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Deleting Windows from dual boot Linux/Windows computer
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2025
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Yes. You can just straight up delete the windows partition. Windows just won't boot anymore, even though doing only this won't remove it from the boot menu.
You can do this from your running linux install, but if you want to grow the linux partition to take up the free space, you'll need to do that from a live usb.
No changes should be necessary. Just delete the windows partition, and grow the linux partition.
Make sure you keep the efi partition, and swap partition, if there is one.
You can usually grow a partition online, even the one you're booting from.
Not if you need to move it first.
Then do it in two steps. There’s a way forward. Just requires bit of fiddling.
Yes.
But moving a partition can't be done online. And often enough it's mecessary before growing one, that I generally just tell people to do partition changes offline.
I generally agree, but the best way to use the extra partition might be to keep it as a reserve to install the next Distribution release. So you go
partition A: Ubuntu 2024.10
Partition B: /home
Partition C: Ubuntu 2025.04
And swap A and C for the next upgrade. It is really nice to have a whole compatible fallback system.
Not seen this done manually before. Neat idea!
curious how you automatically move all the packages over
One can copy the system using a
tarbackup, fix the mount pointd by changing the volume label (which identifies the mount point), and do a dist upgrade then.I guess that's the best way to do it on a server. But for desktop systems, I now think it is better to make a list of manually installed packages, and to re-install the packages that are still needed from that list. This has two advantages:
And one more thing I do for the dot files:
Say, my home folder is in /home/hvb . Then, I install Debian 12 and set /home/hvb/deb12 as my home folder (by editing /etc/passwd). I put my data in /home/hvb/Documents, /home/hvb/Photos/ and sym-link these folders into /home/hvb/deb12. When I upgrade, I first create a new folder /home/hvb/deb14, copy my dot files from deb12, and install a new root partition with my home set to /home/hvb/deb14. Then, I again link my data folders , documents and media such as /home/hvb/Documents into /home/hvb/deb14 . The reason I do this is that new versions of programs can upgrade the dot files to a new syntax or features, but when I switch back to boot Debian 12, the old versions can't necessarily read the newer-version config files (the changes are mostly promised to be backward-compatible but not forward-compatible).
All in all this is a very conservative approach but it works for me with running Debian now for about 15 years in a rather large desktop setup.
And the above also worked well for me with distro-hopping. Though nowadays, it is more recommended to install parallel dual-booted distros on another removable disk since such installs can also modify grub and EFI setup, early graphics drivers and so on, even if in theory dual-boot installs should be completely independent... but my experience is that is not any more always guaranteed.
Another possibly quicker way to do this is a larger BTRFS disk and create subvolumes from snapshots and mount these. When the subvolumes are no longer needed, they can be deleted like any folder.