Dual boot system Windows XP Pro and Linux

[Gene]

I have a system running Windows XP Professional and Mepis In a dual boot configuration using the dual boot utility which came with the Mepis install. For reasons not pertinent to this question I need to remove Mepis from the system while leaving the windows operating system intact and functioning. Both operating systems are installed on the same physical hard drive in different partitions.

I've asked how to accomplish this task a few places and mostly get silence or anti Microsoft tirades. If someone here can offer advice on how to accomplish my mission with minimal angst I would be grateful.

I do of course have up to date backups but hope it will not be necessary to use them! <Grin>

[Restrikted]

I've never used Mepis, but I'm pretty sure Ubuntu comes with a complete uninstall utility, which formats that partition and adds it on to Windows. You might want to check if your distro has the same type of program.

Another method (I WOULDN'T recommend this), which I used a few months ago when I uninstalled Ubuntu, is to just use Partition Magic, format the partition, add the empty space back onto windows, and reboot. However, this was before I realized Ubuntu had a simple program to remove itself. Anyway, when I rebooted, I think it said something along the lines of not being able to access the operating system and threw some weird error code at me (probably because the linux partition was before the xp partition). I did a quick Google search on another computer, and I just had to use a simple command to fix the problem. Everything was left intact luckily.

Anyway, that's about all the info I can give. I'm not the most well-versed in this type of thing, so take any advice above with a grain of salt.

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

Have you tried the Ubuntu forums? I know that it's a different distro, but they have a section where you can get help for stuff besides Ubuntu. For the most part people are really nice and helpful there...they've walked me through all my questions when I switched to Linux.

Sorry I don't have the answer, but hopefully you can find it there!

[WageMage]

Originally Posted by Gene

I do of course have up to date backups but hope it will not be necessary to use them! <Grin>

GOOD! Common sense check passed, congratulations, it's incredible how many people forget this.

Hi, fundamentally you have either LiLo or GrUB doing your boot managing - the trick here is to bypass that and boot directly into windows. Now there's a few ways you can go about this:


1) FDISK... yes, our friend from way back in the DOS days - go into a command prompt in windows, type fdisk -mbr ... or /mbr... well, google around (sorry, no windows box to test it), the important thing is to run it with the MBR (Master Boot Record) switch - it'll overwrite LiLo/GrUB and boot directly into windows. You can then re-approriate the space in the linux partition from volume management.

2) A "rescue install" or somesuch of windows will do it. Slightly sub-optimal, though.

3) Re-installing windows will absolutely do it. It is, however, sub-optimal as hell.

If you're stuck pm me, I'll take a more careful look at it.

Cheers!

PS: <insert anti-microsoft rant here>

[JimC]

What WageMage said, I would agree with. But the easiest route, in my opinion, would be to save your important files and just reformat the whole drive and put a fresh copy of Windows on.

This would prevent future problems from the previous set ups you've had and you get a fresh install of the OS. Then just put your files back on.

[Brutha]

Have you tried the Ubuntu forums? I know that it's a different distro, but they have a section where you can get help for stuff besides Ubuntu. For the most part people are really nice and helpful there...they've walked me through all my questions when I switched to Linux.

They probably not that nice when you ask about how to switch to windows and I guess that were the anti Microsoft tirades Gene was talking about.

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

Originally Posted by Brutha

They probably not that nice when you ask about how to switch to windows and I guess that were the anti Microsoft tirades Gene was talking about.

Yeah, there are some like that, but they help people out all the time with Windows stuff. There's even a separate forum for Windows questions. It should be a helpful place, despite some annoying fanboys.

[ragtag]

Just restore the master boot record as mentioned earlier.

There are also tools that let you expand existing partitions, so you should be able to make your old linux partition one with your C:/ drive on Windows, if that's what you want. Though I haven't tested any of these.

[Gene]

Originally Posted by ragtag

Just restore the master boot record as mentioned earlier.

There are also tools that let you expand existing partitions, so you should be able to make your old linux partition one with your C:/ drive on Windows, if that's what you want. Though I haven't tested any of these.

I found a friendly reception on the Mepis forums after I posted here. There were a few questions asking why switch but no abuse and I actually found a rather painless command line solution to my problem.

I like Linux and continue to use Linux, Mepis and Suse. This particular system is going in to an environment where windows is a challenge for some of the potential users and I wanted to simplify,

Thanks to all for listening and for suggesting solutions!