Two operating systems on my netbook

[LessFlaws]

I installed UBUNTU (the linux operating system) on my netbook to try it out. I hated it and promptly removed it. However, when I turn it on, it still comes to a MSDOS window asking me to select which operating system to use upon startup; Windows or Ubuntu. If I don't select either within 15 seconds or so, it automatically launches Windows. I want to COMPLETELY remove Ubuntu (which I thought I had done) - so my question is how do I stop it from prompting me to choose an operating system upon startup?. Any ideas?

[ChuckFickens]

you've not said what version of windows you've got so it's a bit hard to tell you how to get to the startup options.

you basically need to either edit your boot.ini, or a simpler (and slightly less risky) way is to simply instruct windows to not show the menu.

If it's XP then Right click on My Computer, and select Properties. Now click on the Advanced tab and take the tick out of time to show list of operating systems (make sure you leave windows as the default system)

[LessFlaws]

I'm running Win XP - sorry for neglecting to mention that. I'll definitely try what you suggested as soon as I get home this evening!

[Hymie]

It might not be as simple as ChuckFickens says. Installing Ubuntu may have altered your computer’s Master Boot Record (MBR).

I recently installed Ubuntu on a removable (slave) drive – with the drive removed, my PC will not boot, even though XP is on the Primary drive, and the BIOS is set to boot from that drive.

[Huderon]

Hymie, Ubuntu only modifies the MBR if you install it on a drive other than the one you have Windows installed on. If you install it on the same drive you have Windows on, it modifies the boot.ini file and creates a .mbr file on your C: drive which it will use as the MBR when you want to load Ubuntu.

[ChuckFickens]

To add to that ^

Hymie, if you simply boot your computer from a windows CD, enter the recovery console and type fixmbr it should sort your problem out for you.

[Hymie]

I tried booting from the Windows CD, but the PC would not play ball (I don’t know why) – without the slave in position, the only way I can get my PC to boot (in XP) is to use a ‘PC engineer disk’ purchased from ebay – and run a boot manager program.

But I now consider this a security feature of my PC – if I remove the slave, it is not easy for anyone to access my PC.