Ubuntu – Replacing Mint with Ubuntu on a Dual Boot Laptop

dual-bootinstallation

My laptop currently has:

  • sda1
  • sda2 – Windows 7
  • sda5 – Linux Mint
  • sda6 – Linux Swap
  • sda3 – A data partition

I'm looking to erase the Mint installation and put Ubuntu down in its place without disrupting my Windows or data partitions.

I'm assuming that the way forward is to choose the 'Something else' installation type, but I'm taking myself round in circles trying to work out the device for the boot loader installation as it's unclear where to define the root file system.

I suspect the answer may be quite obvious but I'm being a bit dense.

Best Answer

You are on the right track.

Boot the Ubuntu liveDVD or liveUSB, during installation choose the something else option, select the Mint partition as your / mount point and select it for formatting to erase Mint. Select your current Swap partition to stay as swap (might be already selected, but it's better to check) and go ahead.

Ubuntu will replace Grub and you shouldn't have problems with Windows or data. However, since this is a major operation, I would recommend doing a backup to an external drive.

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