Trying to Remove Old Ubuntu Boot Data

[ZacoAttaco]

Hey all, I've been trying to install Ubuntu recently, I've had some failed installs probably just due to some slow hard drives and I've just decided it's more convenient to run it Virtualized in my Windows 10 environment, at least until I get an external hard drive. That's for another day.

 

Unfortunately I made a mistake and there is some Ubuntu boot data on my SSD C Drive. It was one of the failed installs so it's essentially a broken boot link and useless.

I was wondering how you would go about deleting, I just don't like having wasted space or clunking up the BIOS boot menu anymore than it already is. (Above is screenshot from MiniTool Partition Wizard)

 

I have used a USB to boot into Ubuntu, it wasn't clear which files were Ubuntu and which were Windows so I didn't delete files from there.

 

Thanks, in advance,

Zac.

[duncannah]

The files in the EFI folder shouldn't be an issue (it's a seperate partition, the space is already allocated so it's not wasted space for your files); use an application like BOOTICE to remove the UEFI boot entries (or maybe your UEFI setup provides this already?)

[LogicalDrm]

Remove them from Boot order and be done with it?

[Guest]

Be careful with /EFI/boot folder, that's not created by the Ubuntu installer, those are from Windows 10, just delete /EFI/Ubuntu.
Also that wouldn't be all, it could be still showing the UEFI entry depending by how intelligent is the BIOS,  you should delete it manually 

Also 

5 hours ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

Remove them from Boot order and be done with it?

This ^ could be another solution

[ZacoAttaco]

15 hours ago, duncannah said:

The files in the EFI folder shouldn't be an issue (it's a seperate partition, the space is already allocated so it's not wasted space for your files); use an application like BOOTICE to remove the UEFI boot entries (or maybe your UEFI setup provides this already?)

Thanks, I might check out BOOTICE. I thought by now there would be a better way to deal with this. I guess most people just don't make those kind of mistakes.

12 hours ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

Remove them from Boot order and be done with it?

Is there are way to remove it from the menu? Maybe not even wipe the data from the disk but just hide it? I'm using an Asus Z97-A board so it's an Asus BIOS I'm dealing with.

6 hours ago, Lukyp said:

Be careful with /EFI/boot folder, that's not created by the Ubuntu installer, those are from Windows 10, just delete /EFI/Ubuntu.
Also that wouldn't be all, it could be still showing the UEFI entry depending by how intelligent is the BIOS,  you should delete it manually 

Also 

This ^ could be another solution

Yeah, I'm be very careful, I'll probably end up not deleting it but just finding a way to hide it. It's only a couple 100mb.

[LogicalDrm]

2 hours ago, ZacoAttaco said:

 

Is there are way to remove it from the menu? Maybe not even wipe the data from the disk but just hide it? I'm using an Asus Z97-A board so it's an Asus BIOS I'm dealing with.

You can remove everything you don't need from queue. If UEFI detects them, then they will still remain to be added to queue, or selected when you have to force boot selection. And there will always be stuff that you will never use in that list.

[ZacoAttaco]

56 minutes ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

You can remove everything you don't need from queue. If UEFI detects them, then they will still remain to be added to queue, or selected when you have to force boot selection. And there will always be stuff that you will never use in that list. 

Unfortunately the UEFI will still detect them. I thought maybe there was a specific way to remove them, oh well. You're right, there is a lot of stuff I never use in the list, I guess that's just one more. Thanks for the help.

[ZacoAttaco]

This video helped me out a lot. Unfortunately, the option is still present, but all data has been removed from the C : drive. Maybe clearing CMOS would remove it, when I select the C : drive Ubuntu install the screen flashes and returns to the BIOS so there's nothing to run.

EDIT Solution:

 

I used this method of using Minitool Parition, changing the Boot data partition to an accessible drive letter (The video used "Z:", I was worried this would upset Windows but it's fine, just be sure to return it to "None" before you reboot). Then I used PowerShell to access it, and followed the above video, accessed...

Z:/efi/boot/

remove-item ubuntu

remove-item Boot

 

Remember to return the boot partition from "Z:" back to "None", again I used Minitool Partition Wizard.

Then, in the process of installing Ubuntu I removed the C : drive, installed Ubuntu and I guess when I plugged it in again, the BIOS searched for boot data and it didn't find that failed Ubuntu install so SUCCESS.

 

Thanks for the assistance everybody.