How do I remove one OS from a triple-boot PC and re-use the freed space?

[andrew.t.sullivan]

Hello

I have a Lenovo G505s laptop with Windows 8.1 Update 1, openSuse 13.10 and Ubuntu 14.04 installed, which all work fine. However, I rarely use openSuse nowadays and would like to get rid of it and use the freed-up disck space for Ubuntu. What's the safest way of doing this?

Thanks in advance

Andrew

[oldfred]

Are systems installed with UEFI or BIOS?

If UEFI all systems have separate folders in efi partition and you only have to select a different one if your current default is the system you are deleting. You can houseclean out UEFI & efi folder entries at any time.

If BIOS you have to make sure the MBR of the hard drive has the boot loader for a system you are keeping.

Then you can delete partitions with gparted and resize or make new data partitions.

An easy way [OS-Uninstaller] Safely remove Windows, Ubuntu... in 1 clic !
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1769489
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/OS-Uninstaller
But it does not edit partitions, just makes sure you can boot.

[andrew.t.sullivan]

Many thanks for your prompt reply. The laptop is an UEFI machine.

Just to make sure I understand... I can use OS-Uninstaller from Ubuntu to get rid of the openSuse installation (both the root and Home partitions), then use Gparted to resize the Ubuntu data partition?

Thanks again

Andrew


Are systems installed with UEFI or BIOS?

If UEFI all systems have separate folders in efi partition and you only have to select a different one if your current default is the system you are deleting. You can houseclean out UEFI & efi folder entries at any time.

If BIOS you have to make sure the MBR of the hard drive has the boot loader for a system you are keeping.

Then you can delete partitions with gparted and resize or make new data partitions.

An easy way [OS-Uninstaller] Safely remove Windows, Ubuntu... in 1 clic !
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1769489
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/OS-Uninstaller
But it does not edit partitions, just makes sure you can boot.

[oldfred]

If UEFI, you really do not need the OS uninstaller.

Your efi partition should have a folder that is openSuse. You can delete that folder. And UEFI has its own NVRAM and remembers entries and you have to remove that also.

# from live CD and use efibootmgr
sudo efibootmgr -v
The "-v" option displays all the entries so you can confirm you're deleting the right one, and then you use the combination of "-b ####" (to specify the entry) and "-B" (to delete it). Examples #5 is delete:
http://linux.dell.com/cgi-bin/gitweb/gitweb.cgi?p=efibootmgr.git;a=blob_plain;f=README; hb=HEAD
http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/efi-shells-and-scripting/
Launch EFI Shell from File System Device
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface#UEFI_Shell