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I have a 64bit laptop running win 8 on my main partition and Ubuntu on another. My motherboard is UEFI if that makes a difference and here is my problem...

The current Ubuntu install is 32-bit. Since there is no way to "upgrade" to 64-bit, how would I go about uninstalling Ubuntu (without breaking my windows partition) so I can then re-install? Easiest methods would be appreciated but anything would be great.

chaskes
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Jared
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  • You might want to check this page. http://askubuntu.com/questions/5018/is-it-possible-to-upgrade-from-a-32bit-to-a-64bit-installation Don't know how messing with your ubuntu distribution can mess with windows 8. If your bootloader was just grub 2, it can be fixed easier. I'm not familiar with uefi to know what the effects would be... – Nil Apr 18 '13 at 03:29

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Deleting the Ubuntu partitions and re-installing using the 64-bit Ubuntu installer should do the trick. It should also be possible to install the 64-bit Ubuntu directly over the old Ubuntu partitions. I don't have step-by-step instructions handy for either approach, since I don't recall every detail of the Ubuntu installer. The details of deleting partitions will also depend on the tool you use (GParted, parted, gdisk, etc.).

One caveat: If you're booting Windows in EFI mode (as is almost certainly the case if your computer came with Windows pre-installed), you probably want to do an EFI-mode installation of Ubuntu. You should check for an EFI-mode boot of the Ubuntu installation medium by looking for the directory /sys/firmware/efi. If it's present, you've booted in EFI mode. If it's absent, you've probably booted in BIOS/CSM/legacy mode. In the latter case, you should fiddle with your firmware settings and/or with your boot-time options to get the installer to boot in EFI mode. Note also that EFI-mode installations can still be trouble-prone because of buggy EFI implementations and less mature EFI support in Ubuntu. The number of potential problems is huge, which makes it impractical to describe all the possible problems; but fortunately, each such problem is rare, so there's a good chance you'll get through the process without incident. If you have problems, you'll just have to do a Web search or seek help on your specific problem. (IMHO, a forum is better for solving such problems than a site like this one, which is best for answering general questions that apply to many people.)

For additional detailed instructions, see UEFI in the Community Help.

chaskes
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Rod Smith
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click else(the choice at the bottom when installation program asks you whether to upgrade) an then click next. when it displays the partition table, choose the partition "/", "/home"(if there is one) and other ubuntu partition if you want and then edit them to make them serve as what they did previously (e.g. edit "/" then choose "ext4" option and finally choose "/" option before clicking yes). If you want to uninstall ubuntu i386, tick "format" box, if not,just click next.

the installation program will help you do the rest of things.

good luck

lingyx
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this is the easiest yet most efficient way,

make a 64bit version of ubuntu bootable usb and boot it.

then choose install and there should be an option asking you if you would like to replace ubuntu 32bit with 64bit

user150849
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