Uninstall Linux Mint

[linuxpaul]

Hi all..

I have a Toshiba Netbook that i installed Mint on but have had problems so i want to unistall ..

I installed onto a partition, and when i boot the pc it gives me the option to scroll between windows 7 or linux... i installed via a usb rather than a CD but do not have that install file on usb any more.. i read something on here about needing the original install file to be able to uninstall? i hope that is not the case as mentioned i do not have that file on usb any longer... can i uninstall mint from withinside mint (running it) if not what can i do ??... aaaarrggh..Please help.. thanks in advance..Paul

[tdockery97]

Was Mint the only other OS besides Windows?

[lmintnewb]

Coupla questions ... and some rambling from a nix newb.

Do you have the windows install discs for your MS software ?

Out of curiousity ... what problems did you have ? How did you choose to install it automagically, or did ya manually partition for it ? If so how many partitions are involved ? You can check the layout of the partitions using win7 no doubt.

Uninstalling da newb 101 way: yay !

1. You have a few options, if you let grub2 ( Linux Mint's ) bootloader take over the boot process of your comp. At some point you'll have to repair windows bootloader to get it to work normally. The install discs should have repair options on em. Or you can hit google and look for any of a bunch of other ways to restore it.

Once that's done and successful. Hopefully win7 has a disk util you can use to just delete the Mint partition and bamo ... gone.

2. Nother way and option to go about it. Get parted magic, believe they have a usb version or get it on the cd. Set comp's bio's to boot from whichever media you selected for parted magic. Insert said PM media, fire up comp. It will boot into PM. One of the tools PM has is gparted live. Click on it ... select Mints partition and reformat or delete Mint's partition. Next choose one of the other Magic Mint releases you may want to try and install it normally. usb, cd/dvd ... whichever. Ya may find another LM release more to your liking and trouble free.

Would advise partitioning and handling the install manually. It is pretty straight forward and self explanatory. A lil googling goes a long way if you're unsure of anything involved. But the new install should take over the boot process assuming you let it during the installation. You'd be no worse off bootloaderwise than you are now and shouldn't have to bother repairing win7's that way.

[linuxpaul]

Hi.. Thanks for the reply...

The PC never came with an install disc as its a netbook notebook (no disc drive) :0(

Genral random bad performance.. generall because its a notebook it has a (as i have found) a slow processor so i want to sell it (its only 3 months old)

Ouchh.. just found the parted magic page and couldn't find/understand which downlaod is what you are suggesting so i can save that to USB and boot from there...

Linux really should have within the programme a simple way to uninstall

This seems like anightmare to me.. it was very technical to get mint up and running from a USB.. but i cant remmeber the process

I admit to being a ludite

ANy further (simpler) help would be appreciated

Paul

[Inkit]

Just log into windows and format the partition in which you installed Mint to NTFS. this will effectively wipe out your Mint install although you will still get the message asking you which OS you want to log into when you start up your system. if you don't want this, you can recover the Windows boot loader and there are a number of tutorials online on how you can do this.

Linux really should have within the programme a simple way to uninstall

Mint is not an application that you can uninstall. It is an operating system just like windows. Do you know of any way in which you can uninstall windows?

[bender1077]

+1 to inkit.

You will need to restore the Windows bootloader to the MBR. This can only be done through:

1. Windows 7 install disc - Boot from that and there should be a "Repair my computer" option
2. Boot into a Windows recovery partition, if there is one.

Once in recovery,you will want to run the following from a command prompt as administrator:

Code: Select all

bootrec /FixMbr

This will restore the Windows bootloader to the MBR.

Alternatively you can :

Code: Select all

bootrec /FixBoot

This will write a new boot sector to the partition

Either way works!

Good luck.

EDIT*** Once done, reboot your netbook to ensure it boots straight to Win7. If successful, you can simply delete the LM partitions.

[linuxpaul]

Thanks all... one thing i think some have missed.. this is a notepad that doesn't have a disc drive and hence didn't come with a windows 7 disc...

Am going crazy here !!

All help welcome

[Roken]

If it came with nothing it's likely that there's a recovery partition on the HD which is accessed via some obscure key combination at boot. Find out the key combination and boot the recovery partition, then depending on how it's set up you should be able to restore the Windows bootloader then delete the Mint partition as described, or even restore the system back to factory set up. Note - factory setup will delete all your data files etc, so backup anything that you need to keep.

[linuxpaul]

Ok now i've really gone and srewed it ..

I found out how to delete the partion that had linux mint on it.. which i did.. now it wont boot at all

now when i switch on it shows mesage ...

error: unknown filesystem.
grub rescue>


i have tried booting and pressing 'F' keys at the same time.. F2 takes me to a 'Setup Utilty' screen displays headers - 'main' 'display' 'security' 'Boot' & 'exit'... i can toggle between those but dont know what i'm doing and dont recognise anyhting that says recovery.. so..in conclusion.. ive screwed things up.. managed to find this page by presing f2 on boot.. any clues as to where to go now ?

[SimonTS]

Have a look here first to see if it helps you;-

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2 ... %20Booting

[linuxpaul]

Thanks... but it might aswell be russian

[Roken]

Ok - deleting Mint before fixing the boot issue has caused something of a problem, since grub needs files that resided on the Mint partition. However, it's not the end of the world, yet.

Turn the netbook on and immediately start repeatedly pressing F8 on the keyboard. With luck this will get you to an Advanced Boot Options screen. If so this is where you access the recovery partition. Hopefully there will be repair and restore to factory defaults options there. If you don't need to save anything and, as you say, plan on selling the laptop on anyway, then restore the defaults. Otherwise, check the repair options until you find something that will fix startup problems. Hopefully this will re-install the Windows MBR which should enable you to boot back into Windows normally.

[linuxpaul]

Thnaks Roken.. tried that. all 'F' buttons seem one way or another to lead to the same utilty setup page as described above .. i can get to a screen that says select boot device, it show the drive.. and when i enter via thereagain it takes me either to the error page or back to the above utilites page.. ?? Paul

[lmintnewb]

Havent really been following this thread. Sure there are methods and free tools out there to help someone repair/restore the windows 7 bootloader. Would think having the install disc would be the easiest. Though also seems like many oem's now aren't giving people the discs for their systems anymore. Which is bs ... and doesn't matter cause the OP doesn't have them.

Would advise hitting google and searching for things like. Restore windows 7 bootloader without discs and just plain. "Reinstall windows 7 bootloader" ... Searches along those lines. This is from another forum thread. The guy said he found these very helpful in repairing win7.


http://neosmart.net/blog/2009/windows-7 ... air-discs/

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/win7-w ... 10036.html

[Reorx]

Bender;

IIRC, chkdsk & fdisk used to have a command line switch - /mbr - that would rewrite the MBR - this no longer works in win7???

+1 to inkit.

You will need to restore the Windows bootloader to the MBR. This can only be done through:

1. Windows 7 install disc - Boot from that and there should be a "Repair my computer" option
2. Boot into a Windows recovery partition, if there is one.

Once in recovery,you will want to run the following from a command prompt as administrator:

Code: Select all

bootrec /FixMbr

This will restore the Windows bootloader to the MBR.

Alternatively you can :

Code: Select all

bootrec /FixBoot

This will write a new boot sector to the partition

Either way works!

Good luck.

EDIT*** Once done, reboot your netbook to ensure it boots straight to Win7. If successful, you can simply delete the LM partitions.

[wayne128]

OK I see that your issues are
-No win7 CD
- No DVD/CD so cannot use WinCD for recovery.

I think you can try one of the two methods:
Method II below is actually quite easy to follow

I. Find the win7 recover disk from internet, then, extract it, and create an USB bootable win7 recover 'drive'.
check this link, and read method 1 ( for CD)
and method2 (for USB, you need method 2 plus step 4 and 5 of method1)

http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-repai ... -dvd-disc/

download the win7 recovery disk from the link in method2, which is below:
http://www.intowindows.com/download-win ... -disc-now/

II. If you are familiar with Linux.
You need to get a bootable USB stick containing Debian based distros, like Mint, ubuntu etc , which will boot your laptop via USB, then open terminal, install LILO, and then another command to use LILO to write onto MBR as below:


The method to fix the MBR is:
1. Boot the machine using the Live USB/CD.
2. Install lilo

sudo apt-get install lilo

3. Fix the MBR using lilo using the command:

sudo lilo -M /dev/sda mbr


Read this link, and see if it is similar to your situation
http://thameera.wordpress.com/2011/04/2 ... cd-or-usb/

[bender1077]

Bender;

IIRC, chkdsk & fdisk used to have a command line switch - /mbr - that would rewrite the MBR - this no longer works in win7???

Not sure... I've only had to restore the win bootloader once and did so through recovery.