At the Fedora Project, we strive to provide an operating system with the latest, best features that's usable by everyone. Our millions of users agree that we've got what it takes. Everyone from schoolchildren to housewives to students to scientists are using Fedora all over the world to compute with stability and security. And the work that the Fedora Project continues to do in hundreds of upstream communities has helped other distributions become popular too.
But Linux isn't everyone's cup of tea, and because we respect the freedom to choose, even if that choice is for something other than freedom itself, this page will explain how to uninstall Fedora from your system. How you proceed depends somewhat on how you set Linux up on your system.
These instructions should work equally well with most other Linux distributions.
If you have data from Fedora that you want to keep, before your proceed you should back it up. Write your data to CD, DVD, or an external hard disk or other storage device. Make sure the external device is readable by a Windows computer.
- Right-click the device icon on your desktop or in your graphical Computer browser.
- Choose Properties.
- Make sure the file system is msdos, fat, vfat, or ntfs.
My system only has Fedora, and I want to remove it and restore Windows.
This situation is easy to fix:
- Back up your data as shown above, if necessary.
- Shut down your Fedora system.
- Boot from your Windows installation disc, which should have been provided with your system manufacturer. Sometimes this disc is called a "system restore disc." If you do not have such a disc, you may need to contact your system's manufacturer.
- Follow the instructions for system restoration that were provided with your system. If you did not receive these in printed form, you may find them on the system restore disc. If not, visit the manufacturer's web site.
Some system restoration media, like a Windows installation disc, gives you choices for partitioning your hard disk. If you are presented with any choices for disk partitioning during the restoration or Windows installation process:
- Remove all existing partitions.
- Make a single partition taking up the full size of your hard disk
- Install Windows on the new, single partition.
Often when you use a manufacturer's system restoration disc, the restoration process handles this procedure for you.
My system is a dual-boot with Windows XP and Linux, and I want to return to Windows only.
- Back up your data as shown above, if necessary.
- Shut down your Fedora system.