How To Remove Windows/ Dual Boot?

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KilUma
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How To Remove Windows/ Dual Boot?

Post by KilUma »

I've been using Linux for quite awhile, and the only reason I ever go into Windows is to delete stuff. I don't want to lose my current Linux setup, or any of my cargo.
I've heard of ways you can stop all Windows boot processes(Master Boot Record and others). The concept is to remove all interactions with Microsoft's OS from the very first stages of boot. Once this is safely accomplished, then you can simply erase the contents of that partition and use it as a FAT32 device, or you can use a partitioning tool to recombine partitions. I would rather recombine partitions because my single HD is only 40G.

My major concern about doing this, it may create conflicts that I don't know about, and I'll get stuck.
Any takers?
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KilUma
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Re: How To Remove Windows/ Dual Boot

Post by KilUma »

There is a notification at the top of my post that says-

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Do not start a support topic here please

Does this mean I should move this post?
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proxima_centauri

Re: How To Remove Windows/ Dual Boot

Post by proxima_centauri »

* Moved to Installation & Boot forum
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Roken
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Re: How To Remove Windows/ Dual Boot?

Post by Roken »

If you are booting with grub you can safely delete the Windows partition and re-deploy the space however you see fit. Afterwards, run:

Code: Select all

sudo update-grub
which will correct the grub bootloader and remove the Windows entry.
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KilUma
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Re: How To Remove Windows/ Dual Boot?

Post by KilUma »

I wish. It would be much easier. But I'm using an NT loader.
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tdockery97
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Re: How To Remove Windows/ Dual Boot?

Post by tdockery97 »

It looks like you are using mint4win. If so, you do not have a true dual boot. You are running Mint inside of Windows as a program. If this is the case, as far as I know your only option of removing Windows and running Mint alone is to run your live Mint DVD and do a complete fresh install of Katya, selecting the option to use the entire hard disk for the installation. Sorry, but it would mean having to reinstall whatever applications you may have installed since your initial installation. Just be sure to back up any personal data (music, photos, videos, etc.) to an external source first, such as a DVD+RW or USB stick.
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KilUma
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Re: How To Remove Windows/ Dual Boot?

Post by KilUma »

I know what you're saying tdockery. I'm not actually running linux within Mint4Win, though. I just did the install through Mint4Win. When I boot, I get two boot menus. The first boot menu is a (Windows)NT loader, and the second boot menu is the Grub loader.
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yaye

Re: How To Remove Windows/ Dual Boot?

Post by yaye »

If you installed Mint using Mint4Win, Mint is installed within your Windows installation (file system) and is not on a separate partition of the hard drive. From Wikipedia concerning Mint4Win:

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

"The Windows installer "Mint4Win", which is based on Wubi, is included on the Live CD and allows Linux Mint to be installed from within Microsoft Windows. The operating system can then be removed similar to any other Windows software using the Windows Control Panel. This method requires no partitioning of a Windows user's hard drive. It is only useful for Windows users; it is not meant for permanent installations because it incurs a slight performance loss."

For a permanent installation of Mint, you'll need to do a non-Mint4Win install using a CD, DVD or USB flash drive. This will partition the hard drive and create file systems on the partitions. If you elect to use the entire drive for Mint, any data on the hard drive will be erased.
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Re: How To Remove Windows/ Dual Boot?

Post by KilUma »

Hmmm. Okay. For this next question, I may need to start a new thread, but I'll do that later.

How do I add the USB as a bootable source in the BIOS? Currently, my options are HDD, CD, and Network; but, no USB.
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Re: How To Remove Windows/ Dual Boot?

Post by Roken »

Check the HDD options available. Many BIOS see a USB stick as an HD (certainly that's the case on mine and the USB drive is listed as one of the HDs available to boot from).
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yaye

Re: How To Remove Windows/ Dual Boot?

Post by yaye »

KilUma wrote:Hmmm. Okay. For this next question, I may need to start a new thread, but I'll do that later.

How do I add the USB as a bootable source in the BIOS? Currently, my options are HDD, CD, and Network; but, no USB.
If it's the Toughbook you're talking about, the Reference Manual shows you how to add USB devices to the boot order.
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Re: How To Remove Windows/ Dual Boot?

Post by KilUma »

Sounds simple enough. Do you know of an emulator worth looking at?
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yaye

Re: How To Remove Windows/ Dual Boot?

Post by yaye »

KilUma wrote:Sounds simple enough. Do you know of an emulator worth looking at?
If it's to run Windows XP, I've used VirtualBox: https://www.virtualbox.org/ . It should be available via Synaptic.
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