Gelatinous,
First off, Linux doesn't have a Master Boot Record. Your hard disk drive (hdd), however, does. Linux doesn't take over your whole system, either. Linux, in the default installation of Ubuntu, divides off a certain percentage of your hard drive space for it's uses, including a small "swap" partition, which is used in a manner similar to RAM to assist the machine in processing data more efficiently. What Ubuntu Linux does to the Master Boot Record, on the other hand, is installs a boot loader called GRUB into the Master Boot Record and allows you to boot into Linux, Windows, BeOs, or any other operating system installed on the computer. You are right that removing Ubuntu will leave GRUB on the Master Boot Record, because the Master Boot Record resides in a completely different and separate part of the hard drive than the location where Linux is installed. There is a simple remedy for the presence of GRUB on the Master Boot Record. As mentioned, please enter the recovery console from your Windows XP CD-ROM, or your recovery disk supplied with your machine. You did keep that disk, didn't you? at that point, do a fixmbr from the command line (Google this for further instructions), and your machine should boot into Windows automatically (I'm not sure why you'd want this, but I'll suspend my disbelief at least temporarily).
As for your CD ROM drive, it probably doesn't work any more because "I've tried going into SAFE Mode and then device manager and deleting the drivers for the CD/DVD and the drivers for the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controlers then rebooting and letting windows reinstall all the drivers."
Find out what make and model drive you have, and manually reinstall the drivers. Check out the manufacturers website, and they should have driver, if not, Google probably will be able to steer you in the right direction in finding a driver. I know this thread is long since dead, but as a point of information to all the newbs out there, it doesn't make much sense to uninstall CD ROM drivers if you're wanting to uninstall Ubuntu. Ubuntu lives on the hard drive, leave the CD ROM alone!
One thing to make sure of after uninstalling Ubuntu is you may want to restructure your hard drive's partition table. Ubuntu sections itself off a certain amount of diskspace (default install) and resizes the windows partition when it is installed. After you uninstall Ubuntu, this partition may remain resized, with the former Ubuntu partition existing as empty space unusable by Windows. The Ubuntu CD has a useful application for modifying the partition table, or you could use Partition Magic, again, GIYF (google is your friend). Otherwise you'll end up with lots of space on your hard drive that you'll never use (which is terrible, cause where you gonna put all those torrents when your HD fills up?
My advice, stick to Ubuntu, and, if you can manage it , a Windows partition for necessity only, and you'll end up fine. if you make Ubuntu the default choice for GRUB, you will tend to boot into it more often, and you'll start to see that it can do very nearly everything Windows can do. Why remove Ubuntu? You might ought to leave it there, and maybe some day in the near future you'll be bored on a Sunday afternoon, and decide to play with Linux a little bit. That's how many of us got our starts with it. Try it. I mean really try it, like used it exclusively for a week, or a month, and see how you feel about it. I bet you'll like it...
