After a month of using Linux, i decided to stay and get rid of Windows completely. How can i do it safely?

[waxmaster_c]

It's been almost a month since i installed Linux and i came to a conclusion than i want to stay on it and wipe away Windows into oblivion forever. The only questions are how can i do it, what are the nessecary steps, and how can i do it safely without causing any problems.

I was googling but i am asking here because google isn't much of a help. It mostly displays outdated guides, or gets me guides on how to delete ubuntu and keep windows.

My SSD in it's current state has 1 TB of memory, of which 100 gigs are reserved for the Linux partition.
I already transferred all of my data over to Linux, and only games are left on windows (they can be wiped too i don't really care).
The reasons for deciding this is that Linux is much more stable than i thought, gaming support is much better than i thought (i am not a hardcore gamer anyways), it works flawlessly except for the laptop built-in speakers which i mentioned (i can live without those), i learned a lot about the command line, i learned the Synaptic and so on. The whole system simply fits me better as a person. It fulfilled my inner geek wishes and ultimately it was the answer i'v been looking for. I have Mint Cinnamon 20.2, kernel 5.11, Grub bootloader.

I have Gparted installed and i am familiar with it but i am afraid of doing anything with it to avoid doing something stupid. Is it possible somehow to format the windows partition to ext4, and than merge it with the ext4 100 gigs linux partition, giving the entire SSD just to linux while keeping it's data? Because i spent almost a month setting it up, and configuring it to my liking, i really don't want all that work to vanish into thin air by having to reinstall linux agian after formatting the disk. Or can i simply store one timeshift somewhere else, format and wipe the entire disk, reinstall Mint and then just restore the Timeshift? I am no expert by any means.

The SSD has 5 current partitions :
100 gigs ext4 Linux
850 gigs ntfs windows
100 MB fat32 EFI system
16 MB "unknown" microsoft reserved
860 MB ntfs hidden partition
3 MB unallocated

An that's about it. Thanks in advance folks.
Peace out.

 

[BoringZombie]

Keep Linux and Remove Windows
https://lifehacker.com/how-to-uninstall-windows-or-linux-after-dual-booting-508710422

1. Insert a live CD or USB for your Linux distribution and start up its partition manager (like Gparted). Find your Windows partition in Gparted's menu—it'll be listed as an NTFS drive.
2. Right-click on that Windows partition and choose "Delete" from the menu. Your machine may have other Windows-related partitions as well, like "System Reserved" and recovery partitions. If you want, you can delete these as well (but make sure you have recovery discs handy if you're going to delete a recovery partition).
3. Right-click on your Linux partition and choose "Resize/Move." Resize it so it takes up the rest of the now-free space on your drive.
4. Click the "Apply All Operations" button in the toolbar to perform the selected tasks. It may give you a warning saying that your computer may not boot, but with most Linux instalations this shouldn't be a problem (though if it is, check out this article to fix it). This process may take some time, so let it be!

 

[Alexzee]

Before you delete that Windows partitions in gparted back up your Linux Mint and also take a snapshot of your Mint with Timeshift first.

If something goes wrong when you resize your Mint partition than Timeshift will help you to recover.

BTW you could if you wanted to just delete the Windows partitions and than use the free space to install another Linux distro alongside of Mint.
It's up to you.

 

[Condobloke]

Or can i simply store one timeshift somewhere else, format and wipe the entire disk, reinstall Mint and then just restore the Timeshift? I am no expert by any means.

You are on the right track

Whether you use @BoringZombie's approach or what you have thought of yourself

Recently, (last week) I installed a new nvme ssd (replacing an older, smaller ssd)

BEFORE I installed it I took a couple of Timeshift snapshots.(2)
The settings in Timeshift are Important
Mine look like this....below...

With those settings you can do the following:

Take 2 Timeshift snapshots and store them on an external hard drive that has sufficient capacity to hold thm easily (thumb drives are sometimes a bit cramped)

You will need a thumb drive with whatever Linux you are using attached/burned to it ....so as to make the usb stick bootable.
Reboot the pc with the usb stick inserted, and alter the boot so that the pc boots to the usb,.

When it has loaded Linux (into ram, not a hard drive), you can double click the icon on the desktop to install Linux mint (or whatever you have)

Follow the prompts....english etc etc

When it comes to the window where you are asked where/how you wish to install, click to use the whole disk.
The install will wipe everything....and I mean everything
@Alexzee has given you advice above to back up your Linux Mint
In particular, any data, music, notes, ...the type of thing that Timeshift WILL NOT replace.

What does Timeshift do?
Timeshift doesn’t backup your regular files in the home folder
Timeshift is for backing up system files and settings. So that when you are configuring your system and making some customization and messed it up, you could revert to the older system snapshot.

If you are using Linux Mint, you can click on menu, type in disks, click on the three vertical dots at the top of that window....go down to Create disk image.....follow the prompts, BE SURE to save the image to an esxternal drive....it will actually clone your Linux install.
By doing that you have an exact copy of everything on your Linux install.

By allowing the installer to wipe everything and use the whole disk , it will take care of whatever partition you need. You can drink coffee (or whatever) and just watch.

When the whole install is finished, click on menu, type in Timeshift......go to Location and click the location your Timeshift snapshots are in. Then close that window, and select restore from the main Timeshift window.
Make sure the places that Timeshift is restoring to, makes sense......in other words Timeshift is restoring to the new partition etc

You can always click menu, type in disks....and look for the name of the partitions there.

It doesnt take as long to do it as it has taken me to type it !

There....food for thought.

 

[kc1di]

If you want the simplest way to do it. Back up your important files and just do a complete fresh install of Linux Mint allowing it to use the entire disk It will wipe windows off the machine. But it's up to you Which ever you choose to do make a good backup of your important data first.

 

[waxmaster_c]

Okay, everything done. But i have a little problem. With the fresh install of Linux, my external monitor doesnt display properly now. It just displays black background with mouse pointer. And because my main laptop display is broken (only half of the screen works) you can call my device now a paperweight. I tried using that half of the laptop's display to enter display settings and setting the external monitor as primary, but it continues just showing black background with mouse on it.

EDIT : Solved by updating nvidia driver.

 

[kc1di]

Glad you got it sorted and working Great job sticking with it

 

[waxmaster_c]

Unfortunately i lost the Snapshot due to being unable to store it anywhere. Google drive becomes unresponsive while trying to upload, flash usb couldn't be set to anything other than read only, i also couldnt store it to my phone because of read-only and i just said meh fudge it i'm gonna tweak it agian. Thanks for all the replies

 

[Deleted member 108694]

Unfortunately i lost the Snapshot due to being unable to store it anywhere. Google drive becomes unresponsive while trying to upload, flash usb couldn't be set to anything other than read only, i also couldnt store it to my phone because of read-only and i just said meh fudge it i'm gonna tweak it agian. Thanks for all the replies

You could try ExpanDrive for Google Drive- have a look here - https://www.expandrive.com/download-expandrive/ - try the AppImage that way nothing gets installed - once downloaded right click it select properties and select Allow this program to run as an executable its about 133MBs in size

Another option is here - https://linuxhint.com/mount_google_drive_linux_mint/

 

[mrcrossroads]

It's been almost a month since i installed Linux and i came to a conclusion than i want to stay on it and wipe away Windows into oblivion forever. The only questions are how can i do it, what are the nessecary steps, and how can i do it safely without causing any problems.

I was googling but i am asking here because google isn't much of a help. It mostly displays outdated guides, or gets me guides on how to delete ubuntu and keep windows.

My SSD in it's current state has 1 TB of memory, of which 100 gigs are reserved for the Linux partition.
I already transferred all of my data over to Linux, and only games are left on windows (they can be wiped too i don't really care).
The reasons for deciding this is that Linux is much more stable than i thought, gaming support is much better than i thought (i am not a hardcore gamer anyways), it works flawlessly except for the laptop built-in speakers which i mentioned (i can live without those), i learned a lot about the command line, i learned the Synaptic and so on. The whole system simply fits me better as a person. It fulfilled my inner geek wishes and ultimately it was the answer i'v been looking for. I have Mint Cinnamon 20.2, kernel 5.11, Grub bootloader.

I have Gparted installed and i am familiar with it but i am afraid of doing anything with it to avoid doing something stupid. Is it possible somehow to format the windows partition to ext4, and than merge it with the ext4 100 gigs linux partition, giving the entire SSD just to linux while keeping it's data? Because i spent almost a month setting it up, and configuring it to my liking, i really don't want all that work to vanish into thin air by having to reinstall linux agian after formatting the disk. Or can i simply store one timeshift somewhere else, format and wipe the entire disk, reinstall Mint and then just restore the Timeshift? I am no expert by any means.

The SSD has 5 current partitions :
100 gigs ext4 Linux
850 gigs ntfs windows
100 MB fat32 EFI system
16 MB "unknown" microsoft reserved
860 MB ntfs hidden partition
3 MB unallocated

An that's about it. Thanks in advance folks.
Peace out.

I like the advice of others in this thread. But if it were me I think I would just blow everything away and do a total fresh install. Without fail I would always dork something up when changing or messing with partitions.