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I want to keep Ubuntu but remove Windows.

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    Give us more details about your setup. Are you using Wubi, Partitions, or haven't even started yet? Aug 4, 2010 at 12:18
  • Also, which version of Ubuntu (and GRUB) are you using? Aug 4, 2010 at 14:12
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    @Anwar This is frequently used as a canonical question, for closing other questions as duplicates. I think it would not benefit from being more specific; its value lies in its generality. Oct 4, 2012 at 8:44
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    If you have good backups, particularly /home & list of installed apps then you can easily reinstall and repartition how you like. Alternatively you can just delete the NTFS partitions & move /home into a new ext4 partition where the NTFS was. Do not erase the ESP- efi system partition which is FAT32.
    – oldfred
    May 30, 2023 at 16:10
  • Thanks old friend, the Lenovo although about 7 years old was just taken out of the box. The win 10 is a nightmare I’ve done all the updates and maintenance chores but it just ain’t working right and takes 10 minutes to boot up. So if do a new install without the dual boot I haven’t lost anything. Your alternative is way over my head. Thank you for your help.
    – Bob Prince
    May 30, 2023 at 19:04

5 Answers 5

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Assuming you have installed Ubuntu on a separate partition, all you have to do is remove your Windows partition and remove the Windows option from your GRUB boot menu.

  1. Make sure your backups of your documents (and other important files, such as ebooks, videos, music, and so forth) are current. If you are going to expand the Ubuntu partition to take up the space freed by removing your Windows partition, then this is especially important, as there is always some risk (though small) of data loss when performing dynamic partition resizing. However, even if you are not planning to do this, unless you are highly experienced with repartitioning, there is a significant risk that you may make a mistake (you probably will not, but if you do, you want the consequences to be minimally bad).

  2. Boot from an Ubuntu live CD/DVD or live USB flash drive (as it is not considered safe to edit a physical disk's partition table from within any of the operating systems installed on the physical disk). Select Try Ubuntu rather than Install Ubuntu.

  3. Use GParted, the GNOME Partition Editor, to edit the partition table on the hard disk, removing the Windows system.

    • Start GParted (System > Administration > GParted, or if you're using a live system of Ubuntu 11.10 or later, press the Super, i.e., Windows key, type gparted, and click the search result that appears).
    • Select your Windows partition (it will be of type NTFS and will probably have a pale green border).
    • Delete it (Partition > Delete).
    • Optionally, resize your Ubuntu partition to take up the freed space. You may be able to do this by selecting it (it's of type ext4) and using Partition > Resize/Move. However, if it is contained in an extended partition (a kind of container partition for other partitions) and the Windows partition was not contained in the extended partition, then you may need to expand the extended partition first, and then expand the Ubuntu ext4 partition contained within it.

      While this step is optional, the space that Windows occupied will not be available to your Ubuntu system if you skip it. (However, if you just want to use the space for storage, you could create a new partition for that purpose where your Windows partition used to be, instead of expanding Ubuntu's ext4 partition.)
    • Apply your changes (Edit > Apply All Operations).
  4. Quit GParted and reboot (click the power icon at the upper-right corner of the screen and click Restart or Shut Down). Once you have booted back into the Ubuntu system installed on the hard drive, update your GRUB menu to remove the Windows option, by running sudo update-grub in a Terminal window (Ctrl+Alt+T). When you run that command, you might be prompted for your password. As you enter it, you won't see any placeholder characters (like *). That's OK--just type it in and press enter. After you've run that command, Windows should no longer appear as an option to select in the boot menu.

However, unless your Windows partition is seriously damaged or infected with viruses, I wouldn't recommend removing it. Instead, shrink your Windows partition, leaving space for your data plus an extra gigabyte for virtual memory (the versions of GParted that come with all currently supported Ubuntu releases are able to resize NTFS partitions). You never know when you'll need to use an application that only works with Windows.

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Here is a graphical tool to easily remove any OS (Windows, or Ubuntu, or else): OS-Uninstaller

enter image description here

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If you have Installed Ubuntu using WUBI then probably trying to remove windows will remove Ubuntu, as Windows installed Ubuntu into its root directory unless you haven't specified a different directory at the installation time.

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If you installed Ubuntu in a separate partition you can easily format the drive with Windows. After that remove Windows entry from grub config.

If you use Wubi you can do one of these:

  • Copy you user home folder to save most of settings.
  • Use OneConf from Maverick.

And reinstall Ubuntu after that.

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  • sorry but oneconf doesn't work quite well yet.
    – akshatj
    Aug 4, 2010 at 18:22
  • Maverick doesn't work well too. )
    – yevhene
    Aug 4, 2010 at 20:34
  • What about backing up WUBI then writing to partition from live CD?
    – user92200
    Nov 11, 2012 at 22:18
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If you have a partition for Ubuntu and another for Windows you dont have to reinstall Ubuntu. you will start your laptop by Boot from an Ubuntu live USB flash drive, by disks utility format Windows partition, reboot by Ubuntu and open terminal to do thise command:

sudo update-grub 

from now no Windows operating system in your hard disk or boot menu
if (Windows Recovery Environment) in your boot menu you can remove it by Grub-customizer:

sudo apt install grub-customizer

open Grub-customizer and remove Windows Recovery Environment and save.
for full Windows uninstallation you have to delete some files from 1st partition that called System Reserved (may be 500 mg) after that

sudo update-grub

this is other wayes to remove Windows: by Gparted, OS-Uninstaller

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    Grub customizer is a GUI/Windows approach which might be dangerous. If you value your data ,do it by hand.
    – kanehekili
    May 30, 2023 at 21:56

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