Reinstalling linux mint over mint

[Kevin George]

I first tried dual booting Linux mint with windows 7 after creating a partition of 100 GB for mint.. I don't know how but my windows got removed and now I have only Linux mint installed in my PC.
Now I want to my mint OS to capture the other 400 GB as well and for this I created another flash drive with Linux mint cinnamon but now I'm unable to repeat the process..when I insert the USB it shows the content inside it nothing else.. I searched a lot for the solution but couldn't find one
Please Help

 

[CptCharis]

Hello @Kevin George

One by one, firstly you installed LM but your windows erased?
and now you want the already installed LM to occupy the entire HD?
finally your USB is not booting ? are all this correct?

 

[Kevin George]

Hello @Kevin George

One by one, firstly you installed LM but your windows erased?
and now you want the already installed LM to occupy the entire HD?
finally your USB is not booting ? are all this correct?

Yes Exactly!

 

[CptCharis]

About windows, you know better than me what exactly you did ,
probably when you been asked about dual booting you pressed the wrong button.
Anyway, as far as expand of LM now, there are two ways or you will use gparted and you will "connect" the partitions (which is tricky and I did't find in internet any article to say that is safe and /or possible to do that) or the easy way you will repeat the installation from the beginning.

The USB that you use is the same you use the first time of LM installation?
Did you change the boot legacy?
Did you check the ISO ?

 

[CptCharis]

Of course you can wait a few hours till dawn in Australia and @wizardfromoz appear inside a puff of smoke

 

[Kevin George]

About windows, you know better than me what exactly you did ,
probably when you been asked about dual booting you pressed the wrong button.
Anyway, as far as expand of LM now, there are two ways or you will use gparted and you will "connect" the partitions (which is tricky and I did't find in internet any article to say that is safe and /or possible to do that) or the easy way you will repeat the installation from the beginning.

The USB that you use is the same you use the first time of LM installation?
Did you change the boot legacy?
Did you check the ISO ?

I just created a new flash drive using the same ISO file I used before

 

[wizardfromoz]

Of course you can wait a few hours till dawn in Australia and @wizardfromoz appear inside a puff of smoke

(Wizard appears in a puff of smoke, yawns, scratches where the sun don't shine, goes for 3rd coffee)

Morning all from DownUnder, and welcome to linux.org @Kevin George

Kevin, do I take it you have a working copy of Mint at the moment?

You could tell us which one it is with the full name of the .iso, for example

linuxmint-18.3-mate-64bit.iso

or

linuxmint-19-xfce-64bit-v2.iso

... etcetera

If you got the .iso from Linux Mint's official site linuxmint.com chances are the iso is good, but it is best to check these things, if only to eliminate a defective or incomplete download if things go wrong.

If your Mint is up and running, and it is of the 18.3 'Sylvia' Series, or the 19 'Tara' series, then a product called Timeshift is already installed.

I would be inclined to take a snapshot of your existing setup with Timeshift, and then download GParted Live from here https://gparted.org/livecd.php - you can put it on as small as a CD or a 2GB USB stick if that is all you have. You could then boot from it and resize your drive to the full space available.

Alternative is first to establish that the .iso is OK, and then do a clean install, allocating Linux the entire drive.

When you first installed, you would likely have had a screen that looked something like this

... and it is there that you may have gone wrong and lost your Windows.

If you really want your Windows back, then GParted Live also has a facility for Data Recovery, but I have not used it for something as complex as Windows.

So think about these options, and when you have made up your mind, let us know and we can steer you.

WIZARD'S RECOMMENDED READING

For Hashsum Checking under Linux, of .isos

https://www.linux.org/threads/gtkhash-–-hashing-out-the-basics.4430/

https://www.linux.org/threads/hash-checking-rare-tips.13544/

For Timeshift

https://www.linux.org/threads/timeshift-similar-solutions-safeguard-recover-your-linux.15241/

or Linux Lite's Manual has

https://www.linuxliteos.com/manual/tutorials.html

... and click on Timeshift

Cheers

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz

 

[CptCharis]

and then download GParted Live from here https://gparted.org/livecd.php - you can put it on as small as a CD or a 2GB USB stick if that is all you have. You could then boot from it and resize your drive to the full space available.

Good Morning Chris

So you thing is ok just to expand LM to the entire HDD from gparted?
Bcz my google search didn't convince me that is safe to to that.

 

[wizardfromoz]

Bcz my google search didn't convince me that is safe to to that.

Evening for me now Capta

Can you give me any of the search references?

When I got the Toshiba Satellite a few years ago (this is the one that has about 40+ Distros on it now), it came with Windows 8.1 which I instantly detested. 1 TB HDD. I straight away shrunk its Windows - Windows Disk Management would only let me shrink it by half. I then installed Linux Mint, put on GParted, blew away the Windows, and reclaimed the entire drive for Linux.

This involved "expanding to the left", rather than the recommended "expanding to the right". I have not ever had a problem with either way, but yours is a valid question

@Kevin George - Kevin, I would like to be sure that Windows is gone, and not just invisible.

In Mint, can you go to Terminal (Ctrl-Alt-t) and type in and enter

sudo blkid

and copy the output to here?

With your USB stick, what was the burning solution you used for the Mint to the stick? eg Rufus, YUMI, or other?

Thanks

Wizard

 

[Kevin George]

Evening for me now Capta

Can you give me any of the search references?

When I got the Toshiba Satellite a few years ago (this is the one that has about 40+ Distros on it now), it came with Windows 8.1 which I instantly detested. 1 TB HDD. I straight away shrunk its Windows - Windows Disk Management would only let me shrink it by half. I then installed Linux Mint, put on GParted, blew away the Windows, and reclaimed the entire drive for Linux.

This involved "expanding to the left", rather than the recommended "expanding to the right". I have not ever had a problem with either way, but yours is a valid question

@Kevin George - Kevin, I would like to be sure that Windows is gone, and not just invisible.

In Mint, can you go to Terminal (Ctrl-Alt-t) and type in and enter

sudo blkid

and copy the output to here?

With your USB stick, what was the burning solution you used for the Mint to the stick? eg Rufus, YUMI, or other?

Thanks

Wizard

The ISO file is linuxmint-19-cinnamon-32bit

And yes I downloaded it from linuxmint.com

I used Etcher for burning Mint to my pendrive

And this is the output after I entered that command

Maybe I should just install mint once again? but my flash drive is not booting up

 

[CptCharis]

Evening for me now Capta

Can you give me any of the search references?

When I got the Toshiba Satellite a few years ago (this is the one that has about 40+ Distros on it now), it came with Windows 8.1 which I instantly detested. 1 TB HDD. I straight away shrunk its Windows - Windows Disk Management would only let me shrink it by half. I then installed Linux Mint, put on GParted, blew away the Windows, and reclaimed the entire drive for Linux.

This involved "expanding to the left", rather than the recommended "expanding to the right". I have not ever had a problem with either way, but yours is a valid question

@Kevin George - Kevin, I would like to be sure that Windows is gone, and not just invisible.

In Mint, can you go to Terminal (Ctrl-Alt-t) and type in and enter

sudo blkid

and copy the output to here?

With your USB stick, what was the burning solution you used for the Mint to the stick? eg Rufus, YUMI, or other?

Thanks

Wizard

Ok Chris !!!

That's why I asked you.

 

[atanere]

The ISO file is linuxmint-19-cinnamon-32bit

Hi Kevin! Is your CPU a 32-bit? Better to use 64-bit Linux if possible, although this isn't related to your USB not booting.

Etcher is a nice product and works well. I think I would just get the 64-bit Mint, verify the checksum of the download, and burn the USB fresh again with Etcher.

Cheers