Hi folks,
I’m trying to totally erase an existing ubuntu installation to put windows 10 instead.
Windows 10 was the original OS, then my partner fully installed ubuntu over it a couple years ago.
Now she wants windows back, and ideally she wants a dual boot.
I’ve already backed up all her data.
The way I figured, I do a clean new install of windows over the whole disk, then install a clean install of ubuntu as dual boot.
I’ve managed to create a bootable usb key with win10 and to start the install, but I’m stuck on what to do now:
It asks me where to install windows. Can I just delete the two linux partitions showing up (system and primary), and the install process will handle the next operations, or do I need to back off, and delete myself the linux partitions beforehand?
My internet searches about that have been muddy.
For ex, some people talk about how you need to remove the linux bootloader too beforehand or during the windows install through command line. Others just say to delete the linux partitions during the windows intall and that’s it, no mention of bootloader. Others say you need to delete the linux partitions before all that.
If you are trashing the existing OS, rather than keeping it as-is and making room for a Windows installation, then it does not really matter what you do beforehand, because you can install Windows over the whole disk, erasing whatever is there including Linux partitions and the Linux bootloader. Windows will happily do that for you
If you subsequently install, let’s say Ubuntu Linux, that means you will have to do the opposite and shrink the Windows data partition without deleting it, making room to install Ubuntu, and also let the Ubuntu installer write its bootloader to your hard disk (which can also boot Windows).
While true, @DPRK, shrinking a partition is more potentially problematic than expanding it, and both are more potentially problematic than just making it the right size from the beginning.
It’s been a long time since I dual booted. Back in the day, I would recommend three partitions: one for Windows at the beginning of the drive, one for Linux at the end, and then one shared partition in the middle for documents, images, etc. But these days I understand that Linix can handled NTFS drives just fine. So I might replace the Windows and document drive with a single Windows partition.
The other option the OP might want to consider, though, is to install WSL: Windows Su systemystem Linux. You can install Ubuntu into that and then be able to use Linux for within Windows.
Ubuntu has instructions on how to do this:
Install Ubuntu on WSL2 and get started with graphical applications
Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) allows you to install a complete Ubuntu terminal environment in minutes on your Windows machine, allowing you to develop cross-platform applications without leaving windows.
Thanks people!
I ended up, during the install, summoning the terminal and running diskpart to clean the disk. The install went fine. Just need to fix the broken two fingers scroll.
Yeah then I’ll shrink that partition to create space for the linux system and a data partition.
The aim is to usually run linux, save for those cases where the software is better in windows or doesn’t really exist for linux.
A kind of inverse of WSL is an application compatibility later called Wine.
Yet another alternative to dual boot/partition shenanigans is to install a Linux like Ubuntu and run various virtual machines on top of that: Windows, MacOS, Android, you can have it all and even running in parallel if your system has sufficient resources.
GParted can grow and shrink NTFS partitions; not ReFS but that is usually in Windows 11, not 10
Windows Pro also allows running Hyper-V, where you can install additional LINUX and Windows vrtual machines.
If you run virtual machines (under LINUX or Windows) you have the advantage of creating more installs, or quickly cloning copies for testing or isolating some software, and making those installs portable to new hardware hosts.
