What happens?

I have recently returned form the dark side (Linux). I partitioned my hard drive using the g parted partitioning tool that Linux provides for setting up a dual boot system. I want to retrieve the space. If I make an image of my current Windows partition and format the hard drive then reload the image will I get all my space back or will I just get the space I had when I made the image?

 

It should work to do as you suggest. You'll just need to resize the Windows partition during the restore to take up the whole drive.

However, why can't you just remove the linux partitions and use one of the tools (DD, gparted, etc.) to just resize the Windows partition? This would just reverse what the linux install did (ususally the default is to shrink the Windows partition to make room for linux).

Make sure you have a valid TI image of the drive before doing either procedure so you can recover if something goes wrong.

 

Hello Stephen47,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please notice that Mudcrab is correct; you will be able to resize during a partition restore procedure.
Please see the detailed instructions in the respective User's Guide.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov

 

I tried using g parted to resize my windows partition. I could shrink the Linux partition but the extra space became unallocated and it wouldn't let me expand My windows partition beyond what it already is.
Thanks for the replies, I will look at the user guide and maybe find a g parted forum for some help. Seems to me I should be able to gain some of that space back.

 

Here is what happened. I used g parted to delete the Linux partitions and then resized the Windows partition. This worked fine until I rebooted, I had also deleted the grub loader that gives the choice of which os to start. I thought I had really gotten myself into trouble. I took a walk and figured out that if I re-installed linux on a much smaller partition so the grub loader would install I would be back in business. That worked but I would like to know how to get rid of it altogether. I realize that is not a subject likely to be covered in this forum but thanks for the help. I did get back most of the space.

 

There are quite a few posts on fixing XP so it boots, but I've not had to do it myself.

When you're in windows you open and cmd window and try fdisk /mbr

You might also try the repair option when booting from the Windows cd.

I would guess that only the MBR need fixed, as that's the only place GRUB would have taken over.