Remove grub bootloader /fixmbr and /fixboot not working

hosfordryan

New Member
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I tried out Ubuntu on a dual boot and i decided dual booting was not working for me, so i'm trying to remove it and get back to normal. So i followed a few tutorials online and deleted the swap and ubuntu partition, and then I make a recovery USB using windows 8's 'Create a Recovery Drive' tool, and then restarted my computer. Upon booting, i was greeted with Grub's command interface. Unsure what to do, i googled it and someone suggested using the exit command and i was brought to a screen where i could choose different devices to boot from, i tried the windows bootloader option, and that worked, I tried the Ubuntu option and that brought me back to the grub command line, and i tried the USB option and that brought me to a recovery screen for windows where it asked me to choose a language just like in the tutorials. The part that is different and i don't understand is on the tutorials, the next screen is always where it gives you an option to install windows 8 or repair windows 8. I don't get that option. For me, it is either troubleshoot or continue to windows 8. In the troubleshoot menu, i found my way into the command prompt just like in the tutorial, and executed
Code:
bootrec.exe /fixmbr and bootrec.exe /fixboot
both of these said they were successful, so i exited out of the command prompt and clicked continue to windows 8. Doing this brought me back to the grub command line. I tried restarting my computer to see if that would work, but it too brought me to the grub command line. What am i doing wrong and how can i fix it? I want grub bootloader gone and for my computer to boot into windows normally.
Any help or suggestions is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Linux Centos 7, W8.1, W7, W2K3 Server W10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Monitor(s) Displays
    1 X LG 40 inch TV
    Hard Drives
    SSD's * 3 (Samsung 840 series) 250 GB
    2 X 3 TB sata
    5 X 1 TB sata
    Internet Speed
    0.12 GB/s (120Mb/s)
It is important to know if you have a UEFI install or Legacy, since they have to be handled differently..

If it is UEFI, you should be able to set the Windows Boot Manager as First boot device and boot directly into Windows 8. If you have a Legacy install, the Bootrec /nt60 command may help remove the Linux Boot system..

If you need to remove the Linux boot options, you may have to edit the BCD Store using bcdedit.exe.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
I am having this same exact problem. I ended up, as Saltgrass suggests, going into BIOS and selecting WindowsBootLoader as the first to be executed upon start-up. That certainly seemed to get rid of the problem with entering GRUB every time I start my computer, but GRUB is still there.. Does anyone know if there is a way to actually rid the system of GRUB without completely re-installing windows?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
I am having this same exact problem. I ended up, as Saltgrass suggests, going into BIOS and selecting WindowsBootLoader as the first to be executed upon start-up. That certainly seemed to get rid of the problem with entering GRUB every time I start my computer, but GRUB is still there.. Does anyone know if there is a way to actually rid the system of GRUB without completely re-installing windows?

See here:
Quick fix: Removing Grub Solved - Windows 7 Help Forums
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    PC-DOS v1.0
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    IBM
    CPU
    Intel 8088, 4.77MHz
    Memory
    16K, 640K max
    Graphics Card(s)
    What's that?
    Sound Card
    Not quite
    Screen Resolution
    80 X 24 text
    Hard Drives
    dual 160KB 5.25-inch disk drives
Yu have to be careful removing this if working with UEFI, it may not configured as it would have been on Windows 7.

A picture of your Disk Management window might help decide the process needed. You might be able to remove the Grub Boot option using msconfig.exe or by editing the BCD Store.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
Yu have to be careful removing this if working with UEFI, it may not configured as it would have been on Windows 7.

A picture of your Disk Management window might help decide the process needed. You might be able to remove the Grub Boot option using msconfig.exe or by editing the BCD Store.

Good point - just realised he has EFI.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    PC-DOS v1.0
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    IBM
    CPU
    Intel 8088, 4.77MHz
    Memory
    16K, 640K max
    Graphics Card(s)
    What's that?
    Sound Card
    Not quite
    Screen Resolution
    80 X 24 text
    Hard Drives
    dual 160KB 5.25-inch disk drives
Thanks for the replies!
I am working with UEFI. I have a lenovo laptop with windows 8.1 pre-installed. I had installed Ubuntu next to windows, but I was having some major keyboard and mouse issues that I couldn't seem to resolve.
Here is a screenshot of my Disk Management:
Screenshot (1).png
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
You attachment seems to show a normal install, so I would suggest you run the following command and attach the results if you want us to look at it. Removing some of the entries may eliminate the Grub options.

bcdedit /enum all > %userprofile%\Desktop\bcdtext.txt

You will probably have entries for Grub and Ubuntu.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
You got the error because you are running Power Shell and not a Command Prompt. I believe, in Power shell you have to replace the %...% with $ENV:

bcdedit /enum all > $ENV:userprofile\Desktop\bcdtext.txt

You also need to run it as an administrator, so select that option.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
It is easier to download: Download Visual BCD
and delete the entry from the GUI interface instead of using bcdedit.

NOTE: The program will popup an error at the beginning, just ignore it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1x64PWMC Ubuntu14.04x64 MintMate17x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Brewed
    CPU
    I7 4970K OC'ed @4.7 GHz
    Motherboard
    MSI-Z97
    Memory
    16 GB G-Skill Trident X @2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual HP-W2408
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200
    Hard Drives
    256 GB M2 sm951, (2) 500GB 850EVO, 5TB, 2 TB Seagate
    PSU
    Antec 850W
    Case
    Antec 1200
    Cooling
    Danger Den H20
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance Mouse MX
    Internet Speed
    35/12mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
Okay, I tried re-entering both of those command lines, one in the power shell and one in the command prompt, both run as administrator, and I didn't seem to get any results back. Any thoughts on why that would be? I think I'll take a look at that visual BCD later today as well.
Screenshot (3).png
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
Huh, that was interesting. The file wasn't there a minute ago, but I did a quick search for it and suddenly it appeared on my desktop. Here are it's contents:



Firmware Boot Manager
---------------------
identifier {fwbootmgr}
displayorder {bootmgr}
{928ced94-fdcc-11e3-9f5e-806e6f6e6963}
{510e8171-16ce-11e4-8279-806e6f6e6963}
{928ced96-fdcc-11e3-9f5e-806e6f6e6963}
{928ced97-fdcc-11e3-9f5e-806e6f6e6963}
{928ced95-fdcc-11e3-9f5e-806e6f6e6963}
timeout 0


Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume2
path \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
integrityservices Enable
default {current}
resumeobject {34148e6a-fd42-11e3-aa01-f8a9633cfca1}
displayorder {current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 0


Firmware Application (101fffff)
-------------------------------
identifier {510e8171-16ce-11e4-8279-806e6f6e6963}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume2
path \EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi
description ubuntu


Firmware Application (101fffff)
-------------------------------
identifier {5ec264c4-1a98-11e4-bfa2-806e6f6e6963}
description EFI USB Device (Generic Flash Disk)


Firmware Application (101fffff)
-------------------------------
identifier {928ced94-fdcc-11e3-9f5e-806e6f6e6963}
description EFI USB Device


Firmware Application (101fffff)
-------------------------------
identifier {928ced95-fdcc-11e3-9f5e-806e6f6e6963}
description EFI DVD/CDROM


Firmware Application (101fffff)
-------------------------------
identifier {928ced96-fdcc-11e3-9f5e-806e6f6e6963}
description EFI Network


Firmware Application (101fffff)
-------------------------------
identifier {928ced97-fdcc-11e3-9f5e-806e6f6e6963}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume3
path \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\LrsBootMgr.efi
description Lenovo Recovery System


Firmware Application (101fffff)
-------------------------------
identifier {928ced98-fdcc-11e3-9f5e-806e6f6e6963}
description EFI Network 0 for IPv4 (F8-A9-63-3C-FC-A1)


Firmware Application (101fffff)
-------------------------------
identifier {928ced99-fdcc-11e3-9f5e-806e6f6e6963}
description EFI Network 0 for IPv6 (F8-A9-63-3C-FC-A1)


Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \windows\system32\winload.efi
description Windows 8.1
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence {f1fd873b-fdc4-11e3-8254-f8a9633cfca1}
integrityservices Enable
recoveryenabled Yes
isolatedcontext Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \windows
resumeobject {34148e6a-fd42-11e3-aa01-f8a9633cfca1}
nx OptIn
bootmenupolicy Standard


Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {f1fd873b-fdc4-11e3-8254-f8a9633cfca1}
device ramdisk=[\Device\HarddiskVolume1]\Recovery\WindowsRE\Winre.wim,{f1fd873c-fdc4-11e3-8254-f8a9633cfca1}
path \windows\system32\winload.efi
description Windows Recovery Environment
locale en-us
inherit {bootloadersettings}
displaymessage Recovery
displaymessageoverride Recovery
osdevice ramdisk=[\Device\HarddiskVolume1]\Recovery\WindowsRE\Winre.wim,{f1fd873c-fdc4-11e3-8254-f8a9633cfca1}
systemroot \windows
nx OptIn
bootmenupolicy Standard
winpe Yes


Resume from Hibernate
---------------------
identifier {34148e6a-fd42-11e3-aa01-f8a9633cfca1}
device partition=C:
path \windows\system32\winresume.efi
description Windows Resume Application
locale en-US
inherit {resumeloadersettings}
recoverysequence {f1fd873b-fdc4-11e3-8254-f8a9633cfca1}
recoveryenabled Yes
isolatedcontext Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
filedevice partition=C:
filepath \hiberfil.sys
bootmenupolicy Standard
debugoptionenabled No


Windows Memory Tester
---------------------
identifier {memdiag}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume2
path \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\memtest.efi
description Windows Memory Diagnostic
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
badmemoryaccess Yes


EMS Settings
------------
identifier {emssettings}
bootems No


Debugger Settings
-----------------
identifier {dbgsettings}
debugtype Serial
debugport 1
baudrate 115200


RAM Defects
-----------
identifier {badmemory}


Global Settings
---------------
identifier {globalsettings}
inherit {dbgsettings}
{emssettings}
{badmemory}


Boot Loader Settings
--------------------
identifier {bootloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}
{hypervisorsettings}


Hypervisor Settings
-------------------
identifier {hypervisorsettings}
hypervisordebugtype Serial
hypervisordebugport 1
hypervisorbaudrate 115200


Resume Loader Settings
----------------------
identifier {resumeloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}


Setup Ramdisk Options
---------------------
identifier {ramdiskoptions}
description Ramdisk options
ramdisksdidevice boot
ramdisksdipath \boot\boot.sdi


Device options
--------------
identifier {f1fd873c-fdc4-11e3-8254-f8a9633cfca1}
description Windows Recovery
ramdisksdidevice partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume1
ramdisksdipath \Recovery\WindowsRE\boot.sdi
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
From your post above, the identifier for UBUNTU is: {510e8171-16ce-11e4-8279-806e6f6e6963}
so if you wish to use visualBCD, download and install it:
  1. Run visualBCD
  2. Press F4 to make a backup of the BCD Store
  3. Go thru the list and delete the entry with the identifier: {510e8171-16ce-11e4-8279-806e6f6e6963}
  4. Here's an example of my Windows 8.1 entry. You would look for the entry with description: Ubuntu and delete it.

    a.png
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1x64PWMC Ubuntu14.04x64 MintMate17x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Brewed
    CPU
    I7 4970K OC'ed @4.7 GHz
    Motherboard
    MSI-Z97
    Memory
    16 GB G-Skill Trident X @2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual HP-W2408
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200
    Hard Drives
    256 GB M2 sm951, (2) 500GB 850EVO, 5TB, 2 TB Seagate
    PSU
    Antec 850W
    Case
    Antec 1200
    Cooling
    Danger Den H20
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance Mouse MX
    Internet Speed
    35/12mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
Update: I downloaded Visual BCD, and I found and deleted Ubuntu and all of its contents, but, after restarting my computer, it's there again. This thing is persistent! I think I'm just going to throw in the towel and leave it there. I don't imagine it will be doing any harm.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
Perhaps some things are just meant to be... LOL

I do however recall Saltgrass and SIW2 posting instructions regarding formatting the EFI partition and rebuilding with bcdboot - they would know better than me though.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    PC-DOS v1.0
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    IBM
    CPU
    Intel 8088, 4.77MHz
    Memory
    16K, 640K max
    Graphics Card(s)
    What's that?
    Sound Card
    Not quite
    Screen Resolution
    80 X 24 text
    Hard Drives
    dual 160KB 5.25-inch disk drives
One more thing to try: Win+R->Run->msconfig
click on boot tab and check if there's an entry for Ubuntu there then delete it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1x64PWMC Ubuntu14.04x64 MintMate17x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Brewed
    CPU
    I7 4970K OC'ed @4.7 GHz
    Motherboard
    MSI-Z97
    Memory
    16 GB G-Skill Trident X @2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual HP-W2408
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200
    Hard Drives
    256 GB M2 sm951, (2) 500GB 850EVO, 5TB, 2 TB Seagate
    PSU
    Antec 850W
    Case
    Antec 1200
    Cooling
    Danger Den H20
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance Mouse MX
    Internet Speed
    35/12mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
Perhaps some things are just meant to be... LOL

I do however recall Saltgrass and SIW2 posting instructions regarding formatting the EFI partition and rebuilding with bcdboot - they would know better than me though.

Haha, yeah, my thoughts exactly. Who knows, I may end up trying to re-install Ubuntu on this machine some day anyways. At any rate, I think GRUB has proven itself worthy of remaining where it is for the time being.

Topgundcp—I tried the msconfig suggestion, but only the windows bootloader was present..

Thanks for all the help everyone! You guys are awesome.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
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