How to Remove Linux Boot Loader From Startup After Deleting Linux Partition on a Dual-Boot System?

If you have a dual-boot system with Linux and Windows, then you probably know that when you start your system first Linux boot loader appears showing Linux as well as Windows boot entries and if you select Windows from the list, it starts Windows.

Suppose a situation when you want to remove Linux from your system and want to use only Windows, then how will you do it?

Many times people delete the partitions having Linux installed from "Disk Manager" but it doesnt remove Linux completely. The Linux boot loader still appears at startup but since you deleted Linux partitions, the boot loader gets corrupted and your system becomes unusable.

So if you are also facing this problem or you faced this problem in past and could not get a working solution, then read this tutorial and you can follow it if you find yourself in a similar situation.

This tutorial will help you in completely removing Linux from a dual-boot system:

1. First you'll need to boot using Windows setup CD. You can use Windows 98 Setup CD or Windows 2000, XP, 2003 CD or Windows Vista, Server 2008 DVD.

A. Using Windows 98 CD:

Boot into Command Prompt and provide following command:

fdisk /MBR

Now exit from command prompt by typing Exit and press Enter.

B. Using Windows 2000, XP, 2003 CD:

Enter into "Recovery Console" by pressing "R", select your Windows installation and enter administrator password. Now provide following command:

fixmbr

Press "Y" to confirm and type Exit to exit from recovery console.

C. Using Windows Vista, Server 2008 DVD:

Boot using setup DVD and click on "Repair Computer" link, then click on "Command Prompt". Now navigate to your DVD drive using CD command and at last provide following command:

bootsect /nt60 SYS /mbr

Exit from Command prompt and restart your system.

Thanks to Ramesh Kumar (Fellow MVP) to provide this trick.

2. The above commands will remove the Linux boot loader from startup and you'll be able to directly boot into Windows.

3. If you have not deleted Linux partitions, then you can delete them using "Disk Manager" tool in Windows.

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This article was posted in Linux, Troubleshooting, Windows XP.

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29 Comments

Hari Maurya

Nice tutorial Dr.Vishal
karthik

tnx .......i really needed it.....
soni

thanks sir ..........

tell me wihich source i have download ebooks for language knowlege.. (f.e-linex,oracle)
Ade

Thanks for the tutorial. I am a novice in need of help.

I deleted Linux partition and can no longer boot to Vista. I have managed to get as far as the "x:\sources>" prompt and used Diskpart to identify my DVD drive as "D". The problem is that "cd d:\" is not taking me to the "d:\>" prompt. I have tried entering it as "d:\bootsect /nt60 SYS /mbr" and as "d:\bootsect".

Any help is greatly appreciated
VG

^^ Give only D: command instead of CD D: and it'll activate cd drive root.
Ade

Thanks a lot VG.
Norm

I have the opposite problem! First installed XPPro. Then Ubuntu on second partition. GRUB worked normlly to access either. Then installed Vista on the same first partition keeping XP as windows.old file (I will later delete this file).
Now when I boot No Grub - only boots Vista.
How do I now access or boot to Ubuntu as well as to Vista as an option.
Tried to use VistaBootPro without success.
VG

^^ VistaBootPRO can't do anything for Linux. You'll need to reinstall Linux boot loader to access Linux.
thomas

I have tried your solution to this problem but am encountering a difficulty: the windows recovery mode asks for an administrator password, which I didn't predefined!
So now I have to insert a password that's not existing, which is slightly odd, to say the least. Anyone have a solution to this problem? I've tried searching for a solution, but the only solutions I've found require me to boot windows, which of course isn't possible.

Thanks in advance
VG

^^ Did you try to press Enter when it asks for password? If you have not set any password, then just press Enter and it'll accept it and will show you the recovery console.