Hey everyone! I recently set up Arch Linux alongside Windows, but I'm not feeling great about it and want to remove it. I'm looking to delete the Arch Linux partition and reclaim that space for Windows by extending the Windows partition. My question is: Is it safe to do this directly from Windows Disk Management by deleting the Linux partitions and then extending Windows? Or should I be using a tool like GParted from a live USB instead? Also, after deleting the Arch partitions, will the GRUB menu still show up at boot, or will it just disappear automatically once the Linux partitions are gone?
2 Answers
It's a good idea to change the boot order in your BIOS first to make sure Windows Boot Manager is prioritized. Once you confirm that Windows can boot fine without GRUB, then you can go ahead and delete the Linux partition using Disk Management. Just a heads up, deleting the partition won't actually remove GRUB; it's stored in the EFI system partition. If you delete the partition, you might just get a rescue prompt instead.
If possible, it’s safer to use a live USB environment that can handle Linux file systems to delete your Arch partitions. Once that’s done, boot back into Windows and use Disk Management to assign the unallocated space to your Windows partition. You might also want to use a tool like Bootice to remove any remnants of Linux from the EFI partition, and double-check boot options in UEFI/BIOS to ensure the Linux boot option is completely gone.
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