I need help removing Ubuntu and boot menu

Trondheim

Member
I installed a dual-boot Windows 7 - Ubuntu a few years back but now I need to remove Ubuntu.

I have already removed the Ubuntu entry from the boot menu in BCD, but the menu still comes up.

Now I need to know if the following steps are correct (and if there are missing things that I need to do):
- delete Ubuntu partitions from Windows Disk Management utility (could someone confirm is those are all the ones that aren't NTFS?)
- use BCD to write the MBR
- reboot

I'm assuming I'm missing something. Can it be this easy? I'm just a bit scared to do something wrong.

Thanks in advance for your help :smile:
 
I've been waiting for a week for an answer to this question also but it seems that nobody from bcd knows
and haven't replied so I guess were stuck
 
I've been waiting for a week for an answer to this question also but it seems that nobody from bcd knows
and haven't replied so I guess were stuck

Well, you're in luck. Given the no reply here, I did a bit more research and managed to figure out the solution.

Turns out it was just like I described in my first post. First, you launch EasyBCD and press "Write MBR", under "BCD Deployment". Make sure you choose the correct one for your system (Windows 7 vs XP).

Then you go into Windows' Disk Management utility and delete all the Ubuntu partitions. If you're not sure which ones they are (I wasn't), it turns out EasyBCD can help there too. Under "Add new entry" --> "Linux/BSD" --> "Drive" they will be listed, along with all your other partitions, but the Linux ones will be marked "Linux". Mine were, anyway. Write down the size to be able to identify them later and go back to disk management to delete them. If you're unlucky and have Windows and Linux partitions that are exactly the same size, remember that Linux ones are not NTFS.

After you deleted all the partitions, you'll have a bunch of "free space". Right click and choose "delete volume". This will enable you to go to your main partition and choose "extend volume" to make use of all that extra space.

I hope that helps.
 
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hello,thanks for your reply
but I'm using windows 8 x64 pro and the only thing that was loaded in my windows 8 boot loader was the ubuntu grub part .the partitions were on another hd
Is the process for win7 the same as win8 uefi ?

I had a previous system image saved so reloaded that after I destroyed my os messing with all the other so called solutions I found from my friend google
 
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ok,here's the deal ,I had to figure it out myself,no thanks to easybcd
get a ubuntu live dvd and boot off it
then open up the program "Disks" from the software programs they offer on the disk
find the windows HD on the list and mount he efi partition
open up the files app from the left side of screen and you will see the drive partition folder
delete the ubuntu folder.then restart your system and use easybcd to delete the ubuntu entee(s)
only then will the unbunu entree not keep coming back
I did with a ubuntu 13.10 live disk
thanks,bigcid10
 
Well, you're in luck. Given the no reply here, I did a bit more research and managed to figure out the solution.

Turns out it was just like I described in my first post. First, you launch EasyBCD and press "Write MBR", under "BCD Deployment". Make sure you choose the correct one for your system (Windows 7 vs XP).

Then you go into Windows' Disk Management utility and delete all the Ubuntu partitions. If you're not sure which ones they are (I wasn't), it turns out EasyBCD can help there too. Under "Add new entry" --> "Linux/BSD" --> "Drive" they will be listed, along with all your other partitions, but the Linux ones will be marked "Linux". Mine were, anyway. Write down the size to be able to identify them later and go back to disk management to delete them. If you're unlucky and have Windows and Linux partitions that are exactly the same size, remember that Linux ones are not NTFS.

After you deleted all the partitions, you'll have a bunch of "free space". Right click and choose "delete volume". This will enable you to go to your main partition and choose "extend volume" to make use of all that extra space.

I hope that helps.


If I have deleted the partitions first, and THEN write the MBR is that a problem? I don't want to lose my data on the Windows 7 partition.

My computer is up and running ( I have no intentions of turning it off until I know it's safe) with Windows 7 and I deleted my ubuntu partitions this morning , unfortunately without enough research...
 
It doesnt matter if you delete the partition first or you write the MBR. As long as the MBR is in place on the Windows drive and the BIOS is set to boot from that drive, then all shall be well. The only time you will see a problem come up is if Ubuntu is the first partition on the first drive. This is the most common place for the MBR to be written, and since Windows cant write to EXT partitions, that would mean that it would write it to another partition and could cause you issues. Since after you delete the partition, that is where the BIOS will look for the MBR. It wont be there giving you the dreaded OS Not Found error.

You could still recover it but you will have to format that first partition and from there recover the MBR using the recovery Media.

As for deleting the Partition, the Linux partitions will be in a format not recognized by Windows. Unless for some odd reason you formatted them to FAT32 to install Linux, they should all be EXt3 or EXT4 and from there you can easily distinguish that within the Disk Management screen. As they will be a different color and wont have a label that you can see. Easiest way to tell, open Computer. You see the drives and labels.

C:\Windows is the most common name. But if you didnt change the name it will just show up as C:\. Those are the Windows drives. The drives that have nothing not even a drive letter assignment, those are the Linux partitions.

Sorry that this seems like it went untouched. But we all do work full time jobs and do this in our spare time. Since we all have families and priorities along with so many topics being posted, it got over looked. If I am not mistaken, there should be at least 1 or 2 tutorials about such a process within Ubuntu's website. Just a quick Google search got me well over a Millions hits about this very subject. The first few are directly from Ubuntu's support forums. Almost all of them show how to do it without the use of EasyBCD at all.
 
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It doesnt matter if you delete the partition first or you write the MBR. As long as the MBR is in place on the Windows drive and the BIOS is set to boot from that drive, then all shall be well. The only time you will see a problem come up is if Ubuntu is the first partition on the first drive. This is the most common place for the MBR to be written, and since Windows cant write to EXT partitions, that would mean that it would write it to another partition and could cause you issues. Since after you delete the partition, that is where the BIOS will look for the MBR. It wont be there giving you the dreaded OS Not Found error.

You could still recover it but you will have to format that first partition and from there recover the MBR using the recovery Media.

As for deleting the Partition, the Linux partitions will be in a format not recognized by Windows. Unless for some odd reason you formatted them to FAT32 to install Linux, they should all be EXt3 or EXT4 and from there you can easily distinguish that within the Disk Management screen. As they will be a different color and wont have a label that you can see. Easiest way to tell, open Computer. You see the drives and labels.

C:\Windows is the most common name. But if you didnt change the name it will just show up as C:\. Those are the Windows drives. The drives that have nothing not even a drive letter assignment, those are the Linux partitions.

Sorry that this seems like it went untouched. But we all do work full time jobs and do this in our spare time. Since we all have families and priorities along with so many topics being posted, it got over looked. If I am not mistaken, there should be at least 1 or 2 tutorials about such a process within Ubuntu's website. Just a quick Google search got me well over a Millions hits about this very subject. The first few are directly from Ubuntu's support forums. Almost all of them show how to do it without the use of EasyBCD at all.

Thank you very much for your time and advice. I had done some googling but I wanted to be 100% sure what I was doing was not going to mess up my computer and I wanted to avoid the command line as much as possible. Thanks once again for the prompt reply.

But just so I'm sure, This is a screenshot of my disk management and EasyBCD.. just press Write MBR and I'm good to turn off my computer?
 
From what I see, yes. You should be just fine to write the MBR and reboot the machine. I see nothing on that disk management that tells me you will have an issue.
 
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