Ubuntu

How to remove XP as now using it thru virtual box

Asked by gazmania

Hi I originally had XP on laptop and I installed ubuntu and accessed both thru the GRUB. I have since installed Virtual Box and use XP thru a virtual Drive. My question is..

How can I get rid of the original XP and have ubuntu and the virtual XP take advantage of the new disk space? Is the only way to re-install ubuntu then virtualbox then XP or can I remove the original XP and expand the disk space that Ubuntu now uses?

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Ralph Janke
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Ralph Janke (txwikinger) said : 		#1

Thanks for the question.

The answer is: It depends. You can always change the partition that XP used to a linux partition and mount it. You may want to use it as your /home partition if you don't have one separate already.

Here is a lot more information about drives and partitions.

I hope this helps.

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gazmania (mail2gaz) said : 		#2

OK So I can't just use the expand tool? to expand the existing Ubuntu partition on to the XP partition and wipe off xp in the process?

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Best Ralph Janke (txwikinger) said : 		#3

You can use parted for this. However, you can only write a partition table if you have not mounted any partition from that table. So you need to do this from the LiveCD or something like that.

The LiveCD has also a graphical interface for parted, qparted, gparted or something like that.

However, I am not sure if you can expand a partition at the beginning. I know you can do that at the end. Here is some more information about gparted: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowtoPartition

However, partition changes in this way are dangerous. You should always make sure to do backups before!!!

I hope this helps

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gazmania (mail2gaz) said : 		#4

OK I think the easiest thing is if I just format hard drive. Install ubuntu. install virtual box. Install xp. Thanks for your help :)

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marcobra (Marco Braida) (marcobra) said : 		#5

I strongly suggest you before format your disk to give Partition Editor coming with the Ubuntu install CD a chance.
You can delete resize all your disk partitition (NTFS or EXT3).
After that i think only edit or reinstall Grub using the Ubuntu live install cd.

HTH

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gazmania (mail2gaz) said : 		#6

I already reinstalled. It was a snap. Thanks