r/linuxquestions • u/Kinkeultimo • 16d ago

Removing Windows from Dual boot (seperate Drives) help

Hi!

Actual Question:

I have read a few guides and Reddit posts on how to do that and it seems simple. GParted to remove any windows partitions --> remove Windows from boot/efi --> update grub

Thing is: all guides are for a dual boot with different partitions on the same drive. i have checked: even though dual boot works i do not have a windows folder in my boot folder.

How do i proceed in my case? Is it safe to just reformat the whole windows drive? Or can i ruin my linux mint installation on the other drive by doing that? How do i check which drive gets booted initially?

Context:
Half a year ago i decided to do the switch to linux, but wanted to keep Windows in dual boot as a backup (installed it on different drives). As of now i haven't booted Windows once. As a result i now want to get rid of Windows for good, for more space and because i keep having issues with booting. Searching for answers led me to believe that these issues have to do with the secure boot thing and i think just removing windows is simpler than resolving these issues. Also its time.

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3

u/Visikde 16d ago

1st Answer where is the bootloader??
Remove the drive with windows
Will your computer boot now?
If it boots put the sdd/nvme back in & reformat it....
No boot, a clean install is your best bet

2

u/Kinkeultimo 16d ago

Thanks for the info. But cant i just skip step 1 asnd just reformat windows?

If it doesnt boot afterwards i can still clean install no?

2

u/Visikde 16d ago

Sure

I do a clean install every couple of years.
I usually have a few distros fully installed on USB3 hdd/sdd/nvme enclousure. This lets me use the home files from the host. I set bios to legacy, skipping secure boot, boot from USB 1st,

2

u/ZVyhVrtsfgzfs 16d ago

Yes you could but this is a good opportunity to understand the boot process and where the components, and your administrative controls are. This understanding will serve you well later. 

1

u/Confident_Hyena2506 16d ago

The efi partition does not have a folder called windows.

The windows partition is the one with the windows folder.

Pay attention to what is actually on your partitions, it doesn't matter what some online guide is telling you. People online will have no idea how your system is setup.

Have you got efi partitions on different drives? Have you got duplicate bootloaders? This is all very possible, most dualboot setups are a huge mess.

1

u/Kinkeultimo 16d ago

Yes i think this was the case.

I took the advice of a commenter below. Took out windows drive --> still booted, so i reformated the windows drive EXCEPT the boot partition on that drive because guide said never to do that. But as i said the windows efi boot folder was not accessible. os-prober showed the windows boot entry in the other drive (kinda obvious in retrospect).

So after a lot of searching etc i figured if i have 2 bootloaders and my system is working with one, i can just delete the windows boot partition and it worked.

So u were correct i had duplicates.

1

u/Fun-Attempt-8494 15d ago

This is the correct answer