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Should I use Windows built-in shrink feature to move partition space to another partition? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I have dual boot Win10 and Linux (manjaro), and I want to shrink my NTFS C:\ partition to free up space in my ext4 root partition on the same physical drive.

I keep reading online that NTFS partitioning is best handled by Windows itself. However, Windows cannot partition ext4, so I thought I'd use a live GParted session for the ext4 extending part only.

So why not shrink my C:\ partition IN WINDOWS, obtain my unallocated space, then boot into live GParted, and use the unallocated space to extend my ext4 root.

This, or do everything from GParted in one go? What has the best chance of success?

I could also install GParted on my running Linux distro, and do the extending from there. But I feel like GParted live would somehow be... better?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I thought so too, but apparently you can. I saw people on youtube do it on their active C partition

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Can confirm that this (should) work, done it multiple times.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Huh, they must have changed that at some point. Last time I checked (which was probably many years ago at this point) they didn't support it. I've just always used tools like gparted because I got used to them.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It's kind of hit or miss. Depending on how full the partition is and how exactly the data is arranged, windows may not be able to shrink even a non-boot partition.

The built-in partition manager doesn't seem to be capable of rearranging anything, so you kind of just have to rely on luck for the shrink operation to be possible.

Hence why third party tools like easus are still in business on the windows side.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Defragging works for that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I seem to remember disabling hibernation and swapfile, then defragging, seemed to significantly increase the chances of success shrinking an active partition.

(Re-enable hibernation/swap after the shrink operation is finished.)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

But is that still recommended on an ssd? Defragging for higher success of shrinking an active partition?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Definitely don't defrag regularly because, yes, it will wear out the SSD. However, defragging once will move the files into a contiguous chunk of the partition and allow you greater success at shrinking it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

weirdly enough I feel the same. Maybe those were the WinXP times

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Had to do this on Win11, it worked.