GParted Data Screenshot Review Requested (SOLVED)

[lawwolf]

Hello, Mint 17.3 KDE Quiana 32 bit is my OS

In a previous post that solved my issue, another question was asked;
viewtopic.php?f=90&t=259261

I confused by lawwolf's inxi -Fxz output. It doesn't seem to show a partition for Windows.

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...
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 250.1GB (29.3% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: WDC_WD2500AAJS size: 250.1GB 
Partition: ID: / size: 20G used: 12G (63%) fs: ext4 ID: swap-1 size: 1.88GB used: 0.23GB (12%) fs: swap 
...

I thought the inzi -Fxz out looked odd also, JerryF, so I gave it some thought for awhile. I read some other posts here, installed GPartedi n order to have a look and take a screen shot. I see /dev/sda3 116.44 Gib in unknown with no space allocated. Hmmm. Further /dev/sda2 53.95 Gib contains only Windows files. /dev/sda7 19.88 Gib and /dev/sda5 40.76 after my review of file contents in all.

I didn't do the partitioning, but it seems messed up. I wonder if a clean install would still leave /dev/sad3 with no space allocated. Seems like that would waste HDD space. Would someone have a look at my screen shot and comment, please. Thank you in advance.

[catweazel]

In your other post you said you wanted to delete Windwoes 7. If that's still the case, the best course of action is to backup any files you want then reinstall, ensuring that the installer is set to use the entire disk. The partitioning is a mess so any other way will involve lots of trouble to delete and merge partitions, and may well end up in complete failure thus requiring a reinstall anyway.

[prestonR]

Backup. Be aware that this may mess up grub, so be prepared to re-install the bootloader via Mint LiveUSB or, much easier, download the 20MB Supergrubdisk2 iso file, burn it on a USB and test if you can boot from it. If yes, it will allow you to boot your Quiana KDE and fix your grub with:

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sudo grub-install /dev/sda

First, check under your disk's properties in 'Gparted' or 'Disks' if the drive has a master boot partition table or gpt/guid, should be 'mbr'.

sda1= Windows bootloader
sda2= Windows system
If you want to dump Windows you can delete both. Any data will be lost, so backup. Deleting the tiny sda1 boot partition may knock over grub (fix described above), keeping it does no harm (and should leave your current grub intact) but may leave you with a dead 'Win7' entry in grub.

sda4= 'extended' partition, a work-around for the 'max-4-primary-partition' limit of mbr drives, acts like a container for multiple (bootable) partitions, you can't ever install 'to' an 'extended' partition directly (only to the partitions within), so 'sda4' won't show up in your file manager. All 3 of your Mint partitions are located in this container:
sda7= Mint file system
sda5= your/ Mint's Media files
sda6= Mint's swap

sda3 I'm not sure. Could be some Win recovery or an encrypted or unusual file system.'Unknown' suggests that Gparted doesn't understand the file system, click on the little yellow 'attention' triangle to get more info. Do not assume that it's empty! Might be that you'll have to use synaptic to install an optional dependency package and restart Gparted to get 'used data' info.

[lawwolf]

Thank you, catweasel and prestonr for your thorough and insightful review of my GParted output. Your comments were educational and informative. Yup it's a hot mess and re-install is the only answer.

I've been using unetbootin to create a bootable usb stick to do my install. I've run into problems with that. Unetbootin indicates the creation of the bootable usb , but when I select usb device on my PC, Authentication failures are listed when I try to boot the usb. I think that should be a new post. I want to again express my thanks.

If no further advice or comment, I'll mark this thread solved soon.

[Superannuated]

I've been using unetbootin to create a bootable usb stick to do my install. I've run into problems with that.

To create a bootable USB stick rom Windows use Rufus and from Linux Mint use USB Image Writer.

[lawwolf]

I've been using unetbootin to create a bootable usb stick to do my install. I've run into problems with that.

To create a bootable USB stick rom Windows use Rufus and from Linux Mint use USB Image Writer.

Thank you, superannuated, for your prompt reply. I tried USB image writer previous and again just now. There result was a USB stick that would not mount. I'll start a new post about creating bootable USB stick. Thank you one and all.