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I want to uninstall Ubuntu, so I need to delete its partition.

I saw that many people asked this before. For example: How to find out which partition is Ubuntu installed on?. I followed the instructions there and here's a screenshot of the terminal after typing the suggested command (df):

df output in gnome terminal

But this doesn't tell me anything...

This has also been discussed before Uninstalling Ubuntu. Which partitions to delete? and the answer was: EFI and primary. But I have a lot of primary partitions and I'm not sure which one to delete.

Here's a screenshot of Disk Management in Windows:

list of partitions

Here's a GParted screenshot:

many partitions

So can anybody tell me which the Ubuntu partitions are? (I numbered them from left to right, so to make it easy just tell me numbers please)

Zanna
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Alaa M.
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4 Answers4

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From the output of df command what I can see is the size of your Ubuntu partition is 47930248 KB which is equal to 46 GB approximately.

From this you can conclude that it is your 5th partition(partition which you have marked 5) on which Ubuntu is installed.

But I will suggest you to use gparted by running Ubuntu in live mode.

g_p
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  • +1, may be better with df -h to print sizes in human readable format (e.g., 1K 234M 2G) – user.dz Sep 24 '14 at 12:19
  • df also shows /dev/sda10 is /home. this may be the 6th or 7th partition. – user68186 Sep 24 '14 at 12:29
  • From your gparted screenshot, 10.62 GB partition is your /home partition. which is your 6th partition. – g_p Sep 24 '14 at 12:35
  • OK, so far i got 3 different answers: 5th, 6th, and 7th. So i'm still not sure what to delete. Also, just to make sure, also the EFI partition (number 1) is Ubuntu's and should be deleted, right? – Alaa M. Sep 24 '14 at 12:41
  • From your screenshots, What I concluded is it that your / is on 5th and your /home is on 6th. But as I suggested in my answer there would be no confusion , if you use gparted partition editor by running Ubuntu in live mode. – g_p Sep 24 '14 at 12:47
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Do not remove /dev/sda1 (The 1st partition) The EFI partition is part of UEFI and is used by both Windows and Ubuntu. If you delete it, the computer won't boot.

Comparing the Gparted and Disk Management screenshots, you want to delete 5th, 6th, and 7th partition as displayed in Windows Disk Management. Or /dev/sda9, /dev/sda10, /dev/sda11 as displayed in gparted.

You will still have to remove GRUB after removing those partitions.

See How to remove Ubuntu and put Windows back on? for how to easily remove Ubuntu.

Finally, remove the Ubuntu boot entry (or entries) in the UEFI boot manager in the image below:

enter image description here

See How do I remove "Ubuntu" in the bios boot menu? (UEFI)

You will need to boot from Ubuntu Live DVD/USB to temporarily install efibootmgr.

In the Live boot, (Use Try Ubuntu without installing) Open a terminal by pressing Cntrl+Alt+T: and enter the following commands:

sudo apt-get install efibootmgr
sudo modprobe efivars
sudo efibootmgr

This will show you which entries in the UEFI boot manager refers to the old Ubuntu install.

To remove entry number X enter:

sudo efibootmgr -b X -B

Replace X with the correct number.

Repeat the last two commands if there are more than one entries.

Note: I have removed the part about OS Uninstaller, as some people seems to have problem with it.

Hope this helps

Community
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user68186
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    OK i deleted 5th, 6th, and 7th. To remove GRUB, i saw an easy method in Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTDCwLEU6ng . It's done with the Windows 8 CD. I thought i can do it without it (Settings -> Power -> SHIFT+Restart) , but i think it didn't work because i still have grub. I'll have my Windows 8 CD just next week. I'll update by then. – Alaa M. Sep 24 '14 at 13:22
  • I got the CD, did the steps for deleting the grub (followed the method in the previous comment) and the grub is gone. The problem isn't totally solved, because i still see ubuntu in the boot manager (you can see it here: http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k274/alaa_137/photo_zpsde5a53f5.jpg). I chose this as an answer because it answers this post's question. I'll search online for further help to removing ubuntu from boot manager. – Alaa M. Sep 29 '14 at 19:32
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    The remaining issue with UEFI boot manager has already been answered in another question. I have added a mini how to in my answer. – user68186 Sep 29 '14 at 20:30
  • I just discovered that if i click the 1st ubuntu option, it leads me to Windows 8. If i click the 2nd one, it leads me to grub! Is your guide still relevant? and what does that say about the grub? it might not be completely deleted as i thought? – Alaa M. Sep 30 '14 at 08:25
  • Grub puts parts of itself in the UEFI partition (/dev/sda1). You may want to ask a new question. Or remove the remnants using the process described in the link. – user68186 Sep 30 '14 at 21:04
  • The second command (sudo modprobe efivars) doesn't seem to do anything... When I enter the 3rd command (sudo efibootmgr) I get: ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo efibootmgr Fatal: Couldn't open either sysfs or procfs directories for accessing EFI variables. Try 'modprobe efivars' as root. – Alaa M. Oct 02 '14 at 20:16
  • Please ask a new question. Someone else will help you. – user68186 Oct 02 '14 at 20:17
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Windows and Linux name partitions very differently.

To identify your partitions from Linux either use gparted (graphical tool) or fdisk (command line)

fdisk -l

From what you posted, your root partition for Ubuntu is /dev/sda9

sda = first hard drive

sda9 = 9th partition

Hard to know what is on your other partitions from what you posted.

I suggest you identify your partitions in Linux as Windows does not identify the contents of your partitons as windows can not read linux partition.

If you wish to do this in windows , ask on a windows forums.

See also https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/partitioning

Panther
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According to your GParted screenshot and what you have told us, you can see that the Ubuntu installation root is installed on /dev/sda9. You can tell this by looking in the "mount point" column and seeing the "/", which is the root. You can also tell that your /home is on /dev/sda10 by looking in the same column.

Both of which are the only ext4 (not that you cannot install using NTFS), but they are the only ones to match up with your mount points.

Also, the rest of the partitions are either NTFS (which is what Windows uses) and are matched with Microsoft flags, therefore you know they are not the Ubuntu install, or they are unknown.

The answer is your Ubuntu installation is using /dev/sda9 for the root, /dev/sda10 for home, and /dev/sda11 is used for swap.

tminus44
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