A year ago, I acquired a 6 year old PC (Powerspec G-434) with Windows 11. I installed Zorin 17.3, but I installed it dual boot with Win 11 because, at the time, I thought I might need Win 11 in the future for work. However, I realized shortly thereafter that I wasn’t going to need Win 11 after all, have never used Win 11, and so now I want to get rid of Win 11 and recover the disc space for Zorin. I have GParted, and have used it successfully in the past. I’ve attached a snapshot of the partition map and am wondering which partitions are safe to reformat as ext4 and combine with the existing ext4 partition vs. which partitions I should leave alone? I think I know the answer, but I want to get advice from those more knowledgeable than I, lest I screw up and blow the system to smithereens. (I make daily backups using “Backups” and “Timeshift” and am planning to upgrade to Zorin OS 18 after this has been taken care of.) Thanks so much in advance for your help.
Partition 3 is the safe one. You do not need to format it - Instead, select it, then click the (-) delete icon.
Then, select the Zorin OS ext4 partition 7 and select Resize (From gear icon or from Right Click) and slide the slider over to reclaim the unclaimed space formerly occupied by Windows OS.
... and here I was, thinking it would be a complex, white-knuckle experience ... thanks for your help 
The Screenshot is helpful. Like @Aravisian already wrote, You can delete p3. To that, You can delete p2, p4 and p5.
Then is another Thing: Because You have a Dual-Boot System, You have to delete the Windows Boot Stuff. There are 2 Ways to handle that:
- Use the Terminal with
efibootmgr - Do it in Nautilus (the File Manager)
Which Way You prefer?
Hi, thanks for the information. What if I do as Aravisian wrote by deleting Partition 3 and resizing Partition 7, and leave it at that - nothing more? Or would that cause problems? If I have no choice but to delete the Windows boot info (after deleting Partitions 2,3,4, and 5), then which method would be easier for an inexperienced user such as myself: 1) using Terminal with efibootmgr or 2) using Nautilus?
What @Aravisian wrote was not false. When You delete the p3 Partition the Windows OS itself is deleted. But this doesn't delete automatically the other Stuff. And it doesn't delete the Windows Boot Stuff because it is in a different Partition.
Because You have a Dual-Boot System, You should have a GRUB Menu on Startup. this is the Black Screen where You can choose if You want start in Windows or Zorin. If You don't delete the Windows Boot Stuff, You will still have the Entry there but when You choose it, You only get a Black Screen. When You don't touch it, it wouldn't theoretically be a Problem. And when this is fine for You, that is up to You. But when You want clean up, then it is neccessary to do it.
That is not so easy to answer. When You use Nautilus, You have a graphical Way to handle that and delete a Folder. It could be visually easier in Comparison with using the Terminal and seeing Names and Values.
Thanks for the info !!
Partitions 2, 4, & 5 are very small, so I won't need to reclaim the space for later use.
Yes, I do have a GRUB menu. I haven't used Win 11 since I installed Zorin, and I won't be using it in the future. Every time I reboot the system, I let the progress bar at the top of the screen fill in and, Budda Bing Bidda Boom Psssh, it boots into Zorin in 10 seconds. So I won't touch Partitions 2, 4, and 5 since leaving them intact won't be problematic.
I also just discovered that I won't need to use GParted, as "Disks" (gnome-disk-utility 42.0) will do the job.
When You want have it that Way and Your are fine with it, okay.
Thanks for your response. I finally got around to doing what you suggested by using "-" to delete the Win 11 partition, but I don't see a "slider" which I can use to drag Partition 7 to reclaim the Unallocated Space. I then went ahead and created new partition with the Unallocated Space and formatted it ext4, but still no slider. If memory serves, I recall, in years past, while using Ubuntu 14 & 16, that GParted had a feature allowing two partitions to be combined if they were adjacent in the partition table, but I don't see that feature anymore. Do I need to move the empty ext4 partition to the right side of Partition 7, and then the slider will work? I've attached two screenshots from Disks, and two from GParted. For me, this was a white-knuckle experience, and fortunately, nothing was damaged in doing all this falderal, and I'm not going to go any further for fear of causing damage. Thanks for you help
Is this your slider?
The function is to move the existing partition into the freed up space by removing Windows OS, which only works if the partitions are adjacent to each other.
As far as changes in Gnome UI that leads to less user friendliness and intuitive locating of tools... Don't get me started.
Yes, it's a slider, but it appears to only be able to make the partition smaller. If I select Partition 3 and drag its slider to Minimize its size to zero, will that resize the adjacent Partition 7 and reclaim the empty space? As I mentioned, I recall GParted once having a feature to combine two adjacent partitions, but that feature is no longer present that I can see, and I checked the GParted Help library, but nothing came up when searching on "combine." I was planning to use the reclaimed space to use Boxes to do a bit of distro hopping, so maybe it would be safer to keep the two partitions separate?
No, that would reduce the size of partition 3 and likely be bad for you.
Are the two paritions adjacent to eachother?
When I open Gparted, and I right click on my partition 3 and select Resize/Move, it opens a new popup window showing the slider at the top.
Entry fields below.
I cannot move the slider, because there is no free space next to the partition... But this tells me that the current Gparted is operating as expected. Well, expected for me, anyway...
This is a utilitarian option. You can use the space, regardless of if it is tied to partition 3 or not. There is nothing wrong with letting it be a free for all storage unit - and that has its own benefits, including isolation if things go wrong.
You might use the DistroSea website for initial distro hopping to narrow your list to avoid a lot of read/write cycles on your drive, too.
I can only assume that the two partitions are adjacent because they are side by side on both images of the partition map I provided.
When I right click on the partition in GParted, I get the pop-up window. There is a right-facing arrow on the right side of the white bar, but it doesn't do anything.
Okay, I'll stop right here, go no further and keep the partitions separate.
Thanks for you help
Have you booted from a Zorin USB stick in "Try Zorin" mode" or have you booted from your normal Zorin system? To me it looks as if partition 7 is mounted (because of the lock).
You need to run gparted in a Zorin live session when the drive is not mounted.
Thanks for replying.
No, I haven't tried booting from a USB stick.
I'm planning to use the reclaimed space to use Boxes and try out another distro or two, so I've decided to keep the two partitions separate for safety.
Thanks. I'll check into DistroSea.
Thank you LoL.
I meant to remind earlier that the drive must be unmounted and shamefully Forgot while typing.
I will deprive myself of Food and Water as punishment for the next twenty two minutes.
twenty three ?!
That's too much. Not aiming for torture here. Just a life lesson.
alright 