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Re: [LUG] Remove windows

 

On Sun, 16 Mar 2008 22:31:17 +0000
Simon Robert wrote:

> Having converted my mother from xp to ubuntu using the the ubuntu 
> install disk which allows one to create a dual boot system I now find
> I no longer need xp at all. Is there an easy way  of reclaiming the
> xp partition without having to reinstall ubuntu? I've done a lot of
> work transfering things and installing drivers for printers, setting
> up crossover office etc which I'd have to repeat if I reinstalled.
> 
> How can I delete the xp partition and give it to ubuntu?
> 
> S

Hi Simon,

You can indeed.  From with Ubuntu you'd need to reformat the Windows
partition as something that Linux can use reliably - ext3 is a good
choice for most things.  I tend to do things from the commandline, so
here's how:

Firstly, find out where your XP partition is:
$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for gsewell:

Disk /dev/sda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0000000a

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        1275    10241406    7  HPFS/NTFS
<=This is it!
/dev/sda2            1276        7108    46853572+  83  Linux
/dev/sda3            7109        7296     1510110    5  Extended
/dev/sda5            7109        7296     1510078+  82  Linux swap / 
Solaris

Now that we know where it is, we can give it a decent filesystem:

$ sudo mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda1

Now that it has a Linux filesystem, we can put it into the fstab so
it's always available.

$ sudo gedit /etc/fstab

The fstab entries are as follows:
<file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
So you'd want something like this:
/dev/sda1   /home2   ext3    defaults,errors=remount-ro  0  1

Please note that the directory "/home2" must exist for this to work.
Please also note that sda1 is just the example from my system.
You may want to modify your bootloader to remove the XP entry.

What you use this "new" space for is upto you - I would suggest making
this your actual "home" space, so you'd need to sync between this and
your current "home", etc, etc... but that's for another reply later. ;)

Hope this helps.
Grant.

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