how to delete the partition linux is in

[slimshady89]

ok I divided my harddrive into 2 partitions one windows and one mdk10 .. I need the space mdk 10 is in for windows how do I do this without formatting the drive and leaving the windows partition untouched

[thagame]

partition magic or cfdisk and your xp boot cd to repair your mbr

[markwolfe Veteran]

We also have a pinned topic on this matter, in the *nix HOWTO & FAQ section.

https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=292614

Once you are able to boot Windows back on their NTLoader, you can remove any Linux partitions. (Y)

[Schmoove]

Right click on "My Computer" and click on "Manage".

Go to "Disk Management" and right click on the Linux partition and click on "Delete Partition".

Then pop the Windows XP cd into your cd-rom drive and reboot into the recovery console.

There you type: "fixmbr" and/or "fixboot" (I normally just do both).

Reboot.... and you got your partition back as empty space. You can now choose what to do with it (disk management again).

If you want to merge it with an existing partition you will need either PartitionMagic or the Acronis equivalent. I think it is called Disk Director.

[msg43]

Now why would you want to do that?

[El_Cu_Guy]

  Quote

Now why would you want to do that?

Do what exactly? Which part?

You'll have unpartitioned space. You'll need to extend your exisiting partition or format the space. If you format it, it will show up in My Computer as another drive.

[KunalSethi]

One word solution to all your partition need: Partition Magic, now comes bundled in Norton Utilities

[Marshalus Veteran]

  KunalSethi said:

One word solution to all your partition need: Partition Magic, now comes bundled in Norton Utilities

*cough* Partition Magic is actually two words :p

[msg43]

  El_Cu_Guy said:

Do what exactly? Which part?

You'll have unpartitioned space. You'll need to extend your exisiting partition or format the space. If you format it, it will show up in My Computer as another drive.

Dude you quoted the wrong quote! :devil:

[asdfoi83wyrl]

One question: I've already restored the original MBR using YAST's system administration tools, and now when I restart my computer it boots automatically into Windows XP.

At this point would it be safe to delete Linux's partitions?

[markwolfe Veteran]

Yes

[madd_matt]

Hmm, thats nice on Suse's part to save the original MBR. IIRC its the first 512 bytes of the disk drive and i can just use dd to save them in the future?

[markwolfe Veteran]

It is the first 442 bytes, I believe, for the MBR boot info.

The rest of the first 512 bytes is for the partition information.

Better info here: http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/mbr.htm

First 446 bytes are boot code, according to that.

http://www.ata-atapi.com/hiwmbr.htm goes into more detail.

Edited January 18, 2006 by markjensen