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In my BIOS screen under boot priority, my primary (and until today only) hard disk shows up as two separate disks named ubuntu. This isn't the case when I'm just using windows, and I've never thought much of it. However, now that I've gotten a new hard drive and tried to clone the old one, there's a conflict between the two formats that I've been encouraged to fix by the cloning program. I plan on making my new hard drive a boot drive and keeping the old one for storage. How can I fix these persistent hidden partitions? I'd be willing to do some kind of linux live CD spiel if it would help, seeing as I've got a memory stick free from the cloning utility.

TL;DR How do I ensure that my hard drive is entirely Windows format and has no traces of a past ubuntu system? Basically just a hard drive with no partitions beyond what is default for the windows operating system.

Disk Manager Screenshot:

enter image description here

Pierre.Vriens
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theStandard
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  • Can you provide some more info? Did it came with Ubuntu, did you dual boot or just installed Windows over it? Do you have GRUB or Windows bootloader? How many partitions and what formats? It can't be only 2 if it was dualboot, Ubuntu requires 2 to run properly, so does Windows 7. – Enis P. Aginić Sep 05 '14 at 07:23
  • I'm not really sure how to get most of that information. I installed Ubuntu on it (this is a custom-built PC) to begin with before I was able to install windows. When I did I simply went through the install process assuming it would format the disk (pretty sure I checked a box somewhere). I'm not lying about it showing up as two "ubuntu" discs (that's what they're named), it does. All I see in windows is a system reserved space and the rest is empty and that accounts for the whole drive. Not sure about bootloaders and any other information so if you could tell me how to provide that great – theStandard Sep 05 '14 at 07:39
  • To get started boot into Windows, right-click Computer and select manage. Then select Disk management, this will list all your disks and partitions regardless of Windows being able to read their filesystems. If possible post screenshot so I can see what are we dealing with. – Enis P. Aginić Sep 05 '14 at 07:55
  • https://hostr.co/file/w1QS6iTebUf8/Capture.PNG See? nothing abnormal yet I'm seeing two discs called "Ubuntu" high on my boot priority without any other windows discs. – theStandard Sep 06 '14 at 05:08
  • At a second glance I'm not so sure that a 500gb hard drive is 465 after market fluff and binary / decimal conversion. – theStandard Sep 06 '14 at 05:18
  • Sorry for the late reply I was away on business. Anyway I don't see any traces of ubuntu partitions, they should show up as unalocated space or unknown partition. You may have traces of GRUB in your first sectors tho. – Enis P. Aginić Sep 07 '14 at 09:02

1 Answers1

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Given the screenshot I would recommend you to manually prepare your new disk and then clone only System Reserved and Storage (which I assume is where system is installed) partitions to your new disk using some utility that works in Windows. Try Macrium or EaseUS or something like that.

Anyway use DISKPART from command prompt to create 100MB primary partition with 1024KB offset, that is your System reserved. Next create your system partition and clone your Windows installation to it. Basically you are trying to mimic the default installation. Your cloning utility should take care of boot flag, but if not you can set it manually.

Here is how to use DISKPART.

OK if everything is good so far you should have an unbootable system now.

Now remember that offset? That is where your bootloader goes. I suggest plugging only your new disk in and repairing the bootloader using Windows installation disk.

Here is how you do it.

Be warned that this is very tedious work, so you might consider a fresh Windows install, it might be less of a hassle if you don't have a lot of programs or customization installed...

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Enis P. Aginić
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  • I'm using Clonezilla for everything, any instructions on that? I wouldn't want to lose any data but I've got so much and nowhere to put it. – theStandard Sep 08 '14 at 01:55
  • If you like CloneZilla you can prepare your new disk as above, then boot to CloneZilla and clone partitions, then reboot into recovery to fix the bootloader. – Enis P. Aginić Sep 08 '14 at 06:19
  • Also I don't have a windows installation disk at the moment (just moved). – theStandard Sep 09 '14 at 00:35
  • Is it still possible to a) attain a windows system repair disk or b) do this task without one? – theStandard Sep 09 '14 at 04:56
  • Local Microsoft support should be able to provide you with a solution. If you bought your OS online you can still use USB or whatever medium you used for installation. You can also try searching online for Windows 7 MBR tools, but I never really used any as the one on installation disk always gets the job done. – Enis P. Aginić Sep 09 '14 at 06:09