Which partitions should I delete after removing Ubuntu?

Question

My laptop has two disks: Disk 0 is SSD (Windows) and Disk 1 is HDD (Data). Then I created a partition (Partition 16 in the picture) to install Ubuntu in Disk 2.

A few days ago, I wanted to remove Ubuntu from my computer, so I cleaned the Partition 16. Now I need to reinstall Windows, I have cleaned the disk 0, but when I installed, there is an error:

We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing one. For more information, see the Setup log files.

I recognize that now there are 17 partitions in Disk 1. I think I could delete some of them, but I'm afraid that I would lost the data in Partition 1, 2 and 3. I'm so confused. And if I delete some of the partitions, can I install Windows successfully?

List of partitions in disk 1

Please help me. Thank you so much!

When you say you have cleaned disk 0, what exactly do you mean? It doesn’t look very clean to me! // Please review your question again, it seems you’re mixing 1-based and 0-based disk numbers. — Daniel B, May 17 '20 at 10:05
Are you trying to install Windows on Disk 0 Partition 4? Does the computer still boot into Windows? — harrymc, May 17 '20 at 10:12
@harrymc yes, i tried to install Windows on Disk 0 Partition 4. I can't select Next. It shows the error. — Hao Nguyen, May 17 '20 at 10:16
@harrymc Absolutely right, then I click Next, Windows Installer asked me to create new partitions, I accepted. 20 seconds later, an error is pop out the screen. "Windows cannot be installed to this hard disk space. The partition is an EFI system partition (esp)" — Hao Nguyen, May 17 '20 at 10:30
It's possible that the problem is actually on Disk 1. Remove some of these tiny partitions at its end to try again. — harrymc, May 18 '20 at 11:38
@harrymc i think like you, but I'm afraid that if i remove these partitions, my data could be damaged. Is it right? — Hao Nguyen, May 18 '20 at 16:04
You have multiple pairs of "System" and "Recovery" partitions. Choose one or more that are not the first or the last of their kind on the disk. Always take backups before partition work. — harrymc, May 18 '20 at 16:16
Has it worked this time? If yes, then I'll put up an answer/ — harrymc, May 19 '20 at 06:31
I haven't tried yet because I'm at work now. I will try as soon as I come home. — Hao Nguyen, May 19 '20 at 06:36
@harrymc thank you so much. I have deleted "System" partitions in disk 1 and successfully installed Windows 10 on my machine. Please put up your answer. — Hao Nguyen, May 20 '20 at 03:42

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered May 20 '20 at 06:48

It's possible that the problem is actually on Disk 1, where the installation is trying to reserve itself a small partition, but can't because of the number of small irreducible partitions that were created.

As you have multiple pairs of "System" and "Recovery" partitions, choose one or more on the disk, except for the first or the last of their kind, and remove them. This will create some small unallocated space on the disk.

Always take backups before partition work.

Thanks so much. I had already resolve the problem by deleting all "EFI System" partitions. — Hao Nguyen, May 20 '20 at 06:59

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered May 17 '20 at 10:34

Attempted answer, just considering PARTITIONS, not issues with e.g. gpt, efi and so on:

Boot any linux install media in "Testing" mode (at least Ubuntus has that),
open a terminal and
type lsblk -fs at the prompt

This will tell a bit about all visible disks and partitions.

I'd consider those that has filesystems differing from fat, vfat, and ntfs possibly be safe to remove in a process to clean a computer from Linux:en.

From what I see in the provided images I'd say that you have an excessive number of partitions - there is hardly any gain in that. Even with a multitude of virtual machines you would probably be better off with e.g. vmdk files.

Which partitions should I delete after removing Ubuntu?

2 Answers2