how to safely rid myself of an xp partition?
Hello,
I'm not only new to Linux, but relativley new to advanced computing (I definitely consider just using Linux advanced, to give you an idea where I'm coming from). So, please forgive me for asking what is most likely a very elementary question: Be it that it may that I am new to Linux, I feel I am ready to get rid of my XP partition. When I installed Ubuntu it did a fantastic job of basically partitioning it for me, and I'm quite pleased to say I'd really just rather just get rid of Microsoft. My question is, how do I go about safely formatting the Windows partition, and is it possible to reconnect it to the Ubuntu partition? I actually have two Widows partitions, one for use and one for Recovery (which I've never touched). I'd like to keep the Recovery partition, in case something goes really wrong with Linux...but to be totally (and embarrassingly) honest, I don't really know what to do with it, anyway... I realize this is a bit more like an introduction that a quesiton, in some regards, but I'd also like to add that I'm absolutely bowled over by the Linux community. Thanks for your help. kate |
the tool your looking for is cfdisk, it can erase, create, and modify partitions. Its even curses based to make it a bit easier.
|
Hi kateshine,
"new to advanced computing" or not, you are very brave to dive strait in to the deep end, as most novices will dual boot for a while. Good on you! In any event, if we assume here that your XP partition is the first one then it will be called /dev/hda1 under linux. To be sure we can use the fdisk program to dump your partition table. Here is sample run from my system: Code:
[me@mine]# fdisk -l /dev/hda Now, here is where I don't remember (please chime in someone if you know) but you either have to delete the partition, then create a new one in the same spot, or perhaps you can simply change the partition's system id (to 83/Linux) then write a new Linux filesystem to it. Now you must decide where you want to mount the new empty filesystem/partition. For example, you may want to have your /home directories on a separate partition, so you would need to backup and archive whatever is currently on your /home (using tar) so you may do something like: Code:
# mv /home /home.bak Anyway, that is a lot for you to digest, and I am sure you will not understand it all on first pass. That is OK. I suggest starting with 'man fdisk' to see how that program works. Also, I can not recommend enough that you pick yourself up a good beginnijng Linux book to help out with the thousands of questions you will surely have. My pick would be "Running Linux" by Matt Welsh et al. This is the book I cut me teeth on... If you cannot or don't want to get a dead tree book then there are also tonnes of documentation on the web. Try: http://www.tldp.org/LDP/intro-linux/html/index.html (excellant introduction) http://rute.2038bug.com/rute.html.gz (good, though a bit dated) Above all, use LQ.org for any question/concerns you cannot address elsewhere. If you have some more specific questions about the points I have brought up feel free to ask away, as there are many people ready to help here... Good Luck! PS: found this on the site: might help with background on how Linux partitions work, and how to use fdisk: http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/...a_Linux_System |
thanks!
Thank you for your help...you're right, it's a bit much to digest...I think I'll need that luck :) I'm kind of wondering whether it might be easier at this point to just back up everything I need and run a full reinstallation....or maybe that would be opening an entirely different can of worms.
Thanks again, Kate |
Quote:
What I noticed about Linux is that at first everything seems cryptic, awkward and strange, but once you "get it" it makes so much sense you can't believe anybody would do things differently... |
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 04:41 PM. |