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I have a dual-boot laptop (initially only Ubuntu and now it is Windows with 186Gb partition and Ubuntu with 50Gb). I would like to remove the Ubuntu partition to make space for windows but both the Ubuntu and Windows partition show as "primary partition".

I would like to avoid the case here where they deleted a primary partition and cannot boot the laptop anymore.

Drive partitions

DiskGenius shows the FAT32 in the Ubuntu partition of 50.8Gb, which makes sense as the laptop was initially only Ubuntu. I just want to get more space for Windows, so can I just delete in DiskGenius the Logical partition 5 of 50.3Gb? Is it possible to add it to the Windows one Local Disc C:? That's really what I aim to do.

DiskGenius

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    "I am puzzled as I have 2 primary partitions" – In fact you have exactly 4 primary partitions. At the bottom of the window there should be a legend that says the dark blue color means "primary partition".
    – Kamil Maciorowski
    Commented Apr 28 at 18:09
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    It seems you have a mix of UEFI/Legacy installations as commented below the answer. Therefore Windows MAY NOT boot independently. That being the case, once you remove the Ubuntu partitions, Windows will NOT boot. Make sure you prepare Windows installation media and test it before committing to any of the changes you want to do, you'll need it to repair boot.
    – ChanganAuto
    Commented Apr 28 at 20:22
  • Yes @ChanganAuto, initially it only had Ubuntu, then Windows and Windows is loading first but Ubuntu (or related items) may still be needed to boot. Thanks for the heads up!
    – User981636
    Commented Apr 29 at 10:04

1 Answer 1

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You might get more information from another tool, such as DiskGenius, shown below.

DiskGenius information

Notice the only FAT32 partition on the disk shown above is marked ESP(1). ESP or EFI ((Extensible Firmware Interface). During the boot process, "UEFI firmware loads files stored on the ESP to start operating systems." That partition is essential, and is not easily moved or modified.

Likely, the third (starting from 0) partition on your drive, with unlabeled file system, is ~50 GB ext4, being used by Ubuntu. However, because the FAT32 partition before it contains EFI data, removing Ubuntu would not allow the 50 GB of drive space to be added back to Windows directly. It could be formatted NTFS and used as another drive, but Windows main drive space should be contiguous.

It appears that the drive is only 256 GB or so, which is just enough room for Windows. The best way to utilize all of it for the OS might be to save data (make a disk image, for safety!), remove all partitions, and reinstall Windows de novo. Yes, all software would need to be reinstalled. See this answer for more details.

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    While UEFI WBM can practically boot Windows on an MBR drive, I'm pretty sure this isn't the case here. More/st likely it is a UEFI/CSM-mixed dual-boot setup. (And even if an alternative set of WBM was installed to this assumed-ESP, the original set is likely still intact, since the "Active" System Reserved partition is still there.) So unless it is actually a pure CSM/BIOS setup, and the MBR was written with BIOS grub's boot code or so, the OP can probably even just delete the unwanted partitions from within the Ubuntu installation with fdisk, reboot, and voila.)
    – Tom Yan
    Commented Apr 28 at 19:53
  • I run the DiskGenius, it seems the FAT32 is in the Ubuntu partition of 50.8Gb (see updated post). Can I just delete the Ubuntu partition and keeping the 512Mb of the 50.8Gb? And move the 50.3Gb Ubuntu partition to C:?
    – User981636
    Commented Apr 29 at 19:00
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    The 50.8 GB (not Gb) partition is ext4 and can be deleted, and combined with the 512 MB (not Mb) partition, without much worry. You will also have to change booting so that grub will no longer show the deleted Ubuntu option. [BTW, "b" for bit, 1/8 "B", byte.]
    – DrMoishe Pippik
    Commented Apr 29 at 19:44
  • But I aim to add the 50.3GB (ext4) to the C drive of 186GB, not to the 512MB FAT32. Is that possible if I just delete the 50.3GB?
    – User981636
    Commented Apr 29 at 20:52

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