How to uninstall linux without disk. Removing Linux from a Computer


Using the Ubuntu distribution as an example. In this article, we will look at the reverse process, which sooner or later will have to be resorted to by those users who do not like Linux. How to uninstall Linux installed on one Windows machine? How to get Windows bootloader back?

To completely get rid of Linux, you need to restore the Windows bootloader, delete the Linux files and resolve the issue with the future fate of the disk space that was allocated for installing this operating system (the swap partition and the partition with the files of Linux itself). Below we will consider 3 ways to remove Linux and return the Windows bootloader. Two of them are methods for computers based on a regular BIOS, they will differ in the tools used. The third way is to remove the Linux bootloader from the boot list of computers with a UEFI BIOS. All the operations described below are carried out inside Windows.

1. Bootice Utility and Windows Disk Management

For the first way to remove Linux and restore the Windows bootloader, you will need two utilities - a third-party free Bootice and a regular diskmgmt.msc (disk management).

1.1. Restoring the Windows bootloader with Bootice

First of all, download the Bootice utility from its official website. For computers based on a regular BIOS, the 32-bit or 64-bit edition of the utility does not matter. After unpacking Bootice, run it. On the first tab, select the desired hard drive from the drop-down list if there are several of them connected. And click the "Process MBR" button.

In the window that appears for Windows 7, 8.1 and 10, select the option "Windows NT 6.x MBR". In the case of Windows XP, you need to select the option above - "Windows NT 5.x MBR". Next, click the "Install / Config" button.

We confirm.

The Windows bootloader has been restored.

1.2. Deleting Linux Partitions in Windows Disk Management

After restoring the Windows bootloader, we go to the standard disk management utility. Press the Win + R keys and enter its name:

In the utility window, we delete two Linux partitions - specially prepared before installing it manually or automatically created by this system. In the latter case, as a rule, the Linux partitions on the hard drive are located immediately after the Windows system partition. Not understanding the Linux file system, the Windows operating system does not give letters to its partitions, and, accordingly, they cannot be displayed in Explorer. But in any case, it is better to focus on these signs and on the sizes of Linux partitions. To delete Linux partitions on each of them, you need to call the context menu and select "Delete Volume".

The freed disk space can then be arranged here, in the disk management utility, into a partition or several partitions acceptable for Windows (in the NTFS file system format). Details on creating simple partitions using standard Windows tools can be found in.

2. AOMEI Partition Assistant

An alternative way to get rid of Linux and return the Windows bootloader for users of computers based on a regular BIOS can offer a functional program for working with disk space AOMEI Partition Assistant. All the necessary tools for these purposes are available in the free edition of the program Standard Edition. In the AOMEI Partition Assistant window on the side toolbar, in the "Disk Operations" block, select "MBR Recovery".

In the window that appears, from the drop-down list, select the type of bootloader for the corresponding versions of Windows.

The program will warn you that after the planned operation, Linux will stop loading. Click "Yes".

Then apply the operation with the green button at the top of the "Apply" window.

We go through a couple of stages in order to confirm our intentions.

Everything, the operation is applied.

We confirm the removal of each of the sections.

And we make out the vacated space into a partition (or partitions) with a file system understandable for Windows. In the context menu on the unallocated space, select "Create Partition".

If only part of the space is allocated for the partition, specify the desired size. Click "OK".

We apply planned operations.

3. Removing the Linux Boot Loader in the UEFI BIOS Boot Queue

To remove the Linux bootloader on computers with a UEFI BIOS, we will use the Bootice utility mentioned in paragraph 1 of the article. But in this case, you need to download its 64-bit edition. This provides a special tab "UEFI". Go to this tab, click the "Edit boot entries" button.

On the left, select the Linux bootloader, in this case Ubuntu. And press the "Del" button below.

The bootloader has been removed from the UEFI boot queue.

Operations to remove Linux partitions and create new partitions with a Windows-friendly file system can be done using any of the methods described above - in p.p. 1.2 and 2 articles.

Have a great day!

If you have never worked with Linux before, you will probably find everything unusual after installation, and you will want to remove this system. We will look at several options for removing Linux.

The easiest way to remove the system is to install Windows over Linux by formatting the disk. We will consider this option using the example of Windows 7. At the time of choosing the type of installation, after accepting the license agreement, you will need to specify the partition where the system will be installed. You will need to select "Disk Setup", then select the partitions on which the program to be removed is installed and start formatting the disk. You can choose to keep existing partitions or partition the disk again. After you install Windows, Linux will be removed from your computer. If you want to install another version of Linux, then you need to act in the same way - mark up the disk, delete the old data.


If Windows is installed, then to remove Linux, you must remove the hard disk partitions that correspond to the system being removed.


How is this process carried out?

Windows needs to be loaded (logged in with an administrator account). Next, press Win + R, and then open the Disk Management utility by entering "diskmgmt.msc". Now you need to select the partitions that belong to Linux. We click on each of them with the right button and delete.

Not only the partition is deleted, but also all the information that was stored in it.


Advice

If any important files are stored on the system being deleted, then copy them to a flash card, or transfer them to partitions owned by Windows.

After the partitions are removed, there will be space that needs to be allocated to the Windows environment. To expand a section, right-click on the required section and select "Expand". Next, specify the amount by which you want to expand the partition. If you don't want to expand existing partitions, you can simply create new ones.


Bootloader Recovery

After that, the computer must be restarted, but Windows will not start. Along with Linux, the bootloader was removed. This is not a bug, but just a consequence of installing Linux in a Windows environment. During installation, it is clear that there is a second system, so removing Linux also removes the bootloader. And now it must be installed using the Windows installation disc. We connect the disk on which the distribution is stored. Go to the "System Restore" section, where you need to select "Command Prompt". To restore the bootloader, you must enter two commands:

  • To create a bootrec /fixmbr boot entry
  • To write the boot sector to the bootrec /fixboot system partition

After each command, you must press the "Enter" key. Now the bootloader is restored and the system will start. In the case of installing a new version of Linux, you will need to follow the same steps.

Conclusion:

There are several ways to remove a system. The simplest is to install a new one on top of the old system. If you need to remove Linux in a Windows environment, then you need to delete the partitions that belong to Linux in disk management and redistribute the free space to Windows.


Removing linux and reinstalling windows

It happens that in order to solve certain problems, you need to install Ubuntu on top of the Windows operating system on your computer. After a while, the need for it may disappear, and then you already need to remove Ubuntu so that it does not affect Windows in any way. Just with this question, many users have difficulties. In this article, we'll take a detailed look at how to safely uninstall Ubuntu without uninstalling Windows. Let's figure it out. Go!

If you try to insert a Windows boot disk and boot from it, you will see a prompt to install Windows on the screen. In this case, you must select the item "System Restore".

After the command line window appears on the screen, write the following commands:


The first one makes a boot entry in the system directory, and the second one makes a new boot sector.

Executing these two commands will cause the PC to immediately boot from Windows. But you need to get rid of the residual files (artifacts) of Ubuntu. More on this below.

There are several ways to solve this problem. The first is that you need to call the "Run" window, using the Win + R hot keys, and then write the "msconfig" command. Next, go to the "Download" tab and activate the "Set as default" item for the OS you want to keep. Then go to the "Control Panel" and select the "System" section. In the window that opens, open the "Advanced" tab. Below in the "Download and Recovery" section, click on the "Settings" button. Remove the checkboxes from the items "Display a list of operating systems" and "Display recovery options". Click OK.

Now enter the command prompt mode with administrator rights and run the command:

With this system utility, you will be able to remove Ubuntu from the boot menu of operating systems. Right-click on the Ubuntu identifier, after which a context menu will be displayed, and in which you must select "Mark". Then a flickering cursor with arrows "right", "left", "up", "down" will appear. It is used to move. To select text, press and hold the Shift key along with the right arrow key. Next, by calling the context window, copy and paste the text where necessary with the same action. If you are an inexperienced user, it is better not to resort to the bcdedit application, so as not to create additional problems. If you are confident, go ahead.

Now you know how to remove Ubuntu from under Windows 7 or Windows 10. Write in the comments if you managed to cope with this task, tell other users about your experience, and ask any questions on the topic of this article.

    Burn the bootable disc to disk. You start the computer, insert the disk, in the BIOS you put "first boot device" your cd / dvd drive, reboot. After that, instead of Linux, the BIOS setup menu will start. You will reach the hard drives, select the item delete partition, just a hard drive with free space will appear. Next, it will prompt you to format, select the full format, then the installation of Windows will begin. That's it, just wait for the end and choose the options you need if it asks.

    Delete from hard? on it only linux and now you want to install 7 from the disk? so just put formatting and everything = /, if not as I thought, describe the situation in more detail
    But how can the format be made from under Linux
    P.S. this is Li n pus not Li m pus))

    So ask questions, we will help. What are the difficulties?
    And do not listen to programming, the latest distributions are quite user-friendly.

  • I reinstalled Windows a couple of days ago. Linux then completely demolished .. otherwise the disk is very small .. 2 operating systems are cramped there ....

    ps and if someone has MacOS or FreeBSD =)

  • windows ... for laptops that are designed for it and for any PC - Games fly with a bang
    MAC - for MAC (requests a lot of money)
    Linux - for everything - but you can't play games - free

    on servers that require greater reliability, they put it ...

    what do you mean you tried to install through the bios?

    We insert the disk with the installation of Windows, and follow the instructions of the installer, where we see a list of partitions, we will format the desired one.
    The only thing that may be necessary is to change the boot priority of devices in the BIOS.

    Although I would advise you to ask a friend better, and explain on your fingers

    You can write entire volumes about the differences between Linux and Windows! I think one of the main differences is open-source Linuxa, i.e. the kernel code is available, which means we change it.

    linux:
    +open architecture, server-friendly, good security, few existing viruses
    - few games, entertainment software, unusual

    Windows:
    + familiarity, popularity, huge selection of software, versatility
    - rather weak protection, the architecture is inconvenient for building a server

Linux is, first and foremost, a free system, it is open source, completely free and developed by millions of programmers around the world. But if you don't like it and you prefer to choose Windows. This is your choice. Let's say you installed Ubuntu, tried it, didn't like it, and now want to uninstall it.

In this article, we will look at how to uninstall Ubuntu using Widnows. We will consider the option when you have a dual boot of Windows and Linux. If you only have Ubuntu, then there is nothing to say, just format the partitions and install Windows. Now let's move on to the instructions.

How to remove Ubuntu 16.04 from Windows

It's possible to uninstall the system through Ubuntu itself, but you'll need Windows anyway to restore the bootloader, so it's best to do everything on one system at once. Next, let's look at how to remove Ubuntu from under Windows Many users advise to format the partition with Ubuntu first, but we will always have time to do this. First you need to restore the Windows bootloader so that you don’t end up in an unpleasant situation later - neither Ubuntu nor Windows will boot. Follow all the steps below to complete the process successfully:

Step 1: Run the Image

To remove Ubuntu and restore the Windows bootloader, you will need a boot disk with your operating system installed. For example, I have Windows 10. Insert it into the CD-ROM and restart the computer. In the BIOS, choose to boot from disk:

After the disc loads, leave the default language and click "Further":

And in the next window of the wizard, select "Windows Recovery":

Step 2. Command line

On the next screen, select "Diagnostics":

Then "Extra options":

And then "Command line":

Step 3Repairing the Bootloader

To restore the original Windows bootloader you will need to run two commands, first run:

>bootrec /FixMbr

>bootrec /FixBoot

The first command removes the Grub bootloader from the MBR and restores it to its default state. The second installs the Widnows bootloader there.

Then click the cross to close the console. On the screen that appears, select "Proceed":

Step 5Disk Management

When the system boots, it will no longer ask you to select an OS. Now you have to remove partitions from Ubuntu. Right click on the icon This computer and choose "Control":

Then go to the tab "Disk Management":

Step 6: Ubuntu Partitions

You probably know where your Ubuntu partitions are. You created them here. Usually, these are several sections:

  • Bootloader section - 100-300 Mb;
  • Swap partition - 2-8 GB;
  • Root partition - 20-30 GB;
  • Home section.

Now all this needs to be removed. Repeat the operation for each of the Ubuntu partitions. Right click on it and select Delete volume:

Then confirm the deletion:

Step 7Create a Volume

In order to be able to use the freed space in Windows, after the ubuntu uninstallation is complete, you need to create a new volume. To do this, click on the free space and select "Create Simple Volume":

Then you need to go to a simple volume creation wizard. Leave the default size:

Choose a letter for the new drive:

Then formatting to NTFS:

You now have more file space that was taken up by Ubuntu:

As you can see, how to remove ubuntu without removing windows is very simple.

How to uninstall Ubuntu in UEFI

If you want to remove Ubuntu from a computer that uses UEFI, then working with the bootloader will be done a little differently. Only the deletion of partitions will take place in the same way.

To remove the bootloader, you will need the Bootice utility, which you can download from the softpedia site. UEFI installs multiple bootloaders per partition. And this means that the Windows bootloader is not damaged, it's just that Grub has more priority.

Run the utility, go to the tab " UEFI" and press "Edit Boot Enteries". In the window that opens, you can completely remove the Ubuntu bootloader using the button Del and then you will only have to delete the partitions.

conclusions

In this article, we looked at how to completely remove Ubuntu 16.04 or any other version from your computer without affecting Windows. As you can see, everything is quite simple. If you have any questions, ask in the comments!







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