Reverse/Remove Dual booting Win 7 and Ubuntu on two hard drives

[Guest]

Hello there,

What would be the options for reversing a dual boot Windows and Ubuntu from two separate hard drives?

Ubuntu is the main boot option in Bios and Win 7 is second. GRUB gives options to choose which one of the OS to load.
On win 7 no Easy BCD is ever been installed.
In win 7 under computer manager, disk manager the two hard drives are shown also from cmd, diskpart, list disk: disk 0 is win 7 and disk 1 is Ubuntu.
Any data loss from both drives is not an option.

Any advice is much appreciated.

 

[The Paladin]

so you have a windows and Ubuntu Booting system and Ubuntu is booting first and you want to boot windows first ?
easy enough edit GRUB menu and change the boot order.
Ubuntu can see windows partitions explained here : https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MountingWindowsPartitions
but windows will not read Linux partitions.

 

[Guest]

Yes right now Linux can see (can transfer files to) Win partitions and Win cant see (cant transfer files to) linux partitions.
I need them (the hard drives with their OS's) to be just as they were before the dual boot, i.e. separate and autonomous from each other.
I most likely need to do changes so to not see windows any more in the GRUB, so to have both OS (hard drives) work as a separate entities and not as one as its right now.
Im unsure whether i need to touch in windows or in linux for this to get solved.

I need to remove the dual boot and make them (two hard drives/two OS's) boot autonomously as it was before the dual boot.

 

[The Paladin]

I don't think you can do that, unless you remove grub, then you would have to press F12 on bios boot to select hard drive to start from

 

[Guest]

Before the dual boot there were 2 hard drives with two OS's on them. To go between them it was necessary to go through bios and choose which one to use.
Now i have dual boot from two hard drives and GNU GRUB window allows me choose which OS to load.

The Paladin, you say the only solution is to remove grub ?
Do i need to recover grub after removing dual boot, so the Ubuntu OS to work properly ?
Do i need to recover mbr after removing dual boot, so the Win 7 OS to work properly ?
Does removing GRUB is safe according the data on the drives ? Removing GRUB via the terminal ?
I thought GRUB is always needed for the linux OS.
I dont want to remove any of the OS's, just the dual boot between them.
Does the removing of GRUB gonna affect the proper work of any of the hard drives OS's ?
I just need to remove dual boot and save the OS's on them.

 

[USAFRet]

If you physically remove the Linux drive, does the Windows drive boot properly on its own?


And for this:
"Any data loss from both drives is not an option."
....that is always a possibility. This is what backups are for.

 

[Guest]

If you physically remove the Linux drive, does the Windows drive boot properly on its own?

Linux drive is on the primary hard drive position and same set in the BIOS, Win is a secondary order and as a slave hard drive position in the PC.

When physically remove the Linux drive (primary) and leave the Win drive where it is usually (slave hard drive position) and turn on the PC it goes to Boot Menu (empty) and App Menu (when enter goes into BIOS), and No the Win drive, does not load.

When physically remove the Linux drive and Win drive is in place of the main hard drive position in the PC, BIOS drive order is as follows: 1. Win drive, 2. not installed, when turn on, it gives error:
error: no such device: (the Linux drive)
Entering rescue mode...
grub rescue >

When physically take out Win drive and Linux drive is in its usual primary hard drive position in the PC (as well as 1. boot order in BIOS), when turn on, it gives the usual GNU GRUB list from which i usually choose which OS to load, it gives both Linux and Win. Linux does load up as usual when chosen, when choose Win, it gives error: no such device (the Win drive), cannot get C/H/S

GNU GRUB v.2.02 beta 2-9ubuntu1.7 is what is says in the dual boot grub menu list that is used to choose which OS to boot.

And for this:
"Any data loss from both drives is not an option."
....that is always a possibility. This is what backups are for.

I just got new hard drive which probably need to partition and format to use it as a storage to move around some data from each drives. Need to figure out how those needs to be done correct.
Linux distr is broken right now, can't see any drive, but detects it, dont have sidebar menu, terminal, start menu, the browsers are not working, short keys as well, no sound control, cant do update right, cant install right. Only tty1 terminal is accessible.

 

[USAFRet]

Just to recap:

So we have a dual boot scenario.
2 drives, 1 Linux and 1 Windows
The Linux GRUB has taken over the boot process and selection. As usually happen. No problem.

And you wish to break these two apart, and have each drive act completely on its own.

Except....
The Linux install appears to be totally screwed up
And the Windows install does not boot unless it it is selected from the GRUB menu.

However...we have a new, blank drive, ready to receive whatever.

I suggest you start from scratch.
Copy what you need off the Windows install to this new drive.

Wipe and reinstall each OS on its own drive. With only the target drive connected.

That will almost assuredly be faster and far more likely to "just work" than attempting to 'fix' this.

Start again from a known stable base of operations.

 

[Guest]

Thank you for your answer and suggestions USAFRet,

You got the scenario right, i just need to clarify:
"Except....
The Linux install appears to be totally screwed up
And the Windows install does not boot unless it it is selected from the GRUB menu."

The linux drive is working not near optimal, but still working, it has some unmet dependencies, some it has to do with versions and paths of certain programs...

You basically suggest to use the 3rd drive as a back up drive after i install OS on it and to wipe everything on the other two drives: disk 1 and disk 2, right ?
I would assume if i do it just that way, i dont have to deal and fix either linux and win boot loaders, correct ?

Thing is my new drive is not big enough to have all the data from both drives that need to deal with, so i will have to save at least one, preferably both of the OS's, meaning i should have to uncouple the boot loaders from both drives one by one and in case of saving them and making them work as a separate drives from each other, then to try to repair or fresh install where needed.

 

[USAFRet]

No, I suggest using the 3rd drive to back up any critical data before fixing the other two drives.

OS and applications can be obtained again and reinstalled.
Your critical personal data cannot. Save that and have it offline during this process.

 

[Guest]

Thank you for your suggestion USAFRet,
Sure i need to use the 3rd drive for back up, but not enough, since all my data is critical and is too big volume for the 3rd drive.
Thats why i would assume just a back up and reinstalling (wiping the hard drives) is not an option, since i'll need to be able to use one drive at a time with CD-Rom connected so to take out data on DVD and that to be accomplished i will need separate single boot from both drives: disk 1 and disk 2 and that means i have to:
- uncouple safely the dual boot i have right now with both drives, to single-independent boot from each other for each drive, that is why just back up and simple wipe-reinstall of OS on each drive is not optimal. That is why removing grub also is not an option as was suggested earlier.

From a dual boot with two drives with two OS: Linux and Win, i need to go to single-independent boot for each of the two drives.

 

[USAFRet]

...since all my data is critical and is too big volume for the 3rd drive.

This would be a problem, then.
The more you mess with this booting situation and problematic Linux install...the greater chance of messing it all up anyway.

 

[Guest]

...since all my data is critical and is too big volume for the 3rd drive.

This would be a problem, then.
The more you mess with this booting situation and problematic Linux install...the greater chance of messing it all up anyway.

You might be right, its a messy situation already and thats why i need very precise solution. Linux distr was just fine, but got "broken down" along the way.

 

[USAFRet]

...since all my data is critical and is too big volume for the 3rd drive.

This would be a problem, then.
The more you mess with this booting situation and problematic Linux install...the greater chance of messing it all up anyway.

You might be right, its a messy situation already and thats why i need very precise solution. Linux distr was just fine, but got "broken down" along the way.

Due to the complex series of steps and apparent mishaps that got you where you are today, there is no one set of specific steps to walk this all back to "fully functional".

This is why I strongly recommend just starting with a clean slate.
You posted the original 5 days ago.
A clean slate concept would have been completed 3 days ago, and you'd be off and running.

 

[Guest]

...since all my data is critical and is too big volume for the 3rd drive.

This would be a problem, then.
The more you mess with this booting situation and problematic Linux install...the greater chance of messing it all up anyway.

You might be right, its a messy situation already and thats why i need very precise solution. Linux distr was just fine, but got "broken down" along the way.

Due to the complex series of steps and apparent mishaps that got you where you are today, there is no one set of specific steps to walk this all back to "fully functional".

This is why I strongly recommend just starting with a clean slate.
You posted the original 5 days ago.
A clean slate concept would have been completed 3 days ago, and you'd be off and running.

petar_pan said:

From a dual boot with two drives with two OS: Linux and Win, i need to go to single-independent boot for each of the two drives.

This is what i need, there is no steps i can follow to achieve this ?
There must be some way to uncouple those drives w/o affecting in negative way the OS's

 

[Guest]

...

It looks like the suggested solutions so far are anything but what i was asking for, would you be that kind to delete this thread for me, i guess this is not going anywhere. As far as suggested back up and reinstall, i dont really need to come out here for advice to have that figured out. Im not sure if i can delete this thread myself, so ill need some help at least for this.