hershmab
July 8th, 2009, 01:14 AM
I seem to have installed Ubuntu 9.04 not only in the wrong way but also on the wrong drive!
I run Windows XP Pro on a PC and wanted to try out Ubuntu without removing Windows. I followed the appropriate instructions in the Community Support Documentation and created an ISO-formatted disk of the Ubuntu download. I restarted my PC and booted from that disk, choosing the option to install Ubuntu in parallel with Windows.
That all worked correctly, but I quickly realised that Ubuntu had created a boot partition on my external, removable USB drive instead of on the internal hard drive - something that was very unwelcome as I do not want to need the external drive always on line just to boot up the system. I use it simply as a backup drive.
On looking around for means to reverse this, I found instructions on how to download GPartEd and use it to remove the Ubuntu partition and (I hoped) uninstall Ubuntu. So I did all that, deleted what looked to me like the right partition and restarted the PC. Unfortunately it would then not boot up at all - the start-up stopped with a "Grub Error 17" (I think) message. Putting the external drive offline mad no difference - I just could not boot up at all.
In order to be able to use Windows and try Ubuntu, I had to go through the initial Ubuntu installation procedure yet again and live with the fact of booting from the external drive.
How can I uninstall Ubuntu completely and return both the PC and also the external drive to their original states?
I run Windows XP Pro on a PC and wanted to try out Ubuntu without removing Windows. I followed the appropriate instructions in the Community Support Documentation and created an ISO-formatted disk of the Ubuntu download. I restarted my PC and booted from that disk, choosing the option to install Ubuntu in parallel with Windows.
That all worked correctly, but I quickly realised that Ubuntu had created a boot partition on my external, removable USB drive instead of on the internal hard drive - something that was very unwelcome as I do not want to need the external drive always on line just to boot up the system. I use it simply as a backup drive.
On looking around for means to reverse this, I found instructions on how to download GPartEd and use it to remove the Ubuntu partition and (I hoped) uninstall Ubuntu. So I did all that, deleted what looked to me like the right partition and restarted the PC. Unfortunately it would then not boot up at all - the start-up stopped with a "Grub Error 17" (I think) message. Putting the external drive offline mad no difference - I just could not boot up at all.
In order to be able to use Windows and try Ubuntu, I had to go through the initial Ubuntu installation procedure yet again and live with the fact of booting from the external drive.
How can I uninstall Ubuntu completely and return both the PC and also the external drive to their original states?