Hi, I am pretty much feeling comfortable with Zorin 17.2 Pro with usage as primary computer for day to day business use. My question is the following: When I installed Zorin 17 Pro it created a dual boot handled by Zorin where there are partitions that were from the legacy Windows 11 Pro.
Is there an easy way, for a newbie, without messing up the Zorin, to eliminate the Windows partitions and have the computer w/o dual boot, just starting on Zorin? Of course, also, resize the Zorin partition so that it uses all the space (2 hard disks, one 1TB, another 2 TB).
In the "old times" in the windows world, there use to be "Partition Magic" that allowed newbies like me to re-partition, eliminate dual boots, etc.
is there a safe way to do this in Zorin?
Thank you for your guidance,
Otto
Could You post a Screenshot of the Partition Sheme using Disks or GParted? So, we would have an Overview.
Sure, I recorded a 2 min video, as this might be easier than having multiple screenshots. Here is what Disks show: Understanding Disk Partitions and Windows Installation Process 📀 | Loom
It looks like Windows is on a separate disk entirely occupying Nvme0 partition3
Zorin OS is on nvme1 partition5...
GParted itself will let you do most of the repartitioning you want. You can use it to get rid of Windows stuff, but the trick is preserving GRUB and updating it. I continue to be surprised I haven't found a tool for easily modifying GRUB settings, removing entries, reordering them, etc.
There is Grub Customizer - a GUI application for customizing grub.
But... I actually do not recommend using it. It creates its own files and because it does, can be very hard to undo something if a user decides that is not working out. It also complicated things.
Honestly, it is easy to edit and modify GRUB. It just is not a pretty GUI screen, but it is easy to do.
One thing that concerns me is that Zorin is on an extended partition with no boot flags. Also the triangles with exclamation marks on the Windows drive is also of concern. Before you get rid of Windows completely I would check for any firmware updates to your SSD's as manufacturer's make it clear that this can only be done on Windows and Mac. If it were me, I would backup all Critical data from both drives and start a fresh install of Zorin on the Windows drive for '/',
make a 1 Tb partition on the second drive for '/home', then create a 1 Tb 'Backup' partition to save Timeshift snapshots to.
Thank You for that. When I see that right, You have Windows installed on one Driver (nvme0) and Zorin on another Drive (nmve1). Is that correct? And do you have Zorin encrypted?
I did the standard installation, it is not encrypted that I know
Is there a way to backup zorin with all the installation and customization , then do a clean install and restore the backup afterwards? In an easy manner?
Well first you could backup Zorin using Rescuezilla, but I would make sure that any external device you use is formatted to Ext4. You could then use Timeshift to take a snapshot of your entire drive including your /home folder and restore this after a clean install. As far as I am aware Rescuezilla is not like Acronis where you can pick and choose what you want to restore. Going back a few iterations of Acronis I attempted to make a backup of Ultimate Edition 2.9 but could not restore any of it! I find it ironic that Acronis True Image uses parts of Linux, but can't be used for backing uo a GNU/Linux OS.
Because of Your Pictures I would say that you can delete the Partitions on the Drive with Windows on it and then format it to ext4. Because zorin is on a seperate Drive this should cause Issues I guess.
But You should prepare a Back Up of Your Data (what Method you use, is up to You) and a bootable USB Stick with Zorin on it for the Case that something goes wrong so that You be able in worst Case to make a fresh Install.
Yes you are correct Rescuezilla doesn't have that feature ..... sure wish it did it would make my life so much easier but I still would rather use it than any other back-up apt .....
Here are some alternatives:
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Today i installed a dual boot on my oldest machine, i love to try things out. Now i want to remove the fresh installed os and boot directly in my older os. When i boot now a screen pops up for 5 seconds and it boots into the new os.
I tried to search on google for this, the most answers i read “your better off reinstalling your os”. In windows you could just delete the partition and re-add them.
Now the real question, can this also be done in linux ? I want to re-add the spaced used for the new os + i need to boot directly to the main os without a menu.
I have systemd boot.