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I (stupidly) installed Linux Mint 13 Maya from a disc containing several Linux Distros (from a magazine). I tried Mint, liked it and when asked if I wished to install it on my hard drive I did. I did not create a partition for it (I just have Drive C and a 'new volume' Drive E which I partitioned myself before for extra space but not intended for Mint exclusively). I have no idea which drive it is on.

The 'Grub' menu comes up on startup and goes to Mint automatically and I have to scroll down to boot Windows. Mint has become very unstable and cannot perform updates properly and I just want it gone.

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I do not have a Windows Installation CD/DVD as the laptop was given to me and I am no longer in contact with that person. I do not want to erase/format either of my drives as I will lose everything and I don't want to do that.

I don't know how to find which drive Mint is on. Would putting in the original disc which had Mint (amongst other distros on)  give me an option to remove Mint?

Would I have to go into Mint OS on my Laptop and try to uninstall it from there?

Any advice, suggestions, solutions, help will be much appreciated. Caroline.

Aswin Kumar K P
2012-11-16 06:17:30
Run the mint cd in live mode then run Gparted application in it and then find in which partition windows lies and then you delete the linux partition.
Caroline West
2012-10-24 06:23:05
*Resolved* Thank God.An article by Jeffry Thurana here at MUO: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/nongeeks-guide-safely-uninstall-ubuntu-dualbooting-machine/ helped me do it. I followed his instructions and it worked. Mint OS has gone from my Laptop.The only issue I have left is to put the partition - which I thought I didn't have but did - back to my C: Drive which wasn't possible in his suggested advice (that will be for another time to ask that question!).Nonetheless I was a happy Caroline! :-D
Lisa Santika Onggrid
2012-10-25 12:14:51
Use partition manager like Paragon's or EASEUS. I used it to return my previously Linux-formatted partition back to Windows and merged it to my C:/ drive. Like you, I installed Mint before I created special partition for it.I don't know about 13, but 12 is working great and I love it. Plus its version name is...umm, my name xD
Caroline West
2012-10-26 04:59:16
Lisa thank you!! :-D Is EASEUS easy and straight forward to use??
Lisa Santika Onggrid
2012-10-26 06:58:48
I think it's very straightforward. The GUI isn't very tidy but you can find tools you want at once. Tell me if it works!
Ramon Fletcher
2012-11-02 10:10:25
if you run the mint cd (without installing it this time) and in the trial environment run gparted you can delete the partition and resize the windows partition to fill the empty space.