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Removing Linux Grub & Restoring Windows 7 Boot GUI
August 27th, 2009 by Luke

winlin

Recently I had been playing with Kubuntu on my Windows 7 machine.  Don’t get me wrong, Kubuntu and other Linux distributions are great.  I wanted to remove it because I wasn’t really using it anymore and I was getting sick of booting my machine and forgetting to change the GRUB option at start-up to boot into Windows 7.

I know that the GRUB can be edited so that Windows 7 would boot first but I no-longer had the need for Kubuntu so I wanted to remove it all together including the GRUB.

First of all I made a really dumb n00b error of booting into Windows 7 and deleting the partitions that Kubuntu occupied.  Of course, the GRUB remained and my computer wouldn’t even start.  To get back to being able to boot again, I inserted my Kubuntu DVD and re-installed so the GRUB would work again.

Now I thought, maybe EasyBCD would be able to remove the GRUB from within Windows 7 and then I could delete the Kubuntu partitions again.  Unfortunately EasyBCD could not do this.

My next plan was to boot from my Windows 7 DVD and use the option to fix start-up errors.  This was not a good plan either.  The GRUB remained but I now had a Windows Vista GUI start-up instead of the much more pretty Windows 7 one.

I decided to do some research before making anymore stupid mistakes – RTFM comes to mind.

So I discovered that the first step to remove the GRUB (and Kubuntu or other disto of Linux) is to boot from your Windows 7 DVD, select your language and then to choose the repair option.

At the repair option you should choose the command prompt and use the command: bootsect /nt60 C:

Now restart your computer and Windows 7 should boot without entering the GRUB because this has been removed from your machine.

If you have somehow got the old Windows Vista start-up GUI displaying on start-up, then you should wait for your computer to boot into Windows 7 and run the command prompt as an Administrator.  To get the Windows 7 GUI start-up back, use the following command: bootrec /fixmbr

Once you’re happy that your computer is booting without the GRUB and directly into Windows 7 you can remove all traces of the Linux distribution going into Disk Management (Windows Key + R and type diskmgmt.msc). Simply delete the partitions and then expand the rest of the drive containing data to fill the empty space.

The above is just a brief overview of what I did but if you have any questions or would like anything in more detail, please contact me or leave a comment.


  • michelledh
    Loving the new blog ! Well done there :)
  • Thanks Michelle :)
  • TooLate
    For my fix I had to use the follwoing:

    bootsect /nt60 c: /mbr

    Not using the /mbr would not remote the Grub boot loader.
  • Akmal
    Thank you dude!
  • lich_uk
    Keep up the good work. I had the same problem (Vista animation on my Windows 7 Box) - nothing to do with dual booting, but because I had a 'selective startup' in place before I installed Windows 7. Weeks later I spotted this when using the System Configuration tool to try to resolve a driver issue. When I set the system back to 'normal' boot it somehow restored the Vista animation. I had already tried various things with bootsect which didn't fix it, but I didn't know about bootrec. Thanks to your post I have now been able to restore my pretty Windows 7 animation.
  • Glad that you found it useful.

    If you ever need any help with anything, feel free to get in touch. That way I have a better idea of the things I should be writing about.
  • tom
    when i do it, it tells me its complete and when i restart the GRUB loads again !!
  • I'm not sure why that would be I'm afraid. I'll have an ask around and see if any of my geek friends can be of any help and get back to you in this message thread.
  • Have you tried using "bootsect /nt60 c: /mbr" as someone else that commented used or the command I provided in the post "bootsect /nt60 C:"
  • Ubuntu = sticky
    Thank you for working to address this problem. Using everything there though, my comp still wants to give me the choice of Windows 7 or Ubuntu at boot up. I tried the first option in the post and the "bootsect /nt60 c: /mbr". Still stuck.. Which option should one choose with all the options after typing help when trying "bootsect /nt60 c: /mbr" OR, any other ideas?
  • Ubuntu = sticky
    Thank you for working to address this issue. I had Ubuntu installed as an uninstallable program on Vista Home Premium prior to a clean installation of Windows 7 and now I've tried everything on this page and still given option of Windows 7 and Ubuntu. I tried "bootsect /nt60 c: /mbr" and typed help and am given many options, any idea which option will fix this? Thanks again and hope you can help.
  • Daniel
    thank you very much for the info but i got a problem

    Well the thing is that i thought that this will only delete the Grub and not the partition, so i made it, but it was not in a partition it was in an extra hard drive, so now is gone....:(

    Do you know if theres a way tu recover it??

    Thank you very much and sorry for my bad english.
  • Waw!!
    thanks a lot, this article that I'm looking for.
    It's work
  • Mod1
    im curently having this trouble. installed ubuntu on a second partition alongside windows 7. it wouldnt boot at all. it just went straight to the windows boot screen (i have vista on a second drive. recently installed win7) so i got fed up with it and deleted the ubuntu partition.

    my machine gets stuck on a grub error when i try to boot.

    i tried "boot from your Windows 7 DVD, select your language and then to choose the repair option.

    At the repair option you should choose the command prompt and use the command: bootsect /nt60 C:

    Now restart your computer and Windows 7 should boot without entering the GRUB because this has been removed from your machine."

    this didnt work. i can get windows to boot using something i found on the 'ultimate boot cd' but i cant seem to repair it so the pc boots straight into windows.
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