Windows 10 Want to erase dual boot to Linux Mint and Just Have Windows 10

[jonathanbecker1977]

Hey everyone! I have a Lenovo Ideapad with a dual boot to both Linux Mint and Windows 10. Unfortunately, a few components of this laptop have drivers that are not supported by Mint and I can no longer use the machine as I want, so I what I want to do is blow out everything on the box and do a completely clean install of Windows 10 on the SSD drive (where Mint currently lives) so that I get more performance than what I'm getting now on HDD; the problem is, I don't know exactly how to do this. Does anyone have any advice?

 

[ussnorway]

did you make a backup image before dual booting Linux?
have you got a windows 10 iso (or Lenovo factory reset disc)?

 

[jonathanbecker1977]

I do have a backup and I do have a Windows ISO, yes.

 

[Neemobeer]

All you should need to do then is install Windows. Windows doesn't recognize Linux filesystems so it should just write over them. Restore your data and install programs.

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

That should work, unless you installed the Mint on your SSD drive first, and THEN installed W10 into a secondary partition. This can be very difficult to wipe out as W10 doesn't recognize what Linux does to the boot partition on the drive. You'll have to use advanced Linux tools to wipe the drive out and write all 0's to the entire drive. You can use the well-endorsed DBAN program for that. You can download it standalone via ISO file and burn to DVD or USB stick. Or you can get it for free with the UBCD (Ultimate Boot CD) from ubcd.com for free but that can be a challenge to create the bootable media. Since you got Mint to work, I figure you have enough skills to do either of those options. After zeroing the drive with DBAN, you can use your Lenovo Recovery discs to put W10 back onto the boot drive and then reinstall programs and restore data as suggested by Neemo. At that point you'll be all set to go with only your W10 on your boot drive and running single-OS again!

Good Luck!
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>

 

[Ralph Bromley]

What kind of devices are on this laptop?
Shame to drop as nice dual boot, maybe you can keep the dual boot for backup purposes.