HDD with Linux OS. How can I switch to Win7 and use it only as storage

CydMM · 08 Oct 2013

Hi everyone :)

My PC has two HDDs and time ago I set up a dula boot with a Linux OS on one disk and Windows 7 on the other one.

Later I decided to remove dual boot, leaving only the Windows 7 HDD as a bootable one.

Well, the problem is that now I would like to let Windows 7 use also the other disk as a disk for data storage, leaving OS on the first one. I don't know how to deal with that.

Here follows data of disks:

Disk 1 [only 1 partition]
- NTFS - Primary - Active & Boot

Disk 2 [4 partitions]
- Ext4 - Primary
- Linux Swap - Primary
- Ext 4 - Primary
-Unallocated - Logical

Can you help me someway? thanks a lot

essenbe · 08 Oct 2013

See if this will help you. I think it's what you're looking for. MBR - Restore Windows 7 Master Boot Record
It may help to read some of the comments below the tutorial.

CydMM · 08 Oct 2013

Hi Essenbe,

thanks for your message but the link you kindly provided me with does refer to a situation where there is only one HDD with a dual boot Linux/Win, while in my case I have 2 HDDs and only one is bootable, the one with Win7. The other one has Linux and I would like it to become some sort of "slave" disk being readable by Windows 7 and where I can store data from Win 7 itself.

whs · 08 Oct 2013

Easiest would be to reformat the Disk2 in NTFS (quick format - that takes only a few minutes). This will, however, erase all the data that is currently on Disk2.

essenbe · 08 Oct 2013

If, when you boot the machine, you boot directly into Windows 7 without having to make a selection of which OS to boot into, then you really have no problem. You can just run the 'clean all' command to delete everything on the Linux drive,(Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command) reformat it as NTFS and it will be useable by windows for whatever you would like to do with it. If you have to select which OS to boot into at startup, you will probably have Grub installed into the boot sector of Windows and have to remove it in order for the computer to boot.

CydMM · 08 Oct 2013

When I boot the machine, I boot directly into Windows 7 without having to make a selection of which OS to boot. But, in case I wanted to export some files out from Linux into Windows before formatting into NTFS would it be possible?

whs · 08 Oct 2013

To add to my previous post - if you open an elevated command prompt and run the commands below, you will get a partition covering the whole disk that you can use as data storage.

Diskpart
List disk
Select disk n (where n is the number that was given for your Disk 2 in List disk)
Clean
Create partition primary
Format fs=ntfs quick
Exit

whs · 08 Oct 2013

CydMM said:

When I boot the machine, I boot directly into Windows 7 without having to make a selection of which OS to boot. But, in case I wanted to export some files out from Linux into Windows before formatting into NTFS would it be possible?

You can move files from Linux to Windows. Files have their own format - e.g. .jpg or .doc, etc. That has nothing to do with the disk format.

You may, however, not be able to open certain files in Windows that were created in Linux with a file format for which you have no associated program in Windows.

CydMM · 08 Oct 2013

whs said:

CydMM said:

When I boot the machine, I boot directly into Windows 7 without having to make a selection of which OS to boot. But, in case I wanted to export some files out from Linux into Windows before formatting into NTFS would it be possible?

You can move files from Linux to Windows. Files have their own format - e.g. .jpg or .doc, etc. That has nothing to do with the disk format.

You may, however, not be able to open certain files in Windows that were created in Linux with a file format for which you have no associated program in Windows.

I understand that.
Is there a way to let the linux HDD readable from Windows, so that I can move out files from there and save into the Win7 hdd?

whs · 08 Oct 2013

Is there a way to let the linux HDD readable from Windows, so that I can move out files from there and save into the Windows 7 hdd?

No, Not from Windows because of the disk format. But what you can do is create a Linux live CD or a stick and read the Linux files with that and move them to a Windows (NTFS) disk. This tutorial I once made for a slightly different purpose may help you to do that.

Emergency Kit - save your files from a dead OS