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?

  • funkajunkEnglish
    6•7 months ago

    Depends on how the partitions are arranged. I’m assuming your Windows is first (going left to right), then probably your boot partition, then your main ext4, and then maybe a swap?

    Definitely shrink the windows partition using disk management, but then in Linux you can clone your boot partition to the beginning of the free space, delete the old boot, and then expand the ext4. You don’t HAVE to do it from a live environment, but it is the safest.

    I didn’t google much, but this seems about right: https://www.baeldung.com/linux/resize-partitions