Removing one OS without deleting another!

[sooty]

Hi, everyone

 

I have a small Asus netbook which is running a Debian 4 OS and also Linux Mint.

 

I would like to know how to remove Linux Mint and then update it to either a later version or Peppermint if that's possible whilst leaving

the factory installed OS in place and unaffected.?

 

Can anyone offer me some help and instruction please?

 

Many thanks.

 

PS Forgot to say it dual boots and I would want to do that afterwards as well although that may have been obvious anyway.

[KenB]

Hi sooty and welcome to ExTS

 

I know very little about the operating systems that you are using and one of our other moderators may be able to offer you better advice.

 

Your 2 Operating Systems should be on different partitions.

( If it was Windows we were dealing with I would be able to explain in detail ... )

 

You should be able to check this.

If this is the case - then the partition with Mint on it could be formatted and the new OS installed there.

 

Be aware - if you format a partition you will lose everything that is on that particular partition.

 

In Windows the Primary Partition is invariably C: - this is where the main OS is installed.

Not sure if this is the same for you.

 

Does this help at all ? - or do you need further advice ?

[sooty]

Hi, KenB

 

Thanks for responding.

 

Yes the two OS are on separate partitions as you rightly say do you know how I could delete or format the partition

for the OS that I want to update?

 

How would it work if it was Windows XP (say) and a Linux OS for example would the principle be the same in both cases?

 

Cheers.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi Sooty, like Ken I am also a lot in the dark and know nothing about the Linux distro's, however if it was a windows machine there is a disk management tool where you can see the disk and the partitions on it. It is in there that a partition can be reformatted.

Do you have access in the linux systems to similar?

One thing to be careful of, whichever partition you wish to format, do make sure it is not the partition you are actually running from. Also if there is data on that partition that you wish to keep, do make sure you store it somewhere else first.

 

Nev.

[KenB]

Hi sooty,

 

do you know how I could delete or format the partition

I would only be guessing ..

 

There is a Debian forum here that may be able to help you better than we can.

http://forums.debian.net/index.php?sid=3e630860742e5c621c97e9abfde3a42c

 

Try there first - if you get nowhere come back and I will send a message to one of our moderators who may be able to help.

 

Let us know how you get on.

[sooty]

Hi, KenB and PLastic NEV

 

In my machine it has two Linux packages but I have a friend who has XP and I have added Peppermint OS for her as well.

 

Unfortunately there is a problem with her laptop that means although video is fine using Peppermint there is no audio like

if you are using iplayer for example.

 

Updating the BIOS is possible but highly risky apparently so currently she is using XP just for watching iplayer or Youtube

and Peppermint for everything else as it's much quicker than XP.

 

XP also has one or two error messages when it boots showing it can't find this or that file (DLL files I think) is it possible

to repair XP using her recovery disc do you think. I don't want to have to re-install XP from scratch for obvious reasons.

 

It doesn't matter if Peppermint is also deleted at the same time as I can re-install it easily afterwards.

 

Regards.

 

Doug.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi Doug,

Your friends problem should really be a new thread then we don't get confused as to which machine we are dealing with.

However, for now, if all you have for the XP side of it is the recovery disk, I am afraid a repair is not possible with that, only a full reinstall, which will of course wipe that partition. It needs a full Microsoft XP disk to do an XP repair, recovery disks will not.

 

Nev.

[sooty]

Hi Doug,

Your friends problem should really be a new thread then we don't get confused as to which machine we are dealing with.

However, for now, if all you have for the XP side of it is the recovery disk, I am afraid a repair is not possible with that, only a full reinstall, which will of course wipe that partition. It needs a full Microsoft XP disk to do an XP repair, recovery disks will not.

 

Nev.

 

Hi, Nev

 

Yes point taken apologies.

 

So with the recovery disk it's a clean install then which means also installing 3 lots of service packs which is what I

wanted to avoid.

 

I'm sure she can live with it for the time being especially as XP is not the future anyway.

 

Regards,

 

Doug.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi again Doug, no problem for now, you are of course right about XP, it has run its course and to be honest she may be better off either buying a new computer with either Windows 7 or 8 on it, or doing the same as you and running two different flavours of Linux and removing the XP altogether, though whichever way she goes should back up all data, documents, pictures, music, etc preferably on an external hard drive so it isn't lost in whatever move she makes.

 

Nev.