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I have a dual-boot laptop (initially only Ubuntu and now it is Windows with 186Gb partition and Ubuntu with 50Gb). I would like to remove the Ubuntu partition to make space for windows but both the Ubuntu and Windows partition show as "primary partition".

I would like to avoid the case here where they deleted a primary partition and cannot boot the laptop anymore.

Drive partitions

DiskGenius shows the FAT32 in the Ubuntu partition of 50.8Gb, which makes sense as the laptop was initially only Ubuntu. I just want to get more space for Windows, so can I just delete in DiskGenius the Logical partition 5 of 50.3Gb? Is it possible to add it to the Windows one Local Disc C:? That's really what I aim to do.

DiskGenius

User981636
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1 Answers1

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You might get more information from another tool, such as DiskGenius, shown below.

DiskGenius information

Notice the only FAT32 partition on the disk shown above is marked ESP(1). ESP or EFI ((Extensible Firmware Interface). During the boot process, "UEFI firmware loads files stored on the ESP to start operating systems." That partition is essential, and is not easily moved or modified.

Likely, the third (starting from 0) partition on your drive, with unlabeled file system, is ~50 GB ext4, being used by Ubuntu. However, because the FAT32 partition before it contains EFI data, removing Ubuntu would not allow the 50 GB of drive space to be added back to Windows directly. It could be formatted NTFS and used as another drive, but Windows main drive space should be contiguous.

It appears that the drive is only 256 GB or so, which is just enough room for Windows. The best way to utilize all of it for the OS might be to save data (make a disk image, for safety!), remove all partitions, and reinstall Windows de novo. Yes, all software would need to be reinstalled. See this answer for more details.

DrMoishe Pippik
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