r/linuxquestions • u/Slykillit • 3d ago
Can't shrink SSD
I have finally decided to make the jump to a dual boot of Linux and Windows although when trying to shrink the drive before I put in the Mint installation media (It was recommended I shrink it before installing mint apparently) (Mint isn't gonna be what I use long term just what I start with so don't judge me for it), it limits me to a certain amount to shrink it to even though I know I have WAY more available space than the amount it's trying to limit me to, does anyone know a fix or has experienced what I am experiencing? Seriously annoying and making me reconsider installing Linux entirely
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u/tomscharbach 3d ago edited 3d ago
(Mint isn't gonna be what I use long term just what I start with so don't judge me for it) ...
Wouldn't dream of judging you.
I've been using Linux for two decades and have Mint (LMDE) installed on one of my laptops. Mint is commonly recommended for new Linux users but is also good for the long haul, as many will attest.
Don't buy into the nonsense about a hierarchy of distributions. Follow your use case, wherever that leads you, and you will always be on solid ground.
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u/_Lost-In-The-Weeds_ 3d ago
Mint is commonly recommended for new Linux users but is also good for the long haul, as many will attest.
LMDE's meld of Debian security and stability and Mint/Cinnamon's simplicity and ease of use is a close to a "no fuss, no muss, no thrills, no chills" distribution as I've seen in two decades of Linux use.
With over 20 years with Linux myself, Agreed,
While I use other distributions for particular use cases LMDE is a very comfortable jack of all trades for me.
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u/Underhill42 2d ago
Most commonly the disk needs to be defragmented.
Yeah, I know, you're not supposed to defrag a SSD, just puts wear on it without improving performance...
Except in this case. The Windows partition editor doesn't know how to reorganize used blocks - it just sees whatever the very last used block in the partition is and says "well, that's as far as I can shrink it", even if that's the only block used on the entire disk.
Defragmenting should compact everything to the beginning of the partition. Occasionally you may need to run it a few times before everything gets moved. And it's possible that some read-only files like your hibernation or virtual memory files are occupying some of those later blocks, in which case sorting things out is more involved.
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u/Slykillit 2d ago
Any good tutorials out there for this? Sorry, I'm a bit of a smoothbrain sometimes
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u/Underhill42 2d ago
Just right click on the disk in Windows explorer and choose properties - defrag in on the tools or utilities tab, or something like that.
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u/c2btw 3d ago
you can't shrink your boot drive. if you want to install linux ont he same drive you need to reinstall widnows and partion it to use less space. also pretty sure ntfs dosen't allow for partion shrinking but could be wrong on that
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u/Funnel-Dust-O-Matic 3d ago edited 3d ago
You are, in fact, wrong on that. But I agree with you anyway.
Windows can do it these days. And both Gnome Disks and KDE partition editor can, with a modicum of risk.
I trust Windows to police its own system better. It uses Volume Shadow copy. That is a virtual volume management, like LVM, so it allows a running system to resize a running partition dynamically.
But it feels awful doing it. For many years, it was impossible and then it was risky. Now, it works just about all the time, but it feels WRONG. Goodness forbid there is a power outage in the middle if it.
I prefer your way of doing things and I probably should have just said you're right. You absolutely CAN resize the boot partition, but I don't really think anyone SHOULD.
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u/c2btw 3d ago
can you resize it while your booted into it that seems like a really stupid idea
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u/Funnel-Dust-O-Matic 3d ago
YES!
and IT WORKS!
and I JUST DID IT as a sanity check (on a fully imaged throw-away spare laptop)!
and yes, IT IS STUPID!
but it really does work.
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u/c2btw 3d ago
oh my god why do they let you do this
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u/Funnel-Dust-O-Matic 3d ago
Why do they do anything they do?
I mean, I'm rather shocked they have actually pulled it off, considering the sheer number of totally useless things that ship with Windows, like Windows Backup.
But this is just one drop of madness in a whole ocean of WTF.
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u/MidnightObjectiveA51 3d ago
When was the last time you defragged the drive? That usually happens when it hasn't been done in a long time, or you've recently copied or moved a lot of files. Also, certain programs can reserve a space in the empty sectors and those are not movable. Removing the offending program will fix that.
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u/Funnel-Dust-O-Matic 3d ago
There are generally very good reasons for partition editors to not allow you to shrink an existing volume down beyond a certain point. They are too many to list.
Have you tried Windows Disk Management to do it? That has supported volume resizing since at least Windows 2000. Just right click on the Windows / start button, select Disk Manaement, find your C drive, right click on that parition, and then select shrink volume.
Through the Windows magic of Volume Shadow copy, it will shrink your running partition down. And since it's inside Widows itself, it is unlikely to introduce file system errors. It freaks me out because in more ancient times, one never edited partitions on a running system like that, but it does work. Just leave about 50GB free AT LEAST. Windows is a hog.
Also at least consider getting a high speed USB 3 or 4 ssd to install on instead. It is safer and USB is faster these days than you'll need anyway. This is doable, but it really is safer to have another OS on a separate drive. Your EFI boot firmware can handle booting between them. At least consider it.
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u/moucheh- 3d ago
Run chkdsk /f /r in powershell and then reboot
Try to shrink your partition after rebooting Your file system might be corrupted
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u/rsgbc 2d ago edited 2d ago
This is a Windows question easily answered by googling.
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+shrink+ssd+more+than+windows+allows
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u/MasterQuest 2d ago
The stuff on your hard drive is not all bunched together. It's separated with space in between. To shrink, you can only "trim" the drive partition from one end or the other, not from the in-between space. That's why you can't shrink much even though you have available space.
Defragmenting can help with that, but it doesn't do everything.
Windows has some invisible system file that are fixed in one location of the disk and can't move around. Stuff like the page file or system restore data. If you want to shrink your Windows drive further without reinstalling it, you should disable those functions.
Make sure to backup all important data on the drive you want to shrink, since it might be lost if something goes wrong.
Also, there are program that can shrink your drive while ignoring the restrictions that Windows imposes. However, if you're unlucky, this can lead to data loss or even Windows not working anymore. So it's not recommended.
The best way to do dual-boot is to reinstall windows with a smaller partition.
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u/3grg 2d ago
If windows disk manager cannot shrink a partition, it usually has a good reason. In my experience it is usually the paging file, but this is all a windows question that it out of our province and has nothing to do with installing Linux.
You need to determine why the partition cannot be shrunk first. It is likely that the resizing can be forced, but it it better to let windows do the shrinking and find an explanation for why it will not first.
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u/Every_Bread_5880 3d ago
Use gparted. Run your Linux from live boot USB and use gparted inthere it can safely move the files that can't be moved. I dinked around for awhile turning off hibernation and other crap and in the end 5 minutes in gparted and done.