Removing Linux Bootloader

Just trying to figure this out but it isn't fully necessary. I was messing around with Linux Mint and Windows 10 dual boot. I installed Linux Mint second in UEFI mode along side Windows. Because I couldn't get any partition editor to let me overprovision and shrink the Linux partition, I decided to delete the partition as it was nothing more than something to mess with. This did not affect my Windows boot loader at all. I still decided to run off a recovery usb and run some commands that internet searches said would cause windows to overwrite and delete the linux boot loader. However, this did not delete it as I still see Ubuntu in my startup options if I manually select my boot list in the BIOS. I can boot no problem to windows, I've just for now moved Ubuntu to the bottom of my boot order. But if there is a way to delete it fully, I'd like to do that. Thanks.

 

Try Boot-repair x64 ISO and use OS uninstaller to remove Linux entry and grub references forever for cleaner boot screen

 

So I went ahead and booted into that. First I tried boot repair to see if that would remove the grub/linux files but it didn't. It looks like the linux bootloader is located on the same 100MB partition as the windows boot loader. The only option I have in OS Uninstaller is the clear the windows boot loader partition. Before I attempt anything, I want to be sure, is this my best option and safe to do? Remove the windows boot loader which presumably will remove the grub files and then repair the windows boot loader?

 

It will wipe out everything. You need to run boot repair option instead of OS uninstaller.

 

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I'm surprised you can't seem to shrink your partition. You can't do it from Linux if it's running from the hard drive or from Windows since Windows can't properly handle Linux partitions, but you should be able to use GPARTED from any live OS. (e.g. Mint running off a flash drive.)

If you still wanted to get rid of everything, there are a few options. I've personally had bad luck with boot-repair and BCDEDIT more times than I care to admit and have learned how to deal with things manually to avoid botching Windows installs again.

The easiest option I know of is efibootmgr. Boot into a mint live CD or USB and "sudo apt install efibootmgr" . Enter "efibootmgr" once and it will list your current boot order. You'll probably see something like

BOOT0000* Windows Boot Manager
BOOT0001* UBUNTU
BOOT0002* UEFI: PNY USB 3.0

The one you need to remove is probably GRUB or MINT or UBUNTU or something obvious like that. One more command can remove it from your boot process: "sudo efibootmgr -b # -B" where # is whatever entry you want to remove. In the above example, I'd type "sudo efibootmgr -b 1 -B" and grub installed by Ubuntu would be removed from the boot order and no longer show on boot.

This will leave a couple residual files on your EFI partition but they shouldn't cause you any issues. If you really wanted to clean it up, you could mount your boot partition to a temporary folder while on your live OS and clean them out.

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