How to uninstall Linux properly?

empleat

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I installed parrot os and it wasn't fit for my needs. I need to uninstall it. I installed it as dual boot, after windows 10. On separate disk. Problem is, after deleting linux partitions. Windows bootloader can stop working. I read documentation and during installation, it didn't let me choose where to install bootloader. I have currently no idea, where it is. I don't see grub, when i am booting, even i read - it uses grub. Some distros install grub on windows partition and than it gets broken. It is annoying to repair Windows bootloader. How do i find where is grub located? I googled this, but it found only generic articles for this issue and nothing particularly helpful in this case!
Thank you.
 


These may help.


 
These may help.


So i read page and read section how to remove grub and it linked me to this page:
This is actually how to repair windows bootrecord, not how to remove grub! And it uses mbr, i am on UEFI! I might be able to repair windows bootloader, i did it once, even i don't remember it and it is risky. I would rather not break it in the first place!

So any idea how do i find, where grub is located and remove it safely?
 
Since you removed the Linux partitions grub may no longer be installed and your only option may be to reinstall / repair the Windows bootloader.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Since you removed the Linux partitions grub may no longer be installed and your only option may be to reinstall / repair the Windows bootloader.
Wait this is not how to remove grub at all, but how to reinstall it! Is it possible grub would be on efi partition of linux? How do i find where is grub located?

EDIT: i think i finally found something useful. I am gonna try it... It says to mount efi partition and remove parrot folder...

EDIT2: So i followed this video:
And mounted my efi partition on Windows 10 disk. It doesn't have folder parrot!!! And i have second efi partition on my parrot os disk. So i think when i delete all linux partitions, i will delete parrot bootloader as well without damaging Windows efi partition! Because it looks like it is there and not on windows partition. Anyway before i do it. I would rather be sure. If you have any advice i would appreciate it!
 
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it wouldn't do any harm to put rEFInd onto a usb stick with that you should be able to boot Windows get the .img file from this page http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/getting.html

use dd command to to put it ont ousb stick. rEFInd is neutral in that it can boot OS systems including Windows.

Grub is as far as I know exclusively Linux. i.e its a boot manager for Linux. No linux OS then for instance you won't be able to run update-grub
 
Before you do anything , what is your plan /objective ? are you going to install another Linux distro ?
 
I watched the posted video and it appeared to work for the computer in the video.
I don't know.

I've only dual booted Windows and Linux using 2 separate drives and each uses their own OS boot loaders.
 
i thought grub2 was able to pick up OS's across more than one HD ?
 
i thought grub2 was able to pick up OS's across more than one HD ?
It's supposed to and I believe it does.

I prefer each OS to use its oem boot loader when dual booting OSs on individual drives.
If I want to remove one or the other OS zero boot problems.

Can't say if that is possible with UEFI / EFI systems because I don't use them for Linux.
 
i've only ever done dual boot from same HD. UEFI/EFI is fairly new to me . I was thinking if there are two drives each with a different Linux OS do you need only one EFI partition on one of the drives ? All my desktop towers are abroad but its something i will try pending airport opening
 
Yes i deleted partitions in diskmanager and efi using diskpart. And it is working! Great!
 
Yes i deleted partitions in diskmanager and efi using diskpart. And it is working! Great!
Cool glad it's all working without issues.
I'm not a big fan of dual boot / multi boot I'm one OS per computer user.
 

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