allows me to choose between Windows XP and Linux Red Hat using the GRUB program at bootup (I believe). I'd like to remove GRUB and uninstall Linux so I can safely format the hard drive and remove it from my system.

Any ideas where to start? I don't want to give this a go without checking here first.

TIA, I'll be gone until Wednesday so I appreciate any and all advice.

Tim
 
In windows do 'fdisk /mbr' that should rewrite your boot record so you boot into Windows, after that simply reformat the space
 
thanks, could i please get a more detailed explanation when someone has the chance?

edit: I have a program called MaxBlast, software that came with my maxtor hard drive. If I simply format the drive that has the linux partition on it, my computer should just boot up into windows right? I can just tell my BIOS to boot off my windows XP partition on a separate physical drive

TIA

Tim
 
this is just a 2nd hard drive that happens to have a linux partition on it, simply formatting it will not get rid of GRUB trying to let me choose to boot linux or windows on startup??
 
Originally posted by: TJN23
this is just a 2nd hard drive that happens to have a linux partition on it, simply formatting it will not get rid of GRUB trying to let me choose to boot linux or windows on startup??
Click to expand...

Is that a question?

Format the second drive. Then format the mbr on the first drive. What's the problem again?
 
yeah, my intent is not to do anything to the first drive housing my operating system.....

i'd just like to format the 2nd hard drive and pull it out of my system...
 
GRUB sits on your primary drive. fdisk /mbr on the first drive will not wipe the drive out, it'll just get rid of the GRUB bootloader - This is all you want to do, correct? Of course, you should back up your hard drive or at least backup the important data before you perform the operation just in case.

As for the second drive, you can use fdisk <second drive letter> to do with it what ever you'd like to do.
 
Hello, I'm wondering if the MBR can be set without the windows CD? I have a similar configuration and would like to detach a second hard drive that has linux installed. Is it possible to alter the MBR directly?
 
bump

I want to be able to change it without cds, since I have lost my xp and the linux cds I installed with have become scratched and unusable. Somehow the linux install has become unbootable. Trying to think of any other options.
 
the fix for the problem, when using XP/2000 is not /fdisk mbr, it's FIXMBR

I formatted my 2nd hard drive with the linux partition and then restarted my machine, booted off the windows CD, and got into recovery mode (pressing R) and typed FIXMBR, then y

restarted the machine and no more GRUB

Tim
 
yea, fdisk /mbr is off of a dos boot floppy, not recovery console, those are fixboot and fixmbr.

go to bootdisk.com and download a win98 boot disk, and boot off of it and run a fdisk /mbr to remove grub from the first drive, then just pull out the second drive and format it or whatever when installing it in your bro's system.
 
not a problem at all, i appreciate all the help and input,

looks like either /fdisk mbr from a DOS bootable floppy or fixmbr from your Windows 2000/XP CD would do the trick

thanks again

Tim
 
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