Delete Or Merge Unallocated Space

[magi]

hello all,

This one is a little different. I did a clean install of windows 10 followed by Ubuntu. All fine. Dual Boot ok. ubuntu partitions on ssd drive & windows on sata HDD. A few days later intermittant power surges and cuts trashed win 10. It could not be fixed by recovery or repair so I had to reinstall. It dual boots fine except that ubuntu will only mount windows as read only.
The problem is a 500mb unallocated partition at the beginning of the NTFS /C partition. because of this Ubuntu thinks that the windows partition is not ready and will therefore mount it in read only.
That 500mb partition was not there during the first dual installations so all worked fine. No idea where it came from during the 2nd installation.
Anyway I tried creating a simple volumn in the unallocated space, and asigning a drive letter which I hoped would allow me to delete the partition totally but no good. As far as I can tell the windows disk manager only pemits extending a partition that is behind the /C volumn in order to prevent messing up the mbr. I have 318GB of unallocated space in that position but all i want to do is get rid of the partition in front of the NTFS partition either by deletion or merging with the /C partition. Is it possible to move partitions please. I just wish I could pick it up and pop it in the 318Gb unallocated space or merge it with the /C partition.
There is no data to lose and losing the 500mb is no problem at all.
All suggestion , ideas, replies very welcome. Thanks. liking windows 10 a lot

 

[Regedit32]

Hi magi,

You could download and install the free version of Mini Tool Partition Wizard, then use its Extend feature to extend the C partition into that spare space you have (I assume you've made sure its not a Windows 10 Recovery partition.)

This tool has a built in Help Manual that shows you how to use extend.

Note: The free edition does not let all functions work; for example Merge will not work on the free download.

When the tool is open you can click on a partition then in the top tool bar click on Partition | explore to view its contents. That could be handy to make sure that free space you are talking about is truly free of data.

Note: You may need to change its Formatting too if the space you are borrowing is not in the same format as the partition you intend on extending.

Anyway, enough said: If you want to try it out you can go to their Home page here:

https://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html

To get to the free download, click on the Download tab at top of page, then next to Free Edition on page that opens click either of the download options you want CNET or Local download.

Regards,

Regedit32

 

[magi]

Thanks I will give it a go. The worst that can happen is having to reinstall windows. I have not yet input my back ups so no big problems there.
If it doesnt work Im fairly sure that I should be able to put together a code to send ubuntu boot direct to that partition.
Yes I can format the unallocated space as ntfs before trying to move it . It would be easier to move or extent the windows partition to the unallocated space but I doubt that windows boot manager will let that happen

Thanks for the link and the instructions. Could be fun. Have uploaded a photo of the drives in question
cheers

 

[davehc]

I would suggest that the reserve partition is, indeed, the hidden MBR/boot partition, which is created automatically in Windows 10. I am sure that it was there initially, but (I have no Linux experience) somehow Linux "unhid" it. Removing it could make the os unbootable.

As you seem to have no problem with reinstalling, frankly, that is where I would start..

This is the best method I have found to be rid of it. I have had a couple of failures, working through the process.

https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=409

The usual advice. Make an image of you entire computer, before proceeding. At worst, you can put the whol lot back again.

 

[magi]

Thanks reg and thanks for the links. Found the article very interesting but it would probably take me more time to fully understand and implement it than it would to re-install windows. I have been advised that if I install windows into a single partition it will not demand system reserved space.
LInux sees everything so if there were boot files in the free space ubuntu would name it system reserved.
although windows chooses not to "see" linux I can access windows directly from linux to edit files, save files from ubuntu to windows, and vice versa and most other things.
Give it a go. Its totally free and can be "tried" from a live CD without installing or changing your existing system in any way. It you want something very windows like, try Zorin. It includes the "wine" app., that allows one to use most apps and games installed on windows. Linux Questions Forum, list the most popular distros and all 300 + of them with a little description and also the d/l mirrors. Must be d/l as an iso dvd.

Cheers Thanks again