How can I uninstall Fedora on a dual boot system without a Windows CD?

Question

I'm running a dual boot system with Windows XP and Fedora 13. I would like to uninstall Fedora 13 and remain with Windows XP only.

This fedora document says I need to boot from a Windows XP installation CS to fix the MBR. Is there a way to do that without using the CD (I'm working in a company where I got my computer up and running with XP. Getting the CD will require me contact the system admins which might take some time).

Solution

No need for a Windows XP CD. You can use free tools to remove Fedora from within Windows.

• Download MBRFix from Sysint, extract the archive.
• Navigate to the archive through the command line and run the following command, substituting mbrfix with mbrfix64 if you are on a 64-bit system:

mbrfix /drive 0 fixmbr /yes

This command will replace the bootloader installed by Fedora, likely GRUB. Replace the drive number accordingly if necessary. If you only have one primary drive, the above command will work. Please refer to the MBRFix documentation if you are unsure of any options. The above command is what I previously used on my dual boot XP systems hundreds of times.

You can now remove the Linux partitions, I suggest a free partition manager such as EaseUS Home Edition. Windows disk management doesn't always cooperate well when removing Linux partitions, and EaseUS will easily allow you to remove the partition and extend it back to your main volume.

Comments

[Moreno Ambrosin]

I don't think it was installed. Can't I create a boot disk myself? Perhaps use my Fedora Live CD or my Ubuntu 10.10 CD?

[harrymc]

It's impossible to create the recovery CD. Windows 7 can do it, but not XP.