Removing suse from laptop

amyz_3 · November 7, 2010, 3:12pm

Hi there

I installed SUSE 11.3 on my brother laptop for him to try hoping he will like it and remove the other system.

He said he liked it and it is a very good system but difficult for him to use and want to remove it from his laptop.

How can i uninstall SUSE from his laptop without formatting.

I hope i can get an answer cause i hate to reformat and be blamed on loosing his data.

Thanks a lot for the help.

consused · November 7, 2010, 3:21pm

Welcome to the forum amyz_3.

Anyone who gives you the right solution for this, will need to know what other system(s) are installed on your brother’s laptop, and which one is used normally to boot it?

brad455 · November 7, 2010, 3:33pm

Which other system is on the Laptop?
Which system do you want to install if openSUSE11.3 is the only one on the Laptop?
You can backup all his data to a CD/DVD or flash stick before formating the drive if needed, its still a good idea to backup his data that way he will have a backup copy.

amyz_3 · November 7, 2010, 6:39pm

[QUOTE=consused;2249476]Welcome to the forum amyz_3.

Anyone who gives you the right solution for this, will need to know what other system(s) are installed on your brother’s laptop, and which one is used normally to boot it?/QUOTE

Thanks a lot, yes i will do that.

amyz_3 · November 7, 2010, 6:45pm

The other system on the lapto is windows 7 and suse is used for booting it.

My brother wants me to uninstall Linux and leave the windows seven on the lapto and he wants me to do that without formatting.

Is there any way to uninstall linux right from windows seven or i have to format.

Thanks again for your help and quick response.

DenverD · November 7, 2010, 7:37pm

wait for an answer…you do not have to format…the win7 which is
there can be kept…but, you have to wait for the person(s) who know
how to do it to answer you…

it is just a matter of deleting the openSUSE partitions and making
sure the machine is set to boot from the Win7 stuff…

–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 10.3]

martin_helm · November 7, 2010, 8:12pm

If it is good enough to simply remove grub so that windows starts by default
and opensuse is no longer visible you can use the windows install disks
repair option.
After that the opensuse partitions are still there and you can do with them
what you want with the hard disk utilities in windows seven.

1

Insert Win 7 installation DVD and boot from DVD drive. While in some older
systems you may have to change boot order through system BIOS, most newer
systems allow booting from DVD without changing boot order by simply
clicking on any key when prompted to doing so.

2

Choose your default “Language”, “Time”, and “keyboard Input” on the first
window and click next.

3

You’re now presented with 3 choices. Click on “Repair Your Computer” to gain
access to the System Recovery window. Now choose “Command Prompt” in order
to run the desired utility which is called “bootsect.exe”. Bootsect is
located inside the boot folder so change your directory to boot. Now run
“bootsect /nt60 C:” if you had Win 7 initially installed in the C
partition. Alternatively, you can run “bootsect /nt60 SYS” or “bootsect
/nt60 ALL” to repair the system partition or all partitions. Eject the DVD,
and restart computer. Your computer should now boot Win 7 again.

Read more: How to repair MBR on Windows 7 | eHow.com
http://www.ehow.com/how_4836283_repair-mbr-windows.html#ixzz14cqEbID4

amyz_3 · November 7, 2010, 9:12pm

Tanks a lot gus> You have been a great help to me.

Mr martin_helm, I really appreciate your help.

I love linux becasue of those people like you guys who are there ready to help any time.

Thanks linux, you are a great system.

DenverD · November 7, 2010, 9:37pm

martin_helm wrote:
> After that the opensuse partitions are still there and you can do with them
> what you want with the hard disk utilities in windows seven.

on the Windows steps you gave, i have no idea if they will work or not
but i don’t believe Win7 knows how to see (much less remove) Linux
file systems…

if Win7 can do as you advise, then it will be the first ever Micro$0ft
system every built which can see/change or otherwise interact with a
non-M$ file systems…

–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 10.3]

martin_helm · November 7, 2010, 10:22pm

DenverD wrote:
>
> on the Windows steps you gave, i have no idea if they will work or not
> but i don’t believe Win7 knows how to see (much less remove) Linux
> file systems…
>
> if Win7 can do as you advise, then it will be the first ever Micro$0ft
> system every built which can see/change or otherwise interact with a
> non-M$ file systems…
>
That will work, I used myself exactly this on a friends machine who had dual
boot kubuntu and windows 7 and only wanted windows 7. W7 has no problem to
see linux partitions with its inbuilt tools and change them as it likes it.
It is just not able to use linux formatted partittions as they are. But can
of course remove them.

martin_helm · November 7, 2010, 10:25pm

amyz 3 wrote:

>
> Tanks a lot gus> You have been a great help to me.
>
> Mr martin_helm, I really appreciate your help.
>
> I love linux becasue of those people like you guys who are there ready
> to help any time.
>
> Thanks linux, you are a great system.
>
>
It is a pitty if someone who has linux wants to remove it, I know that
situation when someone asks me after trying linux to remove it and turn it
back into a single boot (windows) system.
Since I do not see myself as someone who has to decide what others have to
use or like I simply help them with that.
Of course that does not change my own way using linux as my one and only
operating system (sometimes also playing a bit with BSD).

malcolmlewis · November 7, 2010, 10:27pm

Hi
They should run a liveCD first? Else you can always create a customized
version on SUSE Studio?

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.32.23-0.3-default
up 9 days 2:54, 4 users, load average: 0.08, 0.14, 0.10
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - Driver Version: 260.19.12

knurpht · November 7, 2010, 10:39pm

That’s not what martin_helm says. He just explains how to repair the windows bootloader so that GRUB does not show any longer. It would leave the partitions as they are. From Win7 the OP can remove the partitions marked as ‘unknown filesystem’. The only thing Windu systems can do with linux partitions is remove them, i.e. remove unknown filesystems. Windu systems “see” the linux partitions, they don’t know nothing about the filesystems used, unless told so by third party software.

martin_helm · November 7, 2010, 10:38pm

The disadvantage of the live cd approach is that I never saw a way to make
the live cd’s usable with proprietary drivers like nvidia and that live cd
systems are relatively slow.
The live cd gives a first impression but not the real feeling how it is to
work with a full blown system.

DenverD · November 8, 2010, 12:06pm

Knurpht wrote:
> From Win7 the OP can remove the partitions marked as ‘unknown
> filesystem’. The only thing Windu systems can do with linux
> partitions is remove them, i.e. remove unknown filesystems. Windu
> systems “see” the linux partitions, they don’t know nothing about
> the filesystems

well, i think that is progress…i really didn’t know they had come to
allow their users to even see there was something else there that
could be removed…

we should do the same with Linux…

–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 10.3]

robin_listas · November 9, 2010, 3:02pm

On 2010-11-08 12:06, DenverD wrote:

> well, i think that is progress…i really didn’t know they had come to
> allow their users to even see there was something else there that
> could be removed…

The progress is not that Windows sees it. The progress is that Windows does
not deletes it “by accident” >:-)

If you try to open a linux partition in windows, it typically says that the
partition is bad and press ok to format it… and presto! No more linux.
And posibly also the bootloader is destroyed in the process, so it appears
to the user that windows is no more, and he blames those blasted linux
people for having to reformat his beloved windows machine >:-P

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)