I used dual boot Windows 10 and Ubuntu Linux a couple of years ago.
Now I decided to keep both Windows and new distro of Ubuntu.
I removed the old Ubuntu distro. But I still run out of memory.
In Windows Disk management I find 4 Healthy Primary Partitions from 2 GB to 167 GB. With no drive letters. I know it is a Windows related question but to keep Windows and create new dual boot with the current Ubuntu distro can I safely delete the above Windows partitions without any consequences for Windows or Ubuntu?
Thank you very much.
Harry
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What version of Windows?
Post this to see more detail on partitions from live installer.
Make sure Windows fast startup/hibernation is off and bitlocker is off, or the Linux NTFS driver cannot correctly see NTFS partitions.
lsblk -e 7 -o MODEL,NAME,FSTYPE,LABEL,MOUNTPOINT,SIZE,fsused
If the partitions do not have drive letters they are probably not windows partitions as the only windows partition which doesn’t get a drive letter with a standard windows install is the EFI partition and you don’t want to delete that if you have it.
How did you ‘remove’ the old Ubuntu distro? The standard method would be to just format them which you could do with the new Ubuntu installer if you want Ubuntu on the same partitions. Posting the output of the command suggested above would be a good start as it will show information on your drive(s), partitions, filesystem type, partition size and how much used space on each. You could also post the output of: sudo parted -l which will list the partition table type. That would be helpful as we would know the partition table type as you haven’t indicated which release version of windows you are using or whether it is an EFI or legacy/CSM install.
A) Version of Windows → Windows 10
B) “Post this to see more detail on partitions from live installer.” Help here ?? (Sorry I am very Newbie and lacking technical background so kindly bare with me if you wish…)
C) “Make sure Windows fast startup/hibernation is off and bitlocker is off, or the Linux NTFS driver cannot correctly see NTFS partitions.” Now I am completely lost… any elaboration would highly help me … THANK YOU Immensely,
yancek
A) Most partitions do not have drive letters. No partition is mentioned/referred as EFI partition so I do not recognize it to avoid deleting it. Most probably there is no such partition. Except of 2 (Healthy Recovery Partitions) there are 4 (Healthy Primary Partitions) with sizes 1.91- 46.57 - 14.90 and 167.64 GB each (in this order).
B) How did I ‘remove’ the old Ubuntu distro? In Windows 10, I did it using the Command Prompt and the bcdedit entries. From the list I copied the identifier of Linux and then deleted it (always with bcdedit commands)
C) [You mentioned: The standard method would be to just format them which you could do with the new Ubuntu installer if you want Ubuntu on the same partitions.] Now I guess it may be a little late ? … or is it not?
**Now for the following postings you mentioned, I am not sure I can do it (especially with Linux command prompts … I get totally lost there) **
In any case I really thank you very much for the help and I am sorry that I am not savvy in this field
Thanks again
@harantz Welcome to Ubuntu Discourse 
Do you have a USB with a recent version of Ubuntu on it that you can use to boot the computer?
If the answer is yes this is what you need to do:
Boot the computer with the USB attached, go to BIOS boot order and allow it to boot from the USB.
When the menu comes up Try or Install Ubuntu continue and then, this is very important, when the installer starts choose to Try Ubuntu.
Do not try installing at this stage.
Once you see the Ubuntu desktop, click on the Show Apps icon (lower left on the dash) and search for terminal.
Open the terminal and run the command suggested by @oldfred above.
You can copy the output from the terminal and paste it here in a reply or take a screenshot, but we prefer output.
Once we see what is really going on it will be easier to offer suggestions for your situation.
Also make sure before you do all this to follow the other suggestions posted by @oldfred
Do not be afraid of the terminal. Often easy to just copy & paste a command, just be sure source of command is reliable.
If you do not have live installer flash drive.
And install:
Updated to 24.04
Bitlocker in Windows, turn off so installer can correctly see drive
https://documentation.ubuntu.com/desktop/en/latest/tutorial/install-ubuntu-desktop/
My lsblk as an example, that we need to see from your system
> fred@dell5310:~$ lsblk -e 7 -o MODEL,NAME,FSTYPE,LABEL,MOUNTPOINT,SIZE,fsused
> MODEL NAME FSTYPE LABEL MOUNTPOIN SIZE FSUSED
> PC SN530 NVMe WDC 512GB nvme0n1 476.9G
> ├─nvme0n1p1 vfat ESP /boot/efi 200M 127.3M
> ├─nvme0n1p2 128M
> ├─nvme0n1p3 ntfs OS 202.4G
> ├─nvme0n1p4 vfat FAT32 6G
> ├─nvme0n1p5 ntfs Shared 63.9G
> ├─nvme0n1p6 ext4 noble-dell / 39.1G 17.5G
> ├─nvme0n1p7 ext4 data-dell /mnt/data 142.6G 87.5G
> ├─nvme0n1p8 swap 4.1G
> ├─nvme0n1p9 ntfs WINRETOOLS 1.4G
> ├─nvme0n1p10 ntfs Image 15.7G
> └─nvme0n1p11 ntfs DELLSUPPORT 1.4G
One site on Windows fast startup off. There also may be an UEFI/BIOS setting for fast boot which also should be off as that assumes no system changes and always default boots previous configuration.
http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4189-fast-startup-turn-off-windows-10-a.html
Thank you very much for now. I will follow your very helpful suggestions (very carefully that is ha…ha) and will revert with the outcome.
A million thanks to all again.
For us non-savvy new Linux users you are all very helpful sources. Now I understand why this site (resource Blog) was suggested to me so many times.
Thank you all very much and I will follow all your suggestions religiously ( 
).
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Turning off fast boot and hibernation are windows things which must be done from a booted windows installation and there are countless web sites online which explain it.
If you do not see an EFI partition in Disk Management in windows it is because windows by default does not display it, that is a choice by Microsoft. You can use diskpart on windows to create a drive letter for it if you want.
If you have windows 10 and it was preinstalled then it is almost certainly an EFI install and if it is a computer built in the last 10 years, the drive is likely GPT. You can get information on what GPT drives are with a simple online search.
If you create an Ubuntu install USB, you can boot it and use the command: sudo parted -l to LIST information on drives/partitions.
Modifying the boot entries using bcdedit didn’t remove anything but those entries in the Windows boot manager menu. If that is all you did, then Ubuntu is still on those partitions and again, you can obtain this information when booted to the Ubuntu install USB with the command I posted above. It is possible to boot a Linux OS by creating entries with bcdedit to chainload a Linux OS, is that what you were doing?
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Finally I managed to get to a completion of all you suggested (to me was a lot back and forth as I have one PC only).
Anyways, I followed all your suggestions (I hope correctly) and the outcome of the terminal command (lsblk) produced the following:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ lsblk -e 7 -o MODEL,NAME,FSTYPE,LABEL,MOUNTPOINT,SIZE,fsused
MODEL NAME FSTYPE LABEL MOUNTPOINT SIZE FSUSED
TS256GESD400K sda 238.5G
└─sda1 exfat 10_SSD_256G 238.5G
Samsung SSD 8 sdb 465.8G
├─sdb1 ntfs 0_System Boot 500GB 208.9G
├─sdb2 ntfs 576M
├─sdb3 ntfs 572M
├─sdb4 1K
├─sdb5 ext4 1.9G
├─sdb6 ext4 46.6G
├─sdb7 swap [SWAP] 14.9G
└─sdb8 ext4 167.6G
KINGSTON SV30 sdc 111.8G
├─sdc1 ntfs 0_Old System 111GB 110.9G
└─sdc2 ntfs 520M
WDC WD40PURZ- sdd 3.6T
├─sdd1 16M
├─sdd2 ntfs 04_4TB_1 /media/ubuntu/ 1.8T 1.6T
└─sdd3 ntfs 04_4TB_2 1.8T
TOSHIBA MQ04U sdf 3.6T
├─sdf1 128M
├─sdf2 ntfs TosExt 4TB_USB A 1.8T
└─sdf3 ntfs TosExt 4TB_USB B 1.8T
TOSHIBA MQ01A sdg 931.5G
WDC WD10JMVW- sdh 931.5G
└─sdh1 ntfs 09_WD Elements_1TB 931.5G
TransMemory sdi 115.5G
├─sdi1 exfat Ventoy128GB 115.5G
│ ├─ventoy /cdrom 5.9G 5.9G
│ └─sdi1 115.5G
└─sdi2 32M
ST2000LM007-1 sdj 1.8T
├─sdj1 ntfs 06_Trans_2TB_A /media/ubuntu/ 1.3T 1.2T
├─sdj2 1K
└─sdj5 ntfs 07_Trans_2TB_B 583G
HL-DT-ST DVDR sr0 1024M
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ ^C
I am not sure I understand 100% everything in the above but I hope you can assist me on that.
Before login in to Ubuntu trial, I turned off Bitlocker and fast-startup.
Any other suggestions are very welcome.
Kind regards and many thanx again to all.
Harry
I believe that I am identifying your Windows drive (/dev/sdb) as a physically separate disk. That is very good, because Windows does not “play nice” with Linux.
I would recommend that only a Linux (oriented/dedicated) disk be the target for your GRUB installation, and that GRUB never finds its way to becoming installed on your “pure” Windows disk drive.
If GRUB is already installed on the Windows drive, I don’t know how to go about “purging” that from your 500GB /dev/sdb drive in a way that the “virgin” Windows MBR partition table structure can be restored. Maybe one of the experts from the Community could guide you in performing that particular “cleanup”.
Beyond that, I would refer you to another posting I made earlier as to how to approach the installation and setup of the GRUB to ensure dual-boot or multi-boot, but still making the Windows boot available upon request from the GRUB boot menu. That is outlined here:
Given your circumstances, assuming your “primary” Linux disk is the 4TB /dev/sdd and the 4TB /dev/sdf is your external USB-attached backup drive, I suggest that you start by
-
unplugging all writeable internal and external drives,
-
only plug in your “primary” Linux drive, 4TB
/dev/sdd,
then proceed as I outlined in the post I mentionned.
IMPORTANT:
The drive letters WILL CHANGE after you change the drive boot priority sequence “shuffle” that you need to do!
Before unplugging anything, I suggest that you perform that shuffle, then re-run the lsblk command to get the updated reference to the drive letters for each of those drives.
My recommendation is that your “logical” boot priority sequence be set to the following:
- (plug-n-play) Hitachi DVDR drive /dev/sr0
- (plug-n-play) External USB stick drive (??? may not be listed if not plugged in)
- 4 TB (internal) current /dev/sdd
- 4 TB (external) current /dev/sdf
- 2 TB (internal) current /dev/sdj
- 250 GB (internal) current /dev/sda
- 500 GB (internal) current /dev/sdb
- 120 GB (internal) current /dev/sdc
- 1 TB (internal) current WDC /dev/sdh
- 1 TB (internal) current TOSHIBA /dev/sdg (??? no partition table ???)
- 128 GB (internal) current Ventoy /dev/sdi
Be sure you understand exactly what you are doing before you actually set about doing it.
If at any point you are uncertain, ask before doing (possibly irreversable damage)!
If you want to “reclaim” the Linux-related space associated with the sdb5, sdb6 and sdb8 partitions for Windows-specific usage, move the contents that you wish to preserve from those to one of the other Linux drives, then
- delete those partitions,
- also delete sdb4 and sdb7, then
- either create a new NTFS partition to encompass all the space freed up by those, or
- grow sdb3 to encompass all that free space.
The only drive of all the drives for which you show information that has any Linux system is sdb with sdb5, 6, and 8 having Linux filesystems and sdb7 as swap. If you want to install a new version of Ubuntu, do it on that drive and select those partitions. When I run the lsblk command above it shows my EFI partition which doesn’t show in your output. You could try running the command: sudo parted -l which should list the EFI partition and show it in the output as well as showing the partition label type: gpt, dos. It should show as a vfat filesystem. You can see it in the output oldfred posted above.
Again, which release version of windows are you using?
Your sdb drive may not show as sdb if you boot an installer from another usb so check the drive by size
I also am a bit concerned that you do not show an ESP - efi system partition.
Microsoft has required vendors to install in UEFI boot mode with gpt partitioning since 2012, so any modern system is UEFI not old BIOS. Many vendors still call it “BIOS” but my Dell says BIOS, but once in BIOS it says UEFI boot only. Laptops since about 2020 are UEFI only.
Are drives gpt or old MBR(msdos) partitioned. Microsoft requires gpt for UEFI boot and conversion from MBR to gpt totally erases entire drive. Or good backups required.
Post this and confirm which drives are external:
sudo parted -l
Not that systems put drives in port order by default. Or SATA port 1 is usually sda. But on reboot a flash drive in sdc may become sda and all other drives change boot order. Or drive order can change and you must be sure which drive is which.
So if you disconnect drives & then plug them in pay attention to which drive is in which port on motherboard.
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