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Before I go into my exact query here is a small prologue saying what I basically understand about any HDD.

May be some 6 years ago, many as a million notebook computers, mine was also manufactured by the Compaq Computer Corporation. After some transportation process, it could have got a place in an Indian Computer Showroom from where my lovable sister bought it for me. She did gift-packed it then. When I opened it I was flying for a Presario notebook was mine from then. It was installed with a windows OS. My HDD understanding has its appropriate roots from here.

Before the OS being installed, my HDD would have got only a single partition. Let the following be the picture of it. (the unused fresh HDD storage area is a rectangle only for an understanding purpose! - also remember, whenever i use grey shade it is to denote the unallocated free space in the HDD)

enter image description here

When the windows OS installation is done on my HDD, it had been into 4 partitions (for example). It had got a C: , D: , E: , F: and it would have got some reserved space by the OS (may be for the virtual RAM purpose - it is coloured in pink here - forget about it - i don't know much about virtual memory - so i won't be speaking about the pink partition - please don't mind it). And now the picture will be,

enter image description here

Not much were done then until I got my hands over that Presario. After getting it, I installed plenty of software packages, created vast amount files and folders. And I never used the F partition by that time. (i was always wanting to install ubuntu into my system - so i purposefully preserved the F partition - later about this)

As my usage of the computer device got increased I took it wherever I went. I never cared about virus and spyware and was letting all my pals to connect my notebook with their usbs, mobile phones, unsecured networks, etc etc. . . My system's speed was messed up. It behaved crazily at times like opening hundreds of browser screens within seconds. I sought for an advice. My professor said my to delete my C partition and reinstall the OS. (so virus and spyware must always ruin C partition for their existence in windows based computers - correct me if i am wrong)

Before deleting the C partition the picture would have been like this. (reddened area be the malware residences - blackened area be the used space)

enter image description here

After I have formatted my C partition it would be like

enter image description here

Finally I had got out of all those virus troubles after reinstalling the windows OS along with an antivirus package. The HDD would have like the following pic.

enter image description here

After a little from here, I learnt about installing ubuntu without damaging the windows. I deleted the F partition so that it gave me some unallocated space inside the HDD. I placed my ubuntu over there. (the orange area in my pic - still, don't mind the pinky :D )

enter image description here

Now when I use windows it won't get into the ubuntu space. (if i am right). And when I use ubuntu the windows partitions will be handled as mountable drives as shown beneath. (the image shows more windows partitions as i created such many partitions - i was using C, D, E names here just for example purpose)

enter image description here

So that's all about the prologue. Lemme come to my question.

I now want to switch to ubuntu completely. I mean, I want get rid of the windows OS completely. So what should I need to do now. Hope it won't affect my D and E partition files. Is it okay to format the C partition from ubuntu. Or will it affect my ubuntu OS as well (in case my understanding about the HDD is wrong) ? How exactly should I need to uninstall windows ?

Also I have been using virtualbox to use android x86 via windows. Now I have an android VHD in one partition. Will it get affected if I uninstall windows? In case it is not affected, will I be possible to reuse the VHD by installing virtualbox in my ubuntu?

The following image is what the AOMEI Partition Assistant says about my HDD. As you can see the different kinds of file systems in the image, the allocation methods must differ between windows and ubuntu.

enter image description here

All these are messing up my mind. Since I have installed ubuntu from my windows now I suspect ubuntu to be a software package (only differnce is that it is a system software) having some association with the C partition. This consumption just have just collapsed my mind. If this is true, then what I said after the F partition stuff will be no longer reliable. And formatting C partition can almost crash my system.

The status column of the AOMEI image claims only the C partition to be bootable. This adds much haunting effect. I now have two questions.

  1. Where will the ubuntu be installed into the drive ?
  2. What areas of the HDD will be affected if I format my C partition / uninstall windows ?

1 Answer 1

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I've done this several times. Simply put:

  1. Boot up into Ubuntu, it should be installed as a standalone OS, in dualboot.
  2. Format or remove your windows installation partition (where C: is mounted).
  3. Make Ubuntu regenerate the GRUB config and the menu. sudo grub2-install /dev/sda; sudo grub2-mkconfig -o <grub_config_file>. Don't reboot if the GRUB hasn't been properly regenerated, or you won't be able to boot at all. You'd have to use a Live CD or USB to recover GRUB.

Regarding your questions:

  1. Is it okay to format the C partition from ubuntu? Yes, it is.
  2. will it affect my ubuntu OS as well? No, it won't and shouldn't affect your ubuntu installation, if it was properly installed as a secondary OS (in dualboot).
  3. How exactly should I need to uninstall windows ? You only have to delete or reformat the windows partition and it'd be gone. Just make sure you regenerate your GRUB.
  4. I have an android VHD in one partition. Will it get affected if I uninstall windows? No, if it's in another partition it shouldn't get affected (unless you try to resize its partition and that results in a data loss).
  5. AOMEI Partition Assistant … I'd suggest you better do everything from Ubuntu and use a proper tool, like Gparted.
  6. Where will the ubuntu be installed into the drive? In the same partition it already is.
  7. What areas of the HDD will be affected if I format my C partition / uninstall windows ? Only that partition would be affected.

It seems like you installed your Ubuntu from Windows, which is a bad idea. If you don't want trouble, I suggest you better install Ubuntu properly. Make sure you can dualboot from it and you should be ok.

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  • I followed these instructions to install ubuntu into my notebook. My boot device was a live USB. Do you think like I have not installed ubuntu properly? I am not sure.
    – Ramvignesh
    Jun 28, 2014 at 11:56
  • As long as it's installed as dual boot and you can boot to it right from the BIOS, you've done it right. You can delete your windows partition safely.
    – arielnmz
    Jun 28, 2014 at 15:02
  • What is the command to fetch the value of <your_config_file> ?
    – Ramvignesh
    Jun 29, 2014 at 4:21
  • That's the path to your existent grub.cfg file. On fedora you have to specify one, but I remember that you don't need to specify one on ubuntu. But just to be sure, that file is most commonly under /boot/grub2/ or /boot/grub/.
    – arielnmz
    Jun 29, 2014 at 4:23
  • I can see a grub.cfg in my /boot/grub/. Thanks for your info. Could you please prefer me a video link on regenerating the grub? That would be much handy for me to do no damage to the system booting.
    – Ramvignesh
    Jun 29, 2014 at 4:33

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