I am unable to enlarge my Windows 10 partition using various partitioning tools such as GParted from my Ubuntu installation, Partition Manager on Windows, or EaseUS Partition Master on Windows.
The probable reason for this is the absence of free space adjacent to the partition, even though there is some unallocated space available.
The disk structure is such that the EFI system partition is followed by Win10, Ubuntu, unallocated space, and a Linux distro. To expand the Windows partition, I attempted to utilize the unallocated space by extending into it, allowing me to shrink it from the right and generate unallocated space to the left of Win10. However, GParted cautioned me that this process is risky since it involves relocating the start of file systems.
Is it possible to relocate entire partitions so that I can move my Windows partition beside the unallocated space and expand it?
2 Answers
GParted warned me that I shouldn’t do that because moving the starts of file systems is dangerous…
The warning mentioned here is relevant only to specific bootloaders that don’t utilize the partition table but store the “first sector” number of a partition or a particular file within that partition. This is the case with the older LILO bootloader. However, with UEFI, the firmware understands the partition table and can load files from the “EFI system partition,” which most bootloaders can also do.
In fact, even on ‘legacy’ BIOS systems, Ubuntu usually employs GRUB2 for booting, which has its own drivers for partitions and filesystems. The Windows BOOTMGR can also locate the necessary files on its own.
While changing the boot partition’s number may cause problems, moving it should not. Therefore, it is safe to move the Ubuntu partition to the right and create unallocated space after Windows, followed by extending the Windows partition to the right.
The primary concern is the time it takes to move a partition, which could be several hours, and the computer must not lose power during this process, or else the entire partition may be lost.