Removing Ubuntu to re-install Mac OS X

Okay so here it goes... When I got to college I was told I would need a linux partition on my laptop to do Comp Sci homework on my laptop (turned out to be wrong but whatever). Thinking myself competent, I went ahead and partitioned the harddrive using disk utility and installed Ubuntu. Woo hoo it works. I boot into Ubuntu and get to work, get it working in a way that I really like. Then the next time I shut down and try to boot into Mac... lo and behold, Mac is gone... and so is Ubuntu. Not sure what I did but the whole bloody HDD was void of an operating system. On hand I had the Ubuntu disk that I had made but not the Mac install disk since it was at home.

Now it's winter break and I'm home. I finally found the Mac install disk and, despite actually enjoying my time with Ubuntu, I would like to put Mac back on my MacBook. I'm quite nervous this go around because I don't want to mess up again so I need some guidance about what to do. I would like to get rid of Ubuntu and install Mac OSX. Obviously I need to backup all the files I want to keep but then how do I go about removing Ubuntu from the HDD and installing Mac OS X?

First, reset the PRAM. Now try booting to Mac OS X by holding down the option key after you hear the chime. Let us know if that got you going again. If not, post back and we can go from there to re-install.

Okay so I actually heard the startup chime after resetting the PRAM which I hadn't been hearing with past boot ups. It's just been a grey screen before. Unfortunately after holding option I was faced with one drive that said "Windows" which is just wrong and it led to my Ubuntu installation.

So is the re-installation as simple as booting from my Mac OS X disk? I know it will give me an option to delete the entire drive and install Mac but is that going to be enough?

Yes that will be enough. You should also reformat as part of the process. That will erase all your Ubuntu information, hence the need for backup. Once you have OSX reinstalled, you can reinstall Ubuntu but I would recommend doing it in a virtual machine rather than via Boot Camp. Sun's VirtualBox is free and will install Ubuntu just fine, as will Parallels or Fusion (both of which cost $$).

Cheers

I got it working. It's nice to be back in Lion again, although it's odd to get used to. I also forgot to backup my .bashrc and .vimrc from Ubuntu, idiotic of me.