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How does GParted shrink drives?

us flag

I want to use GParted live bootable USB to shrink beginning of the main OS drive. Does anyone know if this process actually moves the whole data to the right, or only the part that is shrunk?

Terrance avatar
id flag
If you're shrinking from the beginning of the drive it does move the data. However, doing this to a boot drive could render it unbootable as some boot files do not like to be moved once they are in location.
K2osha avatar
us flag
This is not an EFI partition, but Windows OS. Does it move all the data? For example If I have a partition of 400GB with 300GB used space, does shrinking 50GB at the beginning move this 50GB to the end, or it moves whole 300GB, by 50GB to the right?
Terrance avatar
id flag
No, it shifts all the data to the right. Shrinking from the end of the drive only takes from the free space and no data is moved so it is a much faster process. Shrinking from the beginning has to shift all the data so it can take a long time to do. Either way, messing with the size of a partition always has a data loss risk.
K2osha avatar
us flag
Alright, thank you very much for the suggestions!
Organic Marble avatar
us flag
I would not use gparted to operate on windows partitions. I had a bad experience with that - rendered an XP system unbootable. Use windows tools to operate on windows partitions.
oldfred avatar
cn flag
Also NTFS requires a chkdsk after resize, so you really need to use Windows tools & reboot Windows so chkdsk can be run. Also NTFS works best if 30% free. If only 10% free you just about cannot do a defrag as no working room, and system becomes really slow.
heynnema avatar
ru flag
Do NOT use `gparted` to manage NTFS partitions. Use the Windows `Disk Management` tools, or any of the third-party Windows utilities. Also, know that resizing the left side (beginning) of a bootable NTFS partition will almost certainly make it unbootable, and will require repair. And in your example, why would you try and reduce a 400G partition that has 300G used? Maybe tell use more about what you're REALLY trying to do.
K2osha avatar
us flag
First, thank you for comments. I have some problems with small sized EFI and MSR partitions, that's why I want to allocate some space from the main `C:` drive. The numbers I mentioned were just examples.
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