As a sort of follow up to the post I made on my alt account, would I need to do to anything to Grub to continue using Linux Mint after removing Windows or would I still be able to boot into Linux Mint without having to do anything? As stated in the previous post, Windows is installed onto an SSD and I want run games from that SSD but I’d need to reformat the SSD in order to use it.
Edit: I don’t need help with this anymore but because it seems like there is some confusion, I’m including the fact that I have Linux installed onto an external hard drive and Windows was installed onto the SSD which is in the laptop. I’ve already remove Windows from the SSD and reformatted it to ext4 so I can run games from it.
you can just remove windows and reformat the ssd and the bootloader will update at the next kernel update or with
sudo update-grub.it will work to test your game but it’s better that your main os be on an internal drive for longer term use though, preferably an ssd.
also on modern computers, the windows key is commonly on the bios itself meaning you can probably just reinstall it.
I know it would be better to move Linux Mint to the internal hard drive but I’m keeping it on the external hard drive just because I don’t know how stable the SSD is. On top of the fact that I’ve heard that SSD are less stable than mechanical drives, I don’t know if the hard drive was replaced when it was refurbished and if it wasn’t, I don’t know how much it was used. I also want to prioritize my slower external hard drives so that way I’m not potentially stuck using these older hard drive, or even my much slower USB storage devices, several years from now.
Also, I ran a benchmark test on the SSD and it’s nowhere near as fast as I though it would be. The read speed is only around 520 MB/s and the Write speed is around 470 MB/s. This isn’t much faster than my current external hard drive which has somewhere around 300 MB/s for both, it’s been a while since I last tested it.
SSD are less stable than mechanical drives, it’s probably the other way around.
that’s not true at all, maybe when they were new 15 years ago. the very fact they have no moving parts makes them inherently much more reliable.
update its firmware, and smart test it if you are in doubt. you can also tell the % of it’s life cycle and many statistics about its lifetime use through smart. meaning
smartctlor equivalent tool.520MB/s vs 300MB/s
those are sequential speeds. real world use is represented by the random read benchmarks and seek latency. on those scenarios every ssd will be an order of magnitude faster than any hdd.
you would feel and measure a huge difference in real world performance over a painful usb hdd. which can be prone to connection issues, causing all sorts of problems.
i’d probably leave it for easy distro-hopping with if you are new to linux and enjoy messing with it.
I don’t know what most of those numbers mean but most of them are 0 and the overall assessment says “Disk is OK”, so I guess it wasn’t used much in the past two years. “program-fail-count-total” has a value of 94669670143499 but I’m not sure if that’s actually bad or not because “program-fail-count” is 0.
Also, as I stated before, I’m still going to prioritize my slower hard drives so I’m not stuck with them if the SSD fails before I can buy a faster drive.
ssds are hardy even if you don’t take good care of them. i’ve used a few for a decade and they still have 90% of their lifetime writes.
format it 10% smaller than its capacity, get updated firmware, don’t let it get too hot, avoid hitting swap and it’s lasting you long. maybe use power saving modes if you are really worried.
You’re already booting your Linux Mint just fine with the GRUB, right? Assuming you won’t be changing your drives, all you’d need to do is nuke the Windows partition and update your GRUB. You can then reuse that partition for something else. Merging that partition would be time consuming and the devs have said to be risky, but it can be done with a LiveUSB, and I haven’t had any problem myself aside having to wait some time.
I just realized that my post is missing context if you only read just this post and not the one I linked to in the post. I have Linux installed on an external hard drive and Windows was installed to the SSD which is in the laptop. I’ve added this information to the post but I don’t need help with this anymore. I’ve already removed Windows from the SSD and have reformatted it to ext4 so I can run games from it.
In my opinion, you’re better off backing up your data, then nuking the drive, and installing the standalone Linux distro.
I didn’t need to do this. I never used Windows on this computer, so I didn’t have data to backup. I’ve already removed Windows from the SSD and reformatted it. I’m also keeping Linux Mint installed on the external hard drive because it runs fine from the external hard drive and I just want to run games from the SSD.
No. Backup your Linux data then reinstall and tell the installer to use the whole drive for Linux.
Why?
Nope grub will remove the entry next kernel update automatically
Okay thanks. I wasn’t sure if it would freak out at boot or something due to the missing OS.
If you want to remove the Windows entry immediately after deleting Windows, you can run this in terminal:
sudo update-grubJust remember to backup important files and enjoy the reclaimed free space
I didn’t need to. On top of the fact that I’ve never used Windows on this computer and I have Linux Mint installed on an external hard drive, the Windows installation needed to be repaired as my laptop’s CMOS battery died a while back and it made both Linux Mint and Windows 10 unbootable. I was able to repair Linux Mint’s installation through the LiveCD but, while I do know how to because I’ve done it on other computers, I never saw a reason to repair Windows as well and originally intended to wait until I got a new PC.
Fair note: A lot of these comments are under the assumption you are using the os_prober feature in grub to detect the windows install. While this is usually the case, if you have ever supplied a manual entry for windows in /etc/grub.d to specify where your windows install is (I was forced to do this because os_prober refused to see my windows system after recreating my EFI partition), you will need to delete that entry again in order for the windows option to disappear on grub.
It would still boot your Linux mint, but you would have a windows entry in the boot menu that didn’t go anywhere.
That’s not a problem for me. I’ve never had to manually add an OS to Grub before.
Grub should be able to boot mint fine, just know where grub is installed and which disk boots the system before formatting anything. To test, unplug the windows disk and see what happens
I already checked the other day, it’s on my external hard drive. Also, I’ve already removed Windows from the internal hard drive and reformatted it, so I don’t need help with this anymore.
You don’t need to do anything, it’ll work without Windows, and grub should auto update with your distro when you do a major update (such as Kernel update)
You might want to manually update grub to remove the Windows entry just to keep it tidy. On mint it’s as simple as:
sudo update-grub
It’ll scan your installed kernels and other OS. If windows is gone, it will no longer be detected and disappear from the boot list after running this.
If you’ve set up a default OS at boot (like Windows) you might want to update the grub config files. Thats as simple as editing /etc/default/grub and setting:
GRUB_DEFAULT=0
Where 0 is the first boot entry.
You can also use:
GRUB_DEFAULT=“saved”
which will remember the last selected item and boot that. Bit redundant if you’re going down to 1 OS.
I’m wanting to do the same thing, except windows is on my m2 drive and I want to migrate Linux there from my slower SSD. Does anyone have a guide or best practice for that? Gparted is scary.
I’d imagine that you can just clone your slower SSD and copy it over to your M2 drive but I’ve never cloned a hard drive before, so I’m probably not the best person to be asking. It might be best to create a new post for this, it’ll get seen by more people that way.
You can clone it with clonezilla, or with
ddif you’re feeling particularly ballsy.If your boot sectors are on the m.2 and you clone to it then you’ll overwrite them though, which is no bueno; and I’m not entirely sure how to fix that, but I’m sure there is a way.
EDIT: You can use
grub-installto do it, from a live USB.I’d make a full clone of your SSD to a third drive (external?) and then try adding boot sectors to your SSD, then set it as the boot device in your BIOS/UEFI. If it boots successfully, you’re good to clone it to the m.2. If not, restore that backup and do some googling! (Hell, I’d do it anyway just to verify my advice…)
If this is meant for the other user, you replied to the wrong comment.
If you meant to respond to me, I don’t need this. I’ve already removed Windows from the hard drive and I plan on using either Tiny10 or Tiny11 on this computer when I get a new computer to run Linux on in the future.
Yeah, fair enough. There’s plenty of info on dual booting, but not so much when you’re ready to send windows to the shredder!
Remember to back up everything before resizing your partitions. It’s so easy to lose all your data when you do that.
Didn’t need to. On top of the fact that I’ve never used Windows on this computer and I have Linux Mint installed on an external hard drive, the Windows installation needed to be repaired as my laptop’s CMOS battery died a while back and it made both Linux Mint and Windows 10 unbootable. I was able to repair Linux Mint’s installation through the LiveCD but, while I do know how to because I’ve done it on other computers, I never saw a reason to repair Windows as well and originally intended to wait until I got a new PC.
