removing windows

[Thomas Kaiser]

On 05/31/2009 07:44 PM, Gary Kirkpatrick wrote:
> 
> 
> On Sun, May 31, 2009 at 11:31 AM, <petevg at gmail.com 
> <mailto:petevg at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
>     Hi Gary,
> 
>      > What's the best way  to remove Windows?
>      >
>      > 1) using a live cd (I have a copy of 8.04)
>      > 2) using partition manager within ubuntu (is that even possible? )
>      > 3) a g-parted live cd (I don't have a copy)
>      > 4) a rock or hammer
> 
>     The easiest way to edit a partition in Ubuntu is with "gparted" (Gnome
>     Partition Editor).  The Ubuntu 8.04 Live CD comes with gparted
>     installed.  You can start it by clicking "Administration" ->
>     "Partition Editor" after you boot into the Live version of Ubuntu.
> 
>     You can also install the "gparted" package under your installed copy
>     of Ubuntu, and then start it up by clicking "Administration" ->
>     "Partition Editor".
> 
>     The advantage of the Live CD is that you can wipe the Windows
>     partition, and then grow one of your existing Ubuntu partitions to
>     fill the unoccupied space.  The advantage of doing things in Jaunty is
>     that you don't have to mess about with all that rebooting.
> 
>     The advantage of a rock is that it's the most satisfying method of
>     destroying Windows.  ;-)  But rocks are imprecise instruments, and
>     you'd probably hit your Ubuntu-related bits and bytes, as well ...
> 
>     The usual warning applies:  always back up _all_ of your data before
>     messing about with a partition editor.
> 
>     ~PeteVG
> 
>     "Terrorism is an act of the weak. But so is walking through the
>     airport in our socks.  We can make better choices."
> 
>     ~ John Goekler
> 
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> 
> 
> 
> I managed to boot g-parted from a cd (finally found the step I was 
> missing).  But I am still puzzled.  From ubuntu you open gparted and you 
> see the windows partition but it seems to have two parts to it, one 
> called extended as you see in the attached screen shot.  One can be 
> deleted and the other (extended) not.  So it seemed to me that you can 
> not entirely delete a windows partition from within ubuntu so I figured 
> you'd need to boot from a live cd. I did that, opened the partition 
> editor and the same situation prevailed.  In both cases I found that 
> there was a least some portion of one of the entries which was still 
> mounted.  So I booted from the usb with gparted on it and found that the 
> mounting problem was no longer there but I still could not delete that 
> second bit of the partition.  I went ahead with the operation and it 
> appears windows is no longer with me (I have not tried to boot it) but I 
> can not write to that partition (which appears to be empty). 
> 
> Also from gparted (booted from the usb) it would not allow me to 
> increase the size of the ubuntu partition sda/5.
> 
> Progress but not where I need to be yet.
> 
> thanks for any advice.
> 
> gary
> 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_partitioning

This article should explain it. Good to now how partitions work before 
messing around with it.

Thomas