How to uninstall on a dual boot without messing up windows? (SOLVED)

[JakeLogan]

I used the live cd to install months ago and it's a dual boot with windows 7. My small drive (laptop) is out of hard drive space so I need to reclaim the 20 gigs on my drive to help copy and back up files from windows 7. How do I uninstall my pclinuxos without messing up my win 7 install?

[djohnston]

Boot from the PCLinuxOS live CD. Go to the PCLinuxOS Control Center > Local disks > Manage disk partitions. Delete the Linux partitions. AFTER you've deleted them, resize the Windows partition to include all the freed up space. Be sure you save all changes.

First time you boot Windows, it will start checkdisk. Let it finish. Windows will then reboot. Log into your Windows session. Give it 2 to 5 minutes. A popup notification will say it "found new hardware". (Right. It's the same disk.) Reboot.

You're good to go.
 

[JakeLogan]

Thanks ! I'll give it a shot. After I make a lot more room I wanna install the Full Monty version :-)

[Tony]

Please excuse me jumping in with a question (I'm curious, in no way queerying the advice):
*As  GRUB was the Bootloader whilst JakeLogan was Dual Booting with Windows 7; (presumed)
@ djohnston,
I take it that once the step; "Delete the Linux partitions" is completed, GRUB no longer exists, and with first reboot, > then CHKDSK >, Windows restores it's MBR (master Boot Record) ?
*Then booting into Windows there is no trace of GRUB, just a boot to Windows Login screen?
( I used to do something slightly different, restoring the Windows MBR)

Thankyou for clarification,
francis.

[Old-Polack]

Please excuse me jumping in with a question (I'm curious, in no way queerying the advice):
*As  GRUB was the Bootloader whilst JakeLogan was Dual Booting with Windows 7; (presumed)
@ djohnston,
I take it that once the step; "Delete the Linux partitions" is completed, GRUB no longer exists, and with first reboot, > then CHKDSK >, Windows restores it's MBR (master Boot Record) ?
*Then booting into Windows there is no trace of GRUB, just a boot to Windows Login screen?
( I used to do something slightly different, restoring the Windows MBR)

Thankyou for clarification,
francis.

Restoring the Windows MBR first is the correct procedure. Deleting the Linux partitions first will leave grub's stage1 in the MBR with no way to boot Windows until after running a rescue disk to restore the Windows boot code.

[djohnston]

You're both right. I wasn't thinking about the MBR.

Jake,

You need to boot from the WindowsCD. Select a language, a time, a currency, a keyboard or an input method, and then click Next. Click Repair your computer. Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt. Then enter:  BootRec.exe /fixmbr. Then enter: BootRec.exe /FixBoot. Boot from the hard drive to be sure it's working.

Then reboot to the PCLinuxOS live CD. Then do the steps previously given. If you've already followed those steps, you're probably cursing me now, as you can't boot Windows. Do the boot from the WindowsCD and run those two Windows commands from the Recovery Console. Then reboot from the hard drive.

I apologize for giving incomplete information.

[JakeLogan]

Thanks Djohnson.. er.. I didn't get around to trying the uninstall till this morning.. I followed your first suggestions and Poof.. remnants of Grub are still there and I can't boot into windows. Next steps I preformed were:

1. Panic.
2. Take lots of long slow vapes of of my 5 volt electronic cigarette allowing me to Think. ( analog cigarettes are so out of style <grin>)
3. I reasoned that it could only be Grub keeping me from accessing my OS and my windows data still must be intact. (sigh)
4. Hmm how to fix.. Reinstall PCLINUXOS and let that re-fix the grub boot file back to where it was before uninstall. That worked to gain windows access (bigger sigh) Yay!

And no.. I didn't curse you.. I remembered reading something about this problem others were having long ago. I know it's not possible for everyone to always remember everything.. Just don't forget your wife's birthday or your anniversary - and don't smoke analog cigarettes.

Now on to fix the problem the right way.. you say I need to boot into my windows CD? No can do. I have a laptop that did not come with a windows 7 dvd, just a partition locked off for reinstall of the OS from a clean formatted state. This of course will wipe 250 gigs of data I cannot back up right now. ( which is what I needed to do in the first place - I use Macrium Reflect to do a windows back up and cannot have PcLinuxOs installed when I do it)

How to get around this?

[buckeye]

Have you tried booting from a system or utility disk and running the Fix MBR utility?

[JakeLogan]

I do not have a system or utility disk. I'd try that.. if I had one.

[buckeye]

Um, have you tried holding F8 (or maybe F5) while booting to start Win in repair mode?  If you can do that, go to the repair mode and use the command fixmbr.  If you can't do that, you might need to download a bootable utility that will fix the MBR.

[JakeLogan]

Thanks for the info.. i found this for when you dont have a repair disk or a boot option such as you speak of.. I'm gonna try it.. http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/windows-7-recovery-disk-boot-disk/ it tells you how to make a recovery disk from the control panel if you dont have one.

[buckeye]

So you have another W7 computer to create a boot disk? Let me know if it boots the laptop ok.

[buckeye]

Hey, have you tried using the PCLinuxOS live CD to fix your boot loader?  Use the Configure Computer -> Boot -> Set up boot system.  Click Next and then Modify the boot list so it only has the windows boot partition in the list.

[djohnston]

Now on to fix the problem the right way.. you say I need to boot into my windows CD? No can do. I have a laptop that did not come with a windows 7 dvd, just a partition locked off for reinstall of the OS from a clean formatted state. This of course will wipe 250 gigs of data I cannot back up right now. ( which is what I needed to do in the first place - I use Macrium Reflect to do a windows back up and cannot have PcLinuxOs installed when I do it)

How to get around this?

Once again, I'm sorry I gave incomplete instructions. Once you installed GRUB, the first time, it blew away the possibility of using the recovery partition, unless you can reinstall the factory MBR.

What are you backing the data up to? External drive? If so, you can use the live CD to mount your partitions and copy everything. I must be missing something here. I thought your laptop HD was 20GBs.

[Old-Polack]

Hey, have you tried using the PCLinuxOS live CD to fix your boot loader?  Use the Configure Computer -> Boot -> Set up boot system.  Click Next and then Modify the boot list so it only has the windows boot partition in the list.

This will do nothing useful as the menu.lst file will be deleted along with the rest of the / partition.