Can I safely delete Microsoft reserved partition on my Linux only PC?

Question

I only have Ubuntu installed on my PC, but recently the Grub menu started showing up during boot with the last option being Windows Recovery. I'd like to get rid of the last option as it has no purpose.

sudo fdisk -l    

...

Disk /dev/sdb: 3.7 TiB, 4000787030016 bytes, 7814037168 sectors
    Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
    I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
    Disklabel type: gpt
    Disk identifier: 99DFCD84-B89C-4DAC-AE4D-A151E02F5A06

Device      Start        End    Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sdb1      34     262177     262144  128M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sdb2  264192 7814035455 7813771264  3.7T Microsoft basic data

Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.


Disk /dev/sdc: 2.7 TiB, 3000592982016 bytes, 5860533168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 82077B38-3A6E-4DEC-A422-9D12AB6CF123

Device      Start        End    Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sdc1      34     262177     262144  128M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sdc2  264192 5860532223 5860268032  2.7T Microsoft basic data

Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.

Eventually, I'd like to install Windows again so I can dual boot.

Answer 1

Your last statement is probably the only reason I can think of for not deleting the recovery partition. It'll have drivers and other configurations you might want to use when installing Windows.

If for some reason you have to return your computer for warranty replace or repair you might want to return it to factory reset as an indication that problem isn't due to changing the OS or running unsupported drivers.

Other than that, everything you need is available just from the Ubuntu live install Disk, plus a Windows install disk for dual booting.

As far as removing the menu item which as you mentioned doesn't show a purpose, you can look at the GUI program, Grub Customizer. It has lots of features such as setting the listing order, or hiding menu items in the grub menu.