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So I've been using Ubuntu 19.04 for a while now, but I faced many issues because of which I want to remove it.

I had installed 19.04 once and removed it to reinstall it due to some issues then, but this time that procedure is not working.

The procedure was to delete the volume allocated for Ubuntu, but now when I open disk management, it shows the Ubuntu partition as a primary partition on my HDD. And between my windows D: partition and Ubuntu Partition, there is a 500 MB EFI file system that I have no clue about.

My laptop has a 128 GB SSD + 1 TB HDD. I had allocated 200 GB for Ubuntu. If I open diskpart and check the SSD and HDD, I find Ubuntu is present in both, how do I remove Ubuntu or solve this problem?

This is the disk management window. enter image description here

And I'm not able to delete my volume because the delete volume option is not there(not greyed out) as shown: enter image description here

This article is directly related to my other Ubuntu problem that I've posted on https://askubuntu.com/questions/1191871/grub-issue-with-ubuntu-19-04

Thank you

Mawg says reinstate Monica
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Anuraag Shankar
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  • Just an FYI, you're missing the MSR 16MB partition on Disk 0 (not sure why) and the last partition on an SSD should have 10% of the SSD's size as free space for OP [Over Provisioning]. – JW0914 Dec 06 '19 at 16:34
  • Oh I do not have any knowledge about those partitions, but I know that the Disk 0 had these same partitions from the very beginning – Anuraag Shankar Dec 06 '19 at 17:22
  • Did you clone a non-UEFI PC's HDD (it's impossible to install Windows 8/10 without the 16MB MSR partition being created, as UEFI installs require a minimum of 4 partitions: WinRE, MSR, EFI, & OS; see this)? Either way, partition layout should be recreated, as SSDs should have space set aside for Over Provisioning (SSDs need OP to allow the SSD to move around data for wear-leveling, otherwise performance drops precipitously once the SSD reaches a certain percentage full). – JW0914 Dec 07 '19 at 12:51
  • No I did not do anything like that – Anuraag Shankar Dec 07 '19 at 16:11
  • It's simply not possible to install Windows 8 or 10 on a UEFI motherboard without the 16MB MSR partition... if it doesn't exist, the installer will create it - there's no getting around that, so either the HDD was cloned from a non-UEFI PC or it was transferred from a non-UEFI PC. – JW0914 Dec 07 '19 at 16:47

1 Answers1

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The EFI System Partition (ESP) is a must, read this lengthy answer of mine for an explanation why.

If I open diskpart and check the SSD and HDD, I find Ubuntu is present in both

That's not what I see on your screenshots. Your SSD contains the ESP, main Windows partition and Windows recovery partition. HDD contains data partition, another ESP and Ubuntu root partition. I suppose the ESP on HDD was created by Ubuntu installer.

The Ubuntu partition (~200 GB) and ESP on HDD (~500 MB) can be deleted. You could do this from Windows using diskpart, but it's not very user-friendly. The easiest method would be to boot Ubuntu from USB and use GParted, which has a nice graphical user interface. It will also let you resize your data partition to fill entire HDD.

gronostaj
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  • So how do I remove it using GParted? And why do I have to boot Ubuntu using a USB? I do have Ubuntu 18.04, can I create a bootable pen drive of it? – Anuraag Shankar Dec 06 '19 at 11:09
  • Also I had watched a video to delete Ubuntu, they used diskpart and deleted the Ubuntu file from the EFI file system, I had done the same, now diskpart doesnt show Ubuntu in the 500MB but I'm still able to boot into it. Also now my UEFI system shows 4 entries - 1. Windows, 2. Ubuntu on SSD, 3. Ubuntu on HDD, 4. OS – Anuraag Shankar Dec 06 '19 at 11:12
  • You can use any relatively modern version of Ubuntu, 16.04 and newer will certainly work. Windows considers deleting these partitions potentially unsafe (ESP is a system partition, the other one uses unrecognized filesystem - Windows doesn't support Linux's ext4) so it deliberately makes it hard for inexperienced users to delete them. It's possible on Windows using diskpart as I wrote, but it's an advanced tool - it's easy to make a costly mistake if you're not experienced. GParted is pretty self-explanatory - select disk, right-click partition, delete, click Apply on the toolbar. – gronostaj Dec 06 '19 at 12:17
  • Sorry I'm a bit inexperienced. So I have to create a bootable pen drive of my 18.04 and then I go to try Ubuntu and then use GParted? – Anuraag Shankar Dec 06 '19 at 12:29
  • Yes, exactly. You can create the USB using Rufus. – gronostaj Dec 06 '19 at 14:33
  • Okay Thanks! So with that I should just delete the volumes and then reinstall 18.04 right? – Anuraag Shankar Dec 06 '19 at 17:20
  • If you want to reinstall, there's no point in deleting these partitions. Format Ubuntu root to ext4 using GParted. Then choose manual installation and mark root partition as mount point for /. Be careful and make backups beforehand, it's always a good idea and especially so of you don't really understand what's going on (no offense). – gronostaj Dec 06 '19 at 21:17