Reverting back to XP from Ubuntu. Some queries.

[thewisecrab]

Hi guys.
I need to free up some space on my already full HDD.
I had installed Ubuntu on a separate 13 GB partition (2.86 GB as swap included)
I learned quite a lot
I need to recover these partitions back to NTFS on Windows due to space constraints (also, I may install Win 7 in about a few weeks)
So how do I go about?
How can I remove GRUB and revert to the Windows boot loader? (I read about using an XP CD, sadly, I doubt whether I have one )
And Will I be able to recover the 13 GB as an entire partition, or will the /home partition, swap partition will be separated?

[Liverpool_fan]

You can use FIXBOOT command in Recovery console in Windows CD to get back Win Boot loader.
C:\>FIXBOOT C:
C:\>FIXMBR
C:\>BOOTCFG /rebuild

Also I think you can use Super GRUB Disk, though I'm not sure.(It's generally use to restore GRUB and is damn useful if you wish to experiment with various Linux distros)

Then You can manually remove the partitions and use Gparted in Ubuntu live CD to reclaim the space.

[Rahim]

Since you dont have Windows CD use Super Grub Disk as mentioned by Anurag and restore XP bootloader in the MBR. Then just boot with GParted Live CD/Ubuntu 8.10 Live CD and format the linux partitions and re-create or resize the NTFS partitions. Iys quite easy and straight-forward.

[thewisecrab]

Is this what I need? http://www.supergrubdisk.org/wiki/UninstallGRUB

And Do I format my partitions first in Windows (using Disc Management) and then boot into SGD and fix it?
Or is there a better way?

[Liverpool_fan]

Originally Posted by thewisecrab

Is this what I need? http://www.supergrubdisk.org/wiki/UninstallGRUB

Yes you need that...exactly.

And Do I format my partitions first in Windows (using Disc Management) and then boot into SGD and fix it?
Or is there a better way?

You don't really need to format partitions before. Just remove the GRUB and restore Windows partition using the Super GRUB Disk. You are good to go to Windows.
And then you can reclaim the free space by using Gparted (or qtparted in Knoppix)

[thewisecrab]

What If I remove GRUB using SGD, and then use Disc Management in Windows to format ext2/ext3 and swap partitions as NTFS?
And is there any way I can reclaim a partition without formatting? (not only Linux, but in general)

[Liverpool_fan]

Originally Posted by thewisecrab

What If I remove GRUB using SGD, and then use Disc Management in Windows to format ext2/ext3 and swap partitions as NTFS?

Yes you can.

And is there any way I can reclaim a partition without formatting? (not only Linux, but in general)

You mean you wan't to preserve the data in the Linux partition by converting it to NTFS? As far as I know, there's no direct way.

[Ecko]

http://www.fs-driver.org/index.html

Try this if you dont want conversion

[thewisecrab]

Originally Posted by Ecko

http://www.fs-driver.org/index.html

Try this if you dont want conversion

Thanks dude. But I already have it
What I wanted was a way to get XP back after removing Linux and GRUB.
Thanks for the help y'all.
Will do it in a few days....

[Ross]

Originally Posted by thewisecrab

What I wanted was a way to get XP back after removing Linux and GRUB.

Download 'supergrubdisk' from http://www.supergrubdisk.org/ and boot from it.
Select WIN => MBR & !WIN! (((((((((((((((( .

Then from XP go to Control Panel-> Administrative Tools-> Computer Management-> Disk Management, look for Linux partitions (shown as unknown), right click and format them in NTFS/FAT/FAT32 to make them usable in XP.