Comments on: How to uninstall GRUB

By: Karim

Karim — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 18:04:25 +0000

In unix/linux in general if no error is printed the command succeeded.

Also if echo $? prints zero, the last command generally succeeded. In all actuality the programmers of the command can return any value they’d like but in general zero is success.

By: Ade

Ade — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 00:19:04 +0000

How do you do this on a ZX81 ? nah, just kidding.

I got the same problem, thanks for the tips.

By: Jason E

Jason E — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 01:47:41 +0000

I have an acer that requires a USB CDROM and I am trying to boot to cdrom to use the Acer recovery disks, but it will not boot to cd first. GRUB is superceding my Boot order, and even though my Fedora is working fine, I am trying to fix the XP side. any thoughts?

By: Himanshu

Himanshu — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:28:05 +0000

I reached ‘Grub>’ when i deleted partition of my Linux Suse 11 OS from my Hard disk. Now, I want to boot from Windows 7 OS which was already installed along with the Suse 11. It asks me to install the Kernel. I wanted to access Win 7 without loosing any data. How to get rid of this?? Please Help!!!!!.

By: Phlek0

Phlek0 — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 20:02:22 +0000

Hey I am having the same problem, How are you able to run the fixmbr, did you use a boot live cd then run it?

By: aubizzy

aubizzy — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 07:56:17 +0000

thanks man this totally worked for me

By: Mattrageous4

Mattrageous4 — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 03:44:20 +0000

Thank you so much it worked

By: Pooran Meen

Pooran Meen — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 12:37:29 +0000

you have to boot from windows 2003 server and after remove partition of linux then reboot your system from windows xp,

I m sure that now you will show screen..

Pooran

By: Tarish

Tarish — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 11:13:47 +0000

Sir,I have installed dual OS on my system i.e.., windows XP2 & RHEL 5, when I was trying to install windows xp2 Mesaage shows as” for installing windows u have 64 MB of RAM” ,actually I have 128 MB of RAM & if PC boots normally it shows GRUB> .How should I recover that problem so I can install only windows XP2, Also tell me solution if I want to install Dual O/S i.e.., windows XP2 & RHEL 5.

By: Zeekazoid

Zeekazoid — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 03:53:58 +0000

Worked awesome for Windows 7. Thanks!

By: lenfantroi

lenfantroi — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 09:07:28 +0000

Hi, I have Windows XP and ubuntu installed on two disks on my desktop computer and I used grub as a bootloader. I wanted do remove linux and remove the corresponding disk from the computer. I followed the instructions above, and now, grub is still there and I cannot start Windows anymore.

I first thought that just removing the disk would be ok, but grub cannot start Windows without the linux disk. So I followed the instructions above (at least I thought so) to uninstall grub.
Here is a copy of what I did:

jf@computer:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19452 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xeede9d79

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 8 64228+ de Dell Utility
/dev/sda2 * 9 19060 153035190 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 19061 19452 3148740 db CP/M / CTOS / …

Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19452 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0×00000081

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 14660 19452 38499772+ 5 Extended
/dev/sdb2 1 304 2441848+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb3 305 2501 17647402+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb4 2502 14659 97659135 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb5 14660 19452 38499741 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order
jf@computer:~$ sudo dd if=/dev/null of=/dev/sda2 bs=446 count=1
0+0 records in
0+0 records out
0 bytes (0 B) copied, 1.5922e-05 s, 0.0 kB/s
jf@computer:~$ sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda2 bs=446 count=1
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
446 bytes (446 B) copied, 0.0157452 s, 28.3 kB/s
jf@computer:~$

Since the first dd command did nothing (I tried to restart and grub was still there, booting etc.) I tried the same using /dev/zero instead of /dev/null (the second dd command).
Now, when I start the computer, I get the usual grub screen, with the two systems. It works if I try to start ubuntu, but when I choose Windows, I get the message:
Starting up…
Loading stage2…

GRUB loading, please wait…
Error 18

Can anybody explain this to me ? I guess I erase the beginning of the wrong drive… How can I just remove linux ? I do not have a windows CD (Dell computers come without one), so I cannot try the fixmbr option.

By: onyeka

onyeka — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 16:20:02 +0000

I had windows xp 2002 edition installed on my laptop, but i also installed ubuntu 10 and got a lot of trouble with it..computer freezes after booting, i removed XP and installed only Ubuntu hoping that would solve the problem but ubuntu is not a good a idea either, i want the old XP back but i can’t reinstall it because i am using a usb disk for that and i get grub prompt and i am lost on how to proceed from there..any help please will be appreciated.

By: rafeeque

rafeeque — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 10:54:06 +0000

i remove grub loader.i solved boot problum by this site.
Thank you very much

By: Environmental Consultants

Environmental Consultants — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 09:49:21 +0000

I had a nightmare situation when I installed linux on a 2nd HDD and couldn’t boot from CD, to use recovery consol.

Luckly I am using an old computer and so I downloaded the widget from M$ to make floppy recovery disks (six disks!!).

Then I used fixboot, fixmbr to overwrite grub, or whatever in the recovery consol.

Trying out ubuntu cost me around 12 hours to get shot of it.

Version 10.4 has zero multi monitor support, which I why I jumped ship!

By: rahul

rahul — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 04:46:45 +0000

hai this is rahul i ask your advise

sir i can install fedora 10 with the windows xp but i can remove fedora in the windows disk management console
when the same time i reboot the system
by the next time show “Grub booting loading” error in the monitor

By: Nereik24

Nereik24 — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 21:32:07 +0000

Ok, Start Windows XP, login etc just till you get to the desktop, you need to go into the start menu. Right click on My Computer, than go properties. There should be a tab called advanced system settings. In there it should say somewhere “Startup & Recovery – System startup, system failure, system debugging information” and then a settings box. click on that. Now in this window, basically these are the settings which alter the way the computer starts in the different OS.. you need to check to see if fedora is in the default opearting list. Also you need to make sure that Time to display list of Operating systems are ticked. and say 30seconds. Also if Fedora does come up, as well as Windows XP than you can say pick what OS you want to be default. I would probably recommend XP though. Let me know how you go. :)

By: jitendra khunt

jitendra khunt — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 04:20:53 +0000

->i hava xp 2 and fedora.
->but i can’t boot in fedara when i start computer or restart.
->automatically xp start
->what i have to do.

By: Nereik23

Nereik23 — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 11:12:36 +0000

Yer, I remember when I had this issue. Had Windows 7 on HDD1 and had a copy of Linux on HDD2. What I also noted was that during the install I had both HDD’s plugged in. (WINDOWS & LINUX).

So, basically I think (Dont quote me) but during the installation of Linux theres the boot config file (ONLY FOR LINUX) which is transfered to all HDD so that Linux doesn’t get confused with where it has to boot its files from. During this being copyied is when Windows relises that Windows inst compatible, and then gives the following error when you delete the partition with Linux.

Now, to your question. Basically the only way that I have been kinda successful with getting windows back up is, i found this bootable software which allowed me to create a new boot menu before any of the OS loaded. And had got into there once or twice, but then quickly got sick of the menu that it came up with, and was also really buggy, back when i tried it.

In the end you are basically gonna have to re-format the computer and re-install the critical component that Win7 needs to run. (AKA Format & Reload. :) Good luck!

By: Deepak Sharma

Deepak Sharma — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 05:29:26 +0000

I had window 7 as well linux on my machine. i formatted the linux partition(uninstalled linux) and formed a new drive in Window 7. But when i restarted my machine i was not able to start window 7. I get a blank screen that asks for path of Grub.
Now i don’t know what to do to get my window back.
please tell me any feasible solution.
Thanks
Deepak Sharma

By: master mind

master mind — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 07:03:39 +0000

thanks for comment to my fab genius tech master

i miss you ……………..