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I have a plan I want to run by you Gurus before executing it. I want to boot into Windows, use Gparted to shrink the partition, reboot into Windows to ensure data and disk integrity and then boot back into Ubuntu and use the disk tool to expand my Ubuntu partition to the difference. I have already done a backup in case it goes south. Any pointers or opinions on the approach are most welcome!

*UPDATE: The solution that I put together (from all your responses, thank you) that finally worked and was the most painless: 0. (Optional? Point of Information...) Upgraded Ubuntu to latest Groovy Gorilla.

  1. Booted to Windows 10 Pro latest build. Right click Start Menu. Select Disk Management. Select windows volume and select resize. The tool automatically calculated the maximum available space that could be created. It was far less than the larger number I had put in trying to use windows diskpart admin cmd and got an error. (Without digging further, I assume these results are due to the Shadow copy, and other immovable file systems others have commented on here.) I was then able to safely shrink the windows volume to the min allowed.
  2. Rebooted, selected Windows from Grub. Booted successfully into Windows and confirmed all was weli there. Shut down computer.
  3. Inserted Ubuntu Live USB. Rebooted to computer Boot menu using F12 and booted into USB stick. Selected the 'Try Ubuntu' option. Opened Gparted application. Selected and unmounted my 200GB Ubuntu partition. Selected resize and entered the desired new size to reflect absorbing the new empty ~75GB volume. Click apply, gparted successfully enlarged the Ubuntu volume. Powered off to restart and followed prompts when to remove USB Live stick.
  4. Rebooted into Ubuntu. Ubuntu Groovy Gorilla successfully booted.

CONCLUSION: It is worth noting that when I tried to do this all from the USB Live stick before this latest effort, there were errors. When I tried to do this using windows diskpart from cmd it threw errors. I think that is because I was just putting in a size that the system would not allow, as stated by others. So it seems best to do this all by letting Windows handle windows and then using the USB live Gparted to handle Ubuntu. Yes, there may be some more technical efforts like disabling windows functions at the command line that might have allowed me to squeeze more space out of the windows volume, but for safe, GUI effort I hope this is helpful to others as well. Cheers!

Daniel Grindstaff
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  • FYI: Ubuntu uses yy releases only for specialist snap based releases for IoT appliances/devices or cloud based use (having done so since 2016). Main releases use yy.mm such as used by server & desktops releases, and are a different product (yy.mm releases are more powerful) – guiverc Nov 16 '20 at 12:22
  • Would use Windows tools to shrink Windows partition, they know windows better. – crip659 Nov 16 '20 at 12:22
  • @crip659 that is exactly what I am leary of and why I did not go with the resizing of the partitions from the live usb idea after reviewing the additional 4 suggested answers. (No offense...guys) I definitely don't want to rebuild windows again ;) – Daniel Grindstaff Nov 16 '20 at 12:26
  • It would be more helpful if you put your updated solution as an answer to help future readers. Glad you found an answer to your issue! – Kevin Bowen Nov 23 '20 at 04:24
  • Noted @KevinBowen thank you, will do in the future. – Daniel Grindstaff Nov 23 '20 at 10:29

1 Answers1

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Create a Ubuntu LIVE CD, boot into it, run gparted on the live cd, shrink windows partition and expand linux partition, now you are done

Canal PC
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  • Too sweet! How about booting into a LIVE USB? Is there that alternative? I have a read/write burner drive but no CD-RWs. Thanks! – Daniel Grindstaff Nov 16 '20 at 11:52
  • umm, is all I know, and you can't resize partitions if you run Ubuntu, get a pirated version of EASEUS Partition Master and try if you want, but It's not my responsability and this can make ubuntu no longer boot (EASEUS only works on windows) – Canal PC Nov 16 '20 at 11:57
  • Ok, Fair enough, I was going to go with the USB stick I booted to to install Ubuntu. Thanks or the tip! – Daniel Grindstaff Nov 16 '20 at 11:59
  • Live CD/DVD is the same as live USB. Ubuntu has to be done from one or the other. Ubuntu will not fit on a CD anymore. – crip659 Nov 16 '20 at 12:24