linux: Yet another question. (or two)Which is e

Mike (

poseidon) wrote in

linux,
@ 2008-03-19 18:08:00

Yet another question. (or two)

Which is easier?

Does Ubuntu have a way to purge itself from my system (including grub)? or Is there a way to remove grub from my system so that my computer stops asking me which operating system I want, and just boot into windows if I just use windows to convert my linux partitions into NTFS?

Thanks again!

(Post a new comment)

	zenten 2008-03-19 05:15 pm UTC (link)
	Converting the partition won't get rid of the initial loading screen. I believe there is a utility on the XP restore disk (I'm not sure how it works in Vista, and you used to be able to do this in 98 by just booting into command line safe mode) that will restore the MBR for you. I haven't heard of a tool for Ubuntu that will do all this for you. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	neonleonb 2008-03-19 05:23 pm UTC (link)
	I thought the command to restore the boot sector (and purge grub) in windows was "fdisk /mbr". I thought that could be run from a command-prompt window, but I'm not sure. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	zenten 2008-03-19 06:30 pm UTC (link)
	It doesn't in XP, unless you're doing so from the recovery CD. It did work in 98. I'm unsure about the versions of Windows inbetween. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	poseidon 2008-03-19 05:31 pm UTC (link)
	yeah, the command is fixboot, but unfortunately it doesn't work. I don't know if this is a limitation of windows or if grub protects itself in some way. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	pengshui_master 2008-03-19 05:47 pm UTC (link)
	Nope. Try 'fixmbr' instead. (From the install cd's recovery console) Fixboot, just I believe does the bootmgr, ntldr and there data structures. It not quite clear what they precisely do beyond the names, but I always have to fixboot & fixmbr after cloning ntfs partitions is they are to be bootable. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	topbit 2008-03-19 05:44 pm UTC (link)
	You could just set grub to auto-boot into windows with no count-down default=0 timeout=0 hiddenmenu (and whatever it uses to boot to windows, chainloader, or something) (Reply to this)(Thread)

	lightning_rose 2008-03-19 06:23 pm UTC (link)
	That won't work if the Linux partitions are reformatted. (Reply to this)(Parent)

odubtaig
2008-03-19 10:18 pm UTC (link)

OK, done this enough times that I can say fixboot (never heard of it) and fdisk /mbr (older Windows versions) are the wrong answers.

Assuming you have a WinXP install CD:

Boot from the CD
When presented with install/repair, choose repair by pressing R
Assuming you only have the one Windows install, type '1' and Enter (just pressing Enter reboots)
Enter your Administrator password
run 'fixmbr'
run 'exit'

Other things to note:

While Vista can resize NTFS partitions (but not FAT32), XP can't.
Windows has this hideous habit of enforcing that partitions 1-3 will be primary while partition 4 will be extended whether you like it or not, sometimes booting Ubuntu live and running fdisk is a lifesaver.
GParted can't do external USB attached drives for toffee.
WinXP SP2 still wouldn't know a SATA drive it one bit it on the arse.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321626/en-us

Edited at 2008-03-19 10:24 pm UTC

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	poseidon 2008-03-19 11:16 pm UTC (link)
	awesome. worked like a charm (fixmbr) I only wish that win XP had a way to just absorb my old linux partition into the main windows partition. ahh well, I didn't feel like putting in the effort of fixing my linux os, i'm certainly not going to spend the time fixing the rest of this. thanks for your help. i appreciate it. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

aipaloovik
2008-03-20 06:39 pm UTC (link)

Even though you've figured it out, my solution could possibly solve all of what you were lookin' for. Since I do the same thing on a regular basis with my lappy, I simply use GParted to remove the partitions and resize XP all in one go. Then use

odubtaig's XP recovery console spiel. But in addition to the "fixmbr" I also use the "fixboot" command also. Just a thought.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	pengshui_master 2008-03-19 11:52 pm UTC (link)
	While Vista can resize NTFS partitions (but not FAT32), XP can't. I Think you'll find that XP can resize partitions - diskpart in 2003 and xp has the extend the command. But the filesystem cannotbe mounted to do this. It looks like vista can resize mounted partitions. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	odubtaig 2008-03-22 12:39 pm UTC (link)
	Gah, I guess that's my MCSE level knowledge of Windows showing through xoO (Reply to this)(Parent)

	suppressingfire 2008-03-20 02:45 am UTC (link)
	You can boot with the Ubuntu desktop CD and use the mbr package to install a simple MBR (using the install-mbr program) that boots from the boot partition, which you can set to be the windows partition using fdisk (or gparted). (Reply to this)

	phrench_phried 2008-03-20 08:57 am UTC (link)
	P.S. Once you've got your mbr the way you like it, I would think that you could boot from a live cd that has gparted on it (knoppix does for sure) and resize your NTFS partition to take up the whole hard drive. I've never tried it, but it seems like it should work. (Reply to this)

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