Uninstalling Linux: The “Dabang” Way

                Hello friends, a new blog post in after a really small gap. Well, a recent encounter with Ubuntu made me write this one. This one is for all who love playing with different Operating System. It shall have some technical terms in it. So if you hate technical stuff you might not want to strain your eyes more over here. Anyways, here I go.

                Linux is a coherent OS having myriad fans for its various variants. (But I am not one!). I recently installed one of the very popular distributions of Linux – Ubuntu 12.04 (alongside Windows 7, Dual boot mode). However, the installation had some problems, so after booting successfully twice, the third time it didn’t. I have always hated the GRUB boot loader (though being robust), for the messy way it lists all the OS at the startup. After I realized that there was no human way I could fix the Ubuntu installation, I made my mind to UNINSTALL it. You might come across multitude of articles over the net on how to INSTALL Ubuntu, but ones guiding its UNINSTALLATION might be really scarce. But, this blog post of mine aims to be one amongst those scarce ones. Here below I will present a method on UNINSTALLING any Linux installation (I will use Ubuntu as a reference here).

                The first fierce step towards Uninstalling LINUX is DELETE THE PARTITION. Yes, you read it correct. You shall first delete the partition on which you installed Linux. If you’re using Windows 7, this can be done by Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Computer Management->Disk Management->Storage.  See the partition on which Linux is installed, right click and select “Delete Volume”. (Don’t forget to back up any data that resides on that partition before you delete it). Now, the fun in doing this is, after you delete this partition, the next time you turn your PC on, IT WONT BOOT. Yes, you will realize that you just screwed your PC up. (That is why I titled the blog post as “DABANG” way). The reason for this is, when you install Linux, you install its bootloader also (GRUB in most of the cases, some prefer LILO). Now, when you delete the partition on which Linux resides, you also delete its BOOTLOADER. Now, when the PC boots up the next time, it eventually won’t find a bootloader and hence it won’t BOOT! Awesome nahi??

                For such an awesome problem, we have an awesome solution. To fix this up, to get the Windows Installation booting with the windows bootloader at the startup, there’s a very easy procedure. I’m assuming you’re using Windows 7 (Almost, the same procedure applies for other Windows versions also). So, now you know your PC wont boot. So, what you got to do is, put the Installation CD of Windows 7 in the CD Tray. Reboot the PC and boot from the CD. Do some time-pass selecting the crap – Language, Time Zone, etc… After that you will have a dialog box shown below:

Select “Repair Windows” in the dialog below. It will then search for existing windows installation and show the ones it finds in a new dialog.

Select the Windows Installation and click next.

(* There does exist an exception sometimes at this point. When you click on next, the prompt says something like “This version of repair can’t fix the windows installation you selected”. In this case, select the 2^nd option in the dialog “Restore the Computer using an image…” . It won’t find an image and it will say “Image not found”. Click “Cancel”. And close the dialog. After you do that, it will automatically present you with the repair options)

Select “Command Prompt” from the repair options.

In command prompt, enter the following code:

The code above, fixes up the corrupted Master Boot Record (due the deletion of Linux Partition). Now your MBR is updated, and the first entry points to Windows Bootloader. Type “exit” in the prompt and restart the system from the Repair dialog box.

Hence, now when you reboot the PC, you will be presented with Windows Boot Loader (if you have more than one OS still) or Windows 7 will directly boot as the first record in MBR points to Windows Boot Loader.

You will find things as they were and LINUX gone from your system.

This was a KILLER way to do things. Alternately, you can also do the same using EasyBCD (A Utility to configure the boot loader).

I loved doing this. Mainly because, the thrill you get when your PC is screwed up, the system doesn’t boot, you just seem to love the tension cropping up in your mind. Hope you liked reading it and I hope it would help you someday.

Love & Regards,

Anish.