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Was wondering how I could shrink my Windows partition on my dual boot setup, considering I no longer need much space for it. I've heard of gparted, not sure if that is fit for the job.

Thanks!

bross
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3 Answers3

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First off, shrinking the windows partition from ubuntu can lead to corrupted data, loss of said data, and inability to boot from the shrunk partition. Back up any data you do not want to lose and continue.

My recommendation is to shrink the windows partition from the windows itself. Should that not be possible, for whatever reason,

Let me state this again: THIS IS NOT A GOOD IDEA. IT IS VERY EASY TO DESTROY DATA AND CORRUPT THE PARTITION BEING SHRUNK! BACK UP YOUR FILES BEFORE ATTEMPTING THIS!

But the correct tool to use on Ubuntu 13.10 and back is Gparted. On Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, Gparted is not installed by default, but can be found in the Software Center. Install Gparted (or make sure it is installed), and continue

Again, DOING THIS MAY CORRUPT DATA OR BREAK THE PARTITION! MAKE SURE YOU BACK UP YOUR FILES FIRST!

All you need to do is unmount the disk and resize the partition, then save the changes. Then, expand the Ubuntu partition to fill the new space. Make sure you leave extra space on the partition you are shrinking, or else things are going to get ugly.

Azulflame
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    Backups are indeed a good thing, but like insurance, you don't understand the value until it is too late.. – Scott Goodgame May 18 '14 at 02:50
  • I had backups, or so I thought. Cue hard drive crash, server crash, and short deadlines. Turns out that my dad bought a 2Tb automatic backup system, without telling me. That's what saved me. So make sure you keep a backup for your backup! – Azulflame May 18 '14 at 02:55
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Its not a good idea to shrink Windows C: partition from Ubuntu. Your windows might have some issues and might not boot after. Its better to shrink it in windows. You can use Disk managment or softwares like Mini tool partition wizard.

Sudheer
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  1. Download ubuntu 14.04 and create a live usb.
  2. Boot to a live desktop and run gparted.
  3. You will see a window with your your drive displayed as a bar graph with different colors in it. click on them and find the NTFS one.
  4. Hit the Delete key if you want to delete windows, otherwise resize it to whatever you want to. (if resizing windows, boot to it first and uninstall stuff, move media files off it and defrag)
  5. Go to edit and click apply all operations... be VERY sure it is your NTFS windows partition.
  6. After it is done, you will be able to resize the ubuntu partition, just resize it, apply operations, then go have a coffee or something because it might be a little while.
  7. After all that is done, shutdown/reboot and you should be good.
Scott Goodgame
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