Is there a way to delete the windows partitions and merge it with arch

shak · 2019-07-20 10:08:34

Hi guys!

I decided to dual boot with windows but i have realized that i only want to use arch. It is to much better to use for my system.

THe thing is that i don't want to format the whole disk and reinstall arch. I want to delete the windows partitions and merge them with for example the home partition which has the most space.

Is there a way to do it without formatting the disk and losing everything?

Fixxer · 2019-07-20 10:15:23

Show your partition table:

fdisk -l

parted -l

For technical operations you can use SystemRescueCD (powered by Arch Linux LOL ):
http://www.system-rescue-cd.org/ .

Last edited by Fixxer (2019-07-20 10:15:45)

zaxdan69 · 2019-07-20 13:20:19

shak wrote:

Hi guys!
I decided to dual boot with windows but i have realized that i only want to use arch. It is to much better to use for my system.
THe thing is that i don't want to format the whole disk and reinstall arch. I want to delete the windows partitions and merge them with for example the home partition which has the most space.
Is there a way to do it without formatting the disk and losing everything?

Yes, use gparted to delete the windows partitions and then to expand arch linux partition to occupied the free space. Probably you cannot do it(the expand part) from runnig arch linux, so you will need a live cd to boot from. You can use gparted's live cd:
https://gparted.org/livecd.php
or any other live cd which includes gparted application.

seth · 2019-07-20 13:31:26

This will only work if the windows partition is right behind the linux partition, see https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pa … partitions
This is why Fixxer asked for the actual partition table.

You cannot join non-adjacent partitions and moving the start of the (combined) partition is a bit tricky (idk whether the gparted GUI abstracts the various required steps)

ewaller · 2019-07-20 15:07:02

The easy (old school) way would be to format the partition(s) used for Windows with a proper file system, then mount them to your file system. For example, create a mountpoint for streaming files someplace (maybe /home/multimedia ) and mount the new partition there. Very low risk -- just be sure you format the correct partition.

Last edited by ewaller (2019-07-20 15:07:23)

cynicfm · 2019-07-20 18:56:10

Well the way that i have done in the past it's not just related to arch but what happened to me and you can maybe perform it too is to get some easy installer distro like ubuntu or some arch based with callamares installer and well there is option delete windows or something like this that will wipe out it completely and format the partition to ext4 and then create the partitions in gparted for / and /home

But i dont know it should be easy under gparted anyways, using some live dvd like other mentioned should be the best.

I am not sure how gparted sees the windows partitions though if you cant delete just them in this software then i dont know, well gparted > delete windows partitions > create extended partition /dev/sdaX and then let's say /dev/sda4 < for root and /dev/sda5 for /home then in arch linux terminal you may type fdisk -l see them and type:

mkfs.ext4 -L ROOT /dev/sda4 
mkfs.ext4 -L HOME /dev/sda5

Then create /home but mount the root first

mount /dev/sda4 /mnt 
mkdir /mnt/home
mount /dev/sda5 /mnt/home

The /mnt is wjhere the mounted root will be and arch will use it for root partition..
If you manage to replace windows partitions with those ext4 somehow, then installation is just easy.

Sorry if i typed something wrong i am learning.

seth · 2019-07-20 21:16:38

@cynicfm, he wants to merge partitions, not repartition the disk and CERTAINLY NOT CREATE NEW FILESYSTEMS because that will cause a COMPLETE DATA LOSS.

shak · 2019-07-22 18:18:45

Fixxer wrote:

Show your partition table:
fdisk -l
parted -l
For technical operations you can use SystemRescueCD (powered by Arch Linux LOL ):
http://www.system-rescue-cd.org/ .

Here it is

[andrikos@AndrikosPC ~]$ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sdb: 931.53 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: TOSHIBA MQ01ABD1
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: FF556B45-5B07-46AF-ACC6-537107BFA6A9

Device     Start        End    Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sdb1   2048 1953523711 1953521664 931.5G Microsoft basic data


Disk /dev/sda: 238.49 GiB, 256060514304 bytes, 500118192 sectors
Disk model: Micron 1100 SATA
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: B57D4349-0F4C-44A6-BBB2-BAF545733B71

Device         Start       End   Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sda1       2048   1023999   1021952  499M Windows recovery environment
/dev/sda2    1024000   1228799    204800  100M EFI System
/dev/sda3    1228800   1261567     32768   16M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sda4    1261568 288436223 287174656  137G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda5  288436224 289484799   1048576  512M Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda6  289484800 310456319  20971520   10G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda7  310456320 500117503 189661184 90.4G Microsoft basic data

THe linux partitions are sda5 , sda6 and sda7. There is an external drive also connected

Last edited by shak (2019-07-22 19:35:23)

seth · 2019-07-22 19:34:07

sda5 , sda5 and sda7

?

Anyway, you probably seek to merge sda4 and sda7 (?) and that's not possible. See comment #5 - otherwise you'll have to repartition the disk completely (and while at it, set proper partition types ;-)

shak · 2019-07-22 19:38:10

seth wrote:

sda5 , sda5 and sda7
?
Anyway, you probably seek to merge sda4 and sda7 (?) and that's not possible. See comment #5 - otherwise you'll have to repartition the disk completely (and while at it, set proper partition types ;-)

I see. I am pretty sure i ve set the partition types to ext4 and linux and i am not sure why it says Microsoft Basic Data.

shak · 2019-07-22 19:41:53

seth wrote:

sda5 , sda5 and sda7
?
Anyway, you probably seek to merge sda4 and sda7 (?) and that's not possible. See comment #5 - otherwise you'll have to repartition the disk completely (and while at it, set proper partition types ;-)

Out of curiosity does the wrong partition type have any effect in performance?

seth · 2019-07-22 20:35:33

Not in general (ie. for the FS), but of course if sth. relies on the value, it could easily go wild.

Arch Linux

#1 2019-07-20 10:08:34

Is there a way to delete the windows partitions and merge it with arch

#2 2019-07-20 10:15:23

Re: Is there a way to delete the windows partitions and merge it with arch

#3 2019-07-20 13:20:19

Re: Is there a way to delete the windows partitions and merge it with arch

#4 2019-07-20 13:31:26

Re: Is there a way to delete the windows partitions and merge it with arch

#5 2019-07-20 15:07:02

Re: Is there a way to delete the windows partitions and merge it with arch

#6 2019-07-20 18:56:10

Re: Is there a way to delete the windows partitions and merge it with arch

#7 2019-07-20 21:16:38

Re: Is there a way to delete the windows partitions and merge it with arch

#8 2019-07-22 18:18:45

Re: Is there a way to delete the windows partitions and merge it with arch

#9 2019-07-22 19:34:07

Re: Is there a way to delete the windows partitions and merge it with arch

#10 2019-07-22 19:38:10

Re: Is there a way to delete the windows partitions and merge it with arch

#11 2019-07-22 19:41:53

Re: Is there a way to delete the windows partitions and merge it with arch

#12 2019-07-22 20:35:33

Re: Is there a way to delete the windows partitions and merge it with arch

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