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I am getting rid of Windows. I was looking at instructions found here: https://lifehacker.com/how-to-uninstall-windows-or-linux-after-dual-booting-508710422 and here: https://www.lifewire.com/remove-windows-linux-dual-boot-4177415

I did see this question Removing win8 ubuntu dual-boot and using just ubuntu here on Ask Ubuntu just now when I came to post. I can certainly try PartedMagic if it is better than gparted.

I still have my old live usb. I started to do this last night, but the machine did not recognize it. I came back this morning expecting to start with fixing the usb stick and/or port, but this time when I put it in, it came right up like nothing was ever wrong. That's probably not worth worrying about now, but I mention it just in case it means anything to you.

I opened the gparted gui, and deleted the Windows partition. However, when I went to re-size the Ubuntu partition, it was only giving me 26.9 GB of new space, which is way wrong, because the old Windows partition was over 600 GB. There is a way to create a new partition in, or out of, the old, now unallocated Windows space, and I can do that if that's my best solution, but I thought I would be able to just re-size my existing Ubuntu and that would be that.

Questions:

  1. Is it possible to simply make my existing Ubuntu partition take up the now unallocated former Windows space or not?

  2. There was also an option to 'Extend Partition', but that was greyed out. What would be the difference between 'extending' and 're-sizing'? If that is a good choice, how would I access the 'Extend' option?

UPDATE 1: I might have found the answer. If so I will come back and delete or point to my solution, but I have to reboot to test it...

UPDATE 2: These two answers, How to resize partitions? and Extending partitions which came up late in the 'similar questions' display, helped me.

It turns out that when the gparted dialog refers to 'space before' and 'space after', it is NOT, as I assumed, talking about chronologically, or temporally, but actual, physical space on the disk in front of or behind the partition you want to re-size.

In my case, that's a problem, as you can see from the picture I am posting. But there is sda7, which apparently could be extended into all the former Windows spaces. gparted says sda7 is mounted, but I can't see it when I look in files under 'other locations' where Windows used to be. I am sure there is a reason I created this separate Ubuntu partition, following whatever instructions I had at the time, but I don't remember why now. Any guesses?

So, now the goal is just to make as much space as possible available to Ubuntu, and be able to access it easily. Any thoughts on the best way to go about this greatly appreciated.

enter image description here

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    Give a name to your partitions or you will forget what it is for.
    – Jeryosh
    Dec 17, 2019 at 20:04
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    The little key icons show mounted partitions. You cannot move or edit mounted partitions. With gpt you can create or change unmounted partitions, but better & safer to always use a live installer. Backup should always be to another location/device not on same drive as when (not if) drive fails you want to have data somewhere that you can restore to new drive.
    – oldfred
    Dec 17, 2019 at 20:56
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    @JerareYoshi I did. Thanks for the tip. Jan 2, 2020 at 1:07

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You can see all the partitions in gparted; good. That means there's no Windows Dynamic Disk partitions to deal with. Here are suggestions regarding partitioning.

  1. I don't see any reference to your backups. Making partition changes is the easiest way to accidentally lose all your data and configurations. Please back up your important files to another physical drive (internal or external, or cloud) and verify the backup matches the source files. Then, back up again to different media (again, not the same drive as you are partitioning), and verify that backup matches the source. Then, you can begin making changes after booting from a LiveUSB you trust.

  2. Since /dev/sda1 is the boot partition, do not change it or try to move it; therein lies peril.

  3. /dev/sda2 through /dev/sda6 and /dev/sda10 are all Windows-specific, and can be removed.

  4. If you are using gparted to make the changes, change (or delete) only one partition at a time. Define the change, then click its green check mark to accept the change.

  5. Once you've taken care of /dev/sda2 - /dev/sda6 and /dev/sda10, then you can move /dev/sda7 your Ubuntu root partition. Move it without resizing it, which is recommended.

  6. Now, if you want to resize the root partition, you can do it.

  7. You did not specify which version of Ubuntu is in use. If you are using 18.04 or newer, you can delete the swap partition and replace it with a swap file IF, and only IF, you do NOT use Hibernation. If you use Hibernation OR have an Ubuntu version before 18.04, then just move your swap space.

  8. Move the /home partition towards the beginning of the drive, leaving 1 MB unallocated in front of it.

  9. Expand /home .

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  • When you suggest backing up to another drive, you mean one not permanently attached to this computer, or one of my partitions? (the cloud part I am clear on). I have 18.04.3 LTS, but I do let it hibernate, so I'll just move and report back. Thanks. Dec 17, 2019 at 20:30
  • It could be permanently installed, external, or cloud; just not on the same physical drive as you are repartitioning.
    – K7AAY
    Dec 17, 2019 at 21:02
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    Sorry to be so long getting back to you. I've been sick (twice), Christmas with my daughter, you know the drill. Followed your instructions, everything seems to be ok - well, better than ok since Windows is gone! Thanks. Jan 2, 2020 at 1:09

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