Ubuntu

Have 3 installs - want to make just 1 out of the 3

Asked by Peabody67GTO

Hello,
 I am VERY NEW to Ubuntu. I first made a dual boot win WinPX and installed with only 2.5GB. Well I ran out of room in 20 minutes. So I tried to make that partition larger but could not figure it out. I make another 2.5GB partition and installed the program again. So I had two 2.5 partitions with 2 unique user names. Idiot me forgot one of the usernames so I tried to delete both partitions so I could create just one 10GB partition and start over. Well whatever I did I ended up with another 2.5 GB partition and another user. As of now I have 3 (2.5 GB) partitions with 3 unique usernames. When I get to the boot screen I see all 3 with the recovery and the test option.

  I now found out how easy it is to make a larger partition using the slider to choose the size. But if I start from scratch and make a 10GB partition and install again I will have 4 Ubuntu partitions with 4 usernames.

I was up all night and very frustrated. I really do not want to format the HD, install Win & then Ubuntu. I have many many Win programs that I do not have the original install CD & do not want to lose the space on the HD if it is just sitting there with 7.5 GB of the 3 Ubuntu partitions.

I am using the newest ver 9 of Ubuntu. I really do not know anything about the OS because I spent all my time dealing with partitions & installs. So if I can get some help, PLEASE MAKE IT EASY TO UNDERSTAND. I really do not know commands, ECT. When I am in any partition I can see the folder for that account and the other 2.5 GB folders.

THANKS SO MUCH

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Bart de Koning
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Best Bart de Koning (bratdaking) said : 		#1

Hope you have some understanding of partitions and how to manipulate them, because if you want to solve this you need to play around with partitions, but it looks like you do.
There are two ways: you can keep the one that your are using -> difficult, or install Ubuntu again
I will explain the easy version:
Boot the live disc again and start the partition editor (System -> Administration -> Partition Editor)
(when it is not there yet, install it first by Applications -> Add/Remove..., search for gparted)

Careful now, this is powerful piece of software that can wipe out all your data in a single click (well actually two)
Make sure you do not do anything with the WinXP partition -> the FAT32 or NTFS partitions!!! (it is a good idea to make a backup on forehand)

You can remove the Ubuntu partitions (the ext3 or ext4 partitions, you could also remove the swap but that is not necessary, it won't make a new one). Apply the changes, and you are free to install Ubuntu again, without the other three.
(You could do the same trick directly from the partition editor in the installer (choose for manual partition settings, however I like gparted over the one that is used in the installer)

If you want to keep your installation you essentially do the same thing except that you have to leave the one that you are using (you can make the partition larger so that it fills up the free space with gparted). However you have to modify the grub settings (the boot loader, that shows you the menu when starting your computer), otherwise it cannot find your partition back, leaving you with a command prompt), and that is definitely not easy to do...

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Peabody67GTO (67gto) said : 		#2

Thanks Bart de Koning, that solved my question.