installationpartitioningwindowswindows-vista
I would like to remove Windows Vista from my notebook which is currently running a dual boot Windows Vista + Ubuntu and use Ubuntu as the only OS.
The notebook is unstable when running Windows Vista, because it shuts itself down without interaction. Ubuntu works flawless on it. I'm thinking to format the notebook. But, it is better for me to Ubuntu only without Windows Vista? Please advise.
One of the tools you will want to look into is GParted, which is a powerful partition manager for Linux.
Assuming you installed Windows before any of the Linux partitions, you will need to do some moving around to get things working the way you describe. The best way to do this is to boot from the Ubuntu LiveCD (which includes GParted) and run it from there. (The reason being that you cannot modify partitions that are currently active (In most cases, anyway).)
Once the tool is started, you will be able to see all of the partitions on your disk and manipulate them as you see fit.
Here is a screenshot of what the interface looks like:
Notice the keys next to the ext4 and linux-swap partitions. That indicates that those partitions cannot be modified because they are in use.
In your case, assuming that you have backed up everything of importance on the Windows partition, simply remove it (it will probably be the first partition, with the NTFS filesystem).
Now you can expand your Ubuntu partition to take up the space freed by removing the Windows partition, and you can add room for the Fedora partition in a similar way.
These instructions are only valid if you're not using a Wubi installation
ext* filesystem, you're wrong. A partition with the NTFS filesystem is more likely to be your windows partition)ext4 filesystemIf you're using Gnome Partition Manager, you will be offered to take the ownership of the partition. Otherwise, close the partition manager, mount the partition, open a terminal and run:
sudo chown "$USER": /media/name-of-your-partition
Since the windows partition is missing, GRUB's OS prober won't find it when detecting OSes. To remove the windows boot entry, open a terminal and run:
sudo update-grub
This assumes that GRUB is your bootloader which is always the case if you installed Ubuntu after windows 7.
If you've previously configured Ubuntu to auto-mount your Windows partition, you need to remove that. Edit the /etc/fstab file as root and remove the line regarding windows. Beware that you do not remove other lines as it may render your system unbootable which can be recovered with a Live CD only! Such a line may look like:
/dev/sda2 /media/windows fuseblk rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,blksize=4096 0 0
Best Answer
It is clear from all of the above that you do not need windows to run Ubuntu.
If you are happy to run only Ubuntu here is what I would do.
Back up any data/music/pictures you want either on a cd/pen drive/on the cloud
Note any passwords for sites you use and store on a pen drive if possible
Back up your emails and favourites from firefox/chrome etc
Download latest version of Ubuntu from Ubuntu
Test it works on your pc first if it is a newer version!
Select install Ubuntu
Select using Install using entire disk on the Allocate Drive Space page although yours will show windows and may be Ubuntu. Select the use entire disk
Once installed run some updates in your terminal to get it up to date..(you can also follow my reinstall guide I did here to sort other stuff out here I have to reinstall/install ubuntu so have a guide to remember
Stick your backed up data pictures and music back in and start enjoying your Ubuntu and forget about Windows :)