Hi,

Can someone please point me to the info I need to explain how I can utilise the disk space freed up after removing win7?

In short, I have been using Mint exclusively for 6 months now, so decided to delete win7. That was the easy bit, but I couldn't figure out how to use the available disk space for Linux. I'm now down to half a GB for pics and music and despite several searches, can find no straightforward info. on what to do.

I've dabbled with Gparted, but apart from ensuring it is 'ext4', it's just not clear how to attach to the Linux partition. I suspect it's not as simple as I'd hoped. Please help!

My understanding is that you have used gparted to look at the partitions you have. Could you please post a screenshot of the entire gparted window that shows those partitions.

If you follow these instructions, be aware that there is the possibility that your Mint installation could be lost. Before proceeding, copy any data that you might need and would not like to lose. Gparted is a very good app but it is very powerful -- and therefore can be dangerous. Also, whenever you move data, there is a slight possibility that your OS could get corrupted. You must use a live CD to do this. Gparted will not allow you to make changes on partitions that are mounted (because it probably would harm the data).

First shutdown and restart using a Linux live CD/DVD or live USB with Linux (you could use the DVD or the USB that you used to install Mint). Then open a terminal (ctrl + alt + T on keyboard). Open gparted (sudo gparted -- you won't need any password on a live CD); click on the partition/partitions on which the windows os was installed and choose "delete". Then if windows was on the last partition (very unlikely), you would just right click on the Mint partition and you should see a drop-down menu. Towards the top of the window click on "resize/move". Then click and hold on the right side of the box that has an arrow on each side. You can slide it until all of the empty space has been used. Then on the bottom of gparted, click "resize/move". Then click the green arrow on top right of the gparted window. This will start the process of expanding the Mint partition. Be patient because it can take more than a half an hour to complete.

If, on the other hand, the Windows partition was at the beginning of the HD (which is very likely), then you will have to move the Mint partition over to the left. Do this by clicking on the left arrow of the box (after you have chosen "resize/move"). Remember (from above), you first must delete the windows partition, otherwise you won't be able to slide the arrow. Your Mint partition should now take up the whole HD. Click "resize/move" box on bottom right, then click on the green arrow on the top right in the gparted window.

Moving and resizing could take over an hour.

You can create additional partitions or an additional partition from unallocated space if you have already deleted the windows partitions or you can 'resize' the current partition with Mint on it, maybe. Depends on your partition layout which you can post by either using fdisk or posting an image fro GParted. For more details on using GParted, their manual is available online and explains all this in detail.

http://gparted.org/display-doc.php%3Fname%3Dhelp-manual