How to remove Linux?

[jase888]

Hi

I have an old computer which I put Linux Ubuntu on to see what it was all about.

After having it on now for some while I have decided to revert back to windows xp but I believe I stupidly overwrite it when I put ubuntu on.

I have read you can revert computers back to original settings by pressing f10 and going through some commands this doesn't seem to work. I can either seem to wipe off ubuntu so i don't know if i buy a new xp edition it will work?

Any help appreciated

[stroyal]

I'm not an expert, but I can bumble my way through it.

The easiest way, is to download the hard drive manufacturers disk, and use that to partition and format.
Then you are good to go for a regular XP installation.

2nd would be use the Linux installation disk to format with NTFS,
You can then do an install of XP, but the boot loader is still screwed up, at the end of the installation.

However, you only have to re-wright the Master Boot Record, to fix it.

How to fix MBR in Windows XP and Vista


If you are dual booting, there must be a way to format and get rid of GRUB, without destroying your XP installation, but that is beyond me.

[stroyal]

I have gone back to Windows many times, but this time, I'm staying with Ubuntu on this laptop.
It had a messed up Vista install, that I couldn't save, and I had no media, so I temporarily loaded Ubuntu 11.10.
After a few weeks, I can see absolutely no reason for Win7, as I don't game, or sim, on this laptop.

There is nothing I can't do with this operating system, and it has no problem exchanging files, and printing to my Windows computers.


I'm trying the Beta 12.04, on some old boxes, and it only has a few user changes, and is stable, as far as I can see.
10.04.1 is the long term stable version, but 11.10 is ready for prime time.

It is nice to not have to have a virus, or malware program.

[SpaceSquad]

If you overwrote the Windows partition then you should follow the above advice of just wiping the drive and fixing mbr.

But, is the issue that you just don't have an entry for windows in your grub menu? Because that can be added (ubuntu SHOULD have done this) quite easily.

edit/ I suppose you might not know how to check. An easy way is to open a terminal session and type (as root):

fdisk -l

or sudo instead of switching to root user

sudo fdisk -l

If you see "ntfs" in the far right column...chances are XP is still kicking around. Try that command out and post your output here...if it's there it'll be a two second fix.

[MONI555]

1. Start your computer with the Linux Setup floppy disk, type fdisk at the command prompt, and then press ENTER.
   Type p at the command prompt, and then press ENTER to display partition information.
2. The first item listed is hard disk 1, partition 1 information, and the second item listed is hard disk 1, partition 2 information.
3. Type d at the command prompt, and then press ENTER. You are then prompted for the partition number that you want to delete. Type 1, and then press ENTER to delete partition number 1. Repeat this step until all the partitions have been deleted.
4. Type w, and then press ENTER to write this information to the partition table. Some error messages may be generated but they should not be significant at this point because the next step is to restart the computer and then install the new operating system.
5. Type q at the command prompt, and then press ENTER to quit the FDisk tool.
6. Insert either a boot table floppy disk or the bootable Windows XP CD-ROM,
7. And then press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to restart your computer.