Help Partitioning Hard Drive

[ssjlance]

Well, after much trial and error, I have most things I need running on Linux without much of a problem. There is one problem, though, and its that when I first installed Linux, I partitioned my drive so I could use Windows for things I couldn't figure out on Linux. However, I have Linux running at the point where I no longer need Windows. Here's the problem; I can't figure out how to get rid of the Windows partition. I used GParted on my simplyMEPIS cd before installing, and from what I've figured out, it can't get rid of some of the files due to read/write permissions, or something along those lines. Thanks so much in advance. Also, if there's any info I need to supply, just go ahead and ask, and I'll supply it if I can.

[devils casper]

Hi ssjlance,

Welcome to the LinuxForums.

I used GParted on my simplyMEPIS cd before installing, and from what I've figured out, it can't get rid of some of the files due to read/write permissions, or something along those lines.

you must be root to delete partition and partition should not be mounted. i suggest you to delete Partition using GParted LiveCD.
remove entries of Windows Partition(s) from /etc/fstab file before deleting.

post the output of fdisk -l command and contents of /etc/fstab file.

[ssjlance]

Thank you so much. Drive is unmounted and GParted is scanning devices. Also, does GParted always take a really long time to scan all devices?

[devils casper]

does GParted always take a really long time to scan all devices?

depends on Harddisk size. it should not take more than 5-60 secs.

[ssjlance]

8 gigs, takes a little over 2 minutes.

[devils casper]

hmm... thats strange... do let us know how it goes.

[ssjlance]

Well, I open GParted and it takes 2 minutes to finish scanning. Thats about it. Also, after it loads, should I delete the Windows partition or format it so that I can use it with Linux?

[devils casper]

yes. delete Windows partition and format it in whatever filesystem you want to use. dont forget to remove partition entries from /etc/fstab file as i suggested earlier.

[ssjlance]

I looked, and that dir doesn't exist. Could that just be a difference between distributions?

[devils casper]

I looked, and that dir doesn't exist. Could that just be a difference between distributions?

it could be. some distros detect Windows Partitions during installation and adds partition entries in /etc/fstab file to automount partitions at boot up.
we usually add entries manually to share data.
if there is no entry, you are good to go.