[Techtalk] getting rid of windows on a dual boot machine

[Miriam English]

Hi Anne,

I would switch steps 4 and 5, and I would copy (cp -a -v src dest) the 
data instead of moving it. Copying gives you a fallback position. Also I 
would edit fstab as root user (you probably intend to anyway).

I'd also put steps 6 and 7 at the end of your list. Before you delete 
the old home partition (with the original copy of all the home data 
still in it) I'd want to verify that the process worked, by rebooting. 
You can verify that the new home is actually where it is supposed to be 
by creating an empty test file as the user, then checking as root that 
the new file was created in the new home, not the old one.

You can see that deleting stuff scares the daylights out of me. :) I am 
very careful to test carefully before doing it these days, because I've 
got myself into weird positions by deleting what I thought was safe when 
keeping fallback positions could have saved me a lot of trouble.

Good luck.

	- Miriam

Anne Wainwright wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> just an update to say no progress on this front at present. Thanks for
> all the input from everyone.
> 
> I started to use Xsane to replace my HP scanning software on windows
> and have had little success. Although it goes, and despite much effort,
> the scans are very low quality compared to the HP alternative. Until I
> can sort this out getting rid of windows is on hold. 
> 
> Anne
> 
> 
> 
> On Fri, 17 Sep 2010 19:00:28 +0200
> Anne Wainwright <anotheranne at fables.co.za> wrote:
> 
>> Hi,
>>
>> I have a dual boot machine, I'd like to get rid of the windows side as
>> (happy happy day) it is never used now. I want the old Windows space
>> for a bigger ~/ directory and want to include the space of the old ~/
>> directory into the  existing / directory. I can see that this will
>> involve some careful planning. My basic scheme is to follow the steps
>> below.
>>
>> 1  delete the Windows partition
>> 2  create a new linux partition in the space freed up
>> 3  install file system on new partition
>> 4  edit fstab to see & mount new partition as home
>> 5  move all the old data over to the new ~/ filesystem
>> 6  delete the old home partition
>> 7  expand the root partition to allow more system space
>> 8  make the root partition bootable
>> 9  edit grub so we can avoid the unneeded boot menu.
>>
>>
>> I'm not asking for a step by step, but rather what have I forgotten? I
>> so seriously do not want a disaster. If I get the major steps planned
>> then I can look at the issues involved with each more carefully.
>>
>> Presumably if we do 8 then in fact we do not need grub at all, but I
>> am very hazy about this part of the plan.
>>
>> Any comments gratefully acknowledged.
>>
>> bestest
>> Anne
>> _______________________________________________
>> Techtalk mailing list
>> Techtalk at linuxchix.org
>> http://mailman.linuxchix.org/mailman/listinfo/techtalk
> _______________________________________________
> Techtalk mailing list
> Techtalk at linuxchix.org
> http://mailman.linuxchix.org/mailman/listinfo/techtalk
> 
> 

-- 
If you don't have any failures then you're not trying hard enough.
  - Dr. Charles Elachi, director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
-----
Website: http://miriam-english.org
Blog: http://miriam_e.livejournal.com