I have Ubuntu 16.04 and want to switch to 18.04 with a fresh install. I also have Windows 10 installed and want to shrink the Win 10 system partition for reinstallation of Ubuntu.
There appear two ways to do so:
- Shrink the Win 10 partition from inside Windows and then use the unallocated space for a new/enlarged Ubuntu partition
- Shrink the Win 10 partition with GParted during installation of Ubuntu.
Which is the safer way to do so? I should add that there is a Windows recovery partition between the Win system partition and the Ubuntu partition. Can I safely move that one with GParted?
Best Answer
The safest way is to use Windows 10 to shrink it's own partition.
Windows 10 knows more about the last used area of the disk partition. Ubuntu / gparted cannot shrink the partition reliably as Windows 10 can.
For example last weekend I wanted to clone 16.04 and do a test run upgrade to 18.04. My Windows partition was 411 GB with only 100 GB used. Windows 10 would only shrink by a maximum of 25 GB because it saw used files near the end of the partition. If any more was needed Windows 10 would have to defragment the disk.