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I am looking to install Ubuntu and remove windows, it very easy for me to do the with a live CD (boot-able SD Card). But, I want to keep all of my files that was made when i had windows in Ubuntu, use windows application in WINE that are not available for Ubuntu. I do not have a backup drive.

I currently own a HP Probook 4540s - Core i3-3110m - 8 GB or RAM - 500 GB hard drive.

The drive is NTFS, and I am aware to need to format it to at ext3/ext4. So it this able to be accomplish, if so, how?

David Foerster
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weezle1234
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    " I do not have a backup drive" So get one? – xangua Feb 19 '15 at 03:53
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    How much space does your personal data occupy? If it's less than half the total drive capacity, this can be done without additional storage, but I wouldn't recommend it because of possible file system resizing errors, unless your data is worth less than a backup drive. – David Foerster Feb 19 '15 at 14:36
  • From the title it seems that you want to keep the data created within Windows. From the text, it seems you have an WUBI install within Windows and you want to keep the data created in the WUBI install. These two have different implications. Please edit your question and clarify if you want either or both. If you are just concerned about data in WUBI install, see http://askubuntu.com/questions/635/how-to-convert-wubi-install-into-regular-install However, backups are a must. – user68186 Feb 19 '15 at 16:21
  • @user68186: From where do you get, that OP has installed Ubuntu at all and in particular with Wubi? – David Foerster Feb 19 '15 at 19:34
  • @DavidFoerster Refer to the second sentence, "But, I want...when I had Windows in Ubuntu, (emphasis mine)..." That seems like WUBI to me. OP also mentions WINE in the same sentence. It is possible I am reading it wrong or OP placed the comma in the wrong place. – user68186 Feb 19 '15 at 19:36
  • @user68186: Good catch! I thought those parts belong to different sentences and OP just forgot some punctuation. – David Foerster Feb 19 '15 at 21:55

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Add a separate partition. It's how I did it when switching from Ubuntu to Mint.

Essentially you would use gparted (inside the liveCD) and resize your Windows partition to free up disk space. You can then create an additional partition which it formatted in a Windows recognizable format (NTFS is fine). When you restart Windows, you will have an additional drive where you can move your stuff into. It's VERY risky though as anything could go wrong while doing this. Once you've moved all your stuff into the additional partition from Windows, you can then proceed to install Linux on the Windows partition. DO NOT do an entire disk installation of Linux as this will remove the partition with the files in it.

KI4JGT
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I just did this yesterday on my wifes laptop. Unfortunately, you need something to back up your data from windows. An external hard drive, thumbdrive, or burn some cds or dvds. This is what I did: boot clonezilla live cd and do a disk to disk clone of your windows drive. By doing disk to disk vs disk to image, you can mount the drive in linux and copy any files over to linux. Once your image is made and verified, install ubuntu having it replace windows. Now you should be able to mount the external drive and copy over anything you need. The whole process took a few hours, and ubuntu is so much quicker and uses up much less space than a windows install. You could pick up an external drive pretty cheap, but if you have any from older machines buy an enclosure or ide/sata to usb cable from Amazon.