Yes, reformatting that will give you boot problems.  

GRUB stage 1.5 boot loader is on the MBR.  Stage 2, which is the menu you actually see, is most likely on that partition.  Reformatting it will break GRUB.

You can remove GRUB and go back to the Windows boot manager, but that means rewriting your MBR.  It's not hard, but it takes a few mins. of messing around.  You could reinstall GRUB so that it gets Stage 2 from a different partition, but I think that could get confusing.

Probably your easiest option would be to boot from a LiveCD (Like the Ubuntu install CD), remove all the data on that partition EXCEPT the /boot directory, then shrink the partition to something like 100 MB and make a new partition in the empty space.  That way, GRUB will keep working exactly like it does now but you will have nearly all of that space to work with in another OS.

I'm not a big fan of dual-booting anymore, either.  Rebooting the computer just to get to a different program or check something out is just no fun.  Virtual machines are much better if you are only occasionally using another OS.  I have a Windows VM for my poker game and PayPal Virtual Debit Card plugin.  

Personally, I didn't feel like I ever got over the hump of the Linux learning curve until I made it my primary OS.  It did take a chunk of time.  In some ways, I felt like I was re-learning how to use computers, which was frustrating at times since I had thought of myself as an 'advanced user' for so long.  But, considering what it did for my career, I can say that it was well worth it.

If anyone on this forum is interested in taking the leap, feel free to email me if you have any questions.  Sometimes it can be really helpful if someone helps get you started with the most basic stuff.  I remember spending an entire evening on one of the first days trying to find the Linux equal of 'dir /P'.  Any Linux user with 5 days of experience can tell you 10 ways to do it ('ls | more' is a common one) but on day 1 it can feel very foreign.  Once you get over the hump, it gets a lot easier and you start to feel like you can do just about anything in Linux with enough Googlefoo.

I recently set my Radified email address to filter into my Gmail account, which I check about multiple times a day, so I should be able to respond in a reasonable time  

Brian

I think Rad was asking how best to get rid of GRUB and revert back to using a standard boot MBR without causing boot problems.

I though there was an uninstall routine included with GRUB so you can revert--No?!

Rad,

Or from your new Partition Work BING CD. 3 clicks.

View MBR, Std MBR, Apply.

NightOwl

NightOwl wrote on Mar 27^th, 2009 at 9:01am:

That's correct.

You can make either of two BING boot disks. A full one and one that has the boot manager missing. The latter one boots straight into Partition Work and is the preferable disk if you don't want BING installed on the HD. With the full disk there are a few Install screens where you have to click Cancel before you get to Partition Work.

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1237655769/15#16

There is a one month fully functional trial if you would like to play with it.

Test attachment:

Rad

Quote:

Personally--I have been using PartitionMagic for years--v8.xx--it's never let me down.  I've used *Fdisk* and the WinXP *Disk Mgmt*--but, mostly for testing.

You could also use Ghost's *Gdisk*--there's a DOS and Windows version (gdisk32)--a command line only utility like *fdisk*.  Again, I've only used *gdisk* for testing--but, it has always worked!

Okay, I tried BING Boot CD loaded with 'Partition Work' to reset the MBR like Brian suggested and indeed it does work and is incredibly simple. Rebooting is the worst part.

One small caveat, after you click the 'Apply' button in the pop-up window that appears after you click the 'Standard MBR' button, you have to *again* click the 'Apply' button on the main big window .. after you've already clicked the 'Apply' button on the small pop-up window (that says it applies your changes to disk). I wasn't sure what the second 'Apply' would do.

In other words, you gotta click the word 'Apply' TWICE.

I was looking for a button to close the big window after I "applied" the changes to disk, but saw none, so I clicked the next closest-looking button, which was 'Cancel'.

Think I canceled these changes, cuz GRUB was still there on subsequent reboot.

But after I clicked 'Apply' AGAIN (twice). GRUB was gone.

I also deleted the Linux Native and Linux swap partitions and and created NTFS partitions in their place.

Going to format them both now inside of WXP Disk Management.

One small question, when I was deleting the Linux native partition, I saw a small checkbox for "Clear Boot Sector". Wasn't entirely sure whether or not I should check that box. I knew the Linux partition did have boot info which I wanted cleared, or which the upcoming formatting would clear. I *did* check that box for Linux native but not for Linux swap.

I will say that I was impressed with the BING prgm and the interface. Very clear. Easy to see why folks like it so much.