Uninstalling Ubuntu 12.04.2 or expanding its partition

Question

I currently have Ubuntu dual-booted on my windows 7 laptop. I installed Ubuntu 12.04.2 via the windows installer and I only allocated 18GB for its partition. I still want to use Ubuntu but I want it on a larger partition so I would like to either delete the partition it's currently using and reinstall Ubuntu with a larger partition (around 100GB or so). OR if there's a way I can actually expand the partition it's on that would be great since I wouldn't have to start all over again.

Answer 1

There are two different techniques for resizing the Ubuntu partition in Wubi:

1. Resize and Duplicate Wubi Disk - This is not strictly a resize, but rather a duplication to a new virtual disk. This has the benefit in that it doesn't modify your current root.disk, and also leaves a backup. On the downside, if you want to go from a 7GB Wubi install to a 10GB Wubi install, you need a full 10GB of free space, as well as enough free space for Windows to operate (so may not be ideal if you are low on space). This technique must be run from within the booted Wubi install.¹

2. In-place Resize of Wubi virtual disk This method is a true resize of the virtual disk (root.disk), and must be performed from an Ubuntu live CD. This is very fast, and can also make better use of the available space on the host partition than the alternate method, which duplicates the virtual disk.²

The step-by-step illustrated instructions for resizing the Ubuntu Wubi partition using each of these two techniques are available at the two Ubuntu Documentation wikis which I have referenced in the following two footnotes.

¹_{Source: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ResizeandDuplicateWubiDisk}
²_{Source: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ResizeWubiDisk}

Answer 2

Yes you can do that. Read this properly.