Windows 10 and Manjaro dual-boot: How do I give Manjaro more space?

Support
1

I have Windows 10 and Manjaro installed on the same PC. I’ve given Linux a minimal amount of memory needed for my work purposes upon installing, but in time I began to use Linux much more frequently, thus I need more memory to store information on Linux in order to be able to manage it properly.

Is there any way to rearrange memory storage clusters so that I take some from Windows and add to Manjaro without reinstalling any operating systems? Thank you for your attention.

Current partition list:

Model: KXG60ZNV512G KIOXIA (nvme)
Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 512GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End    Size    File system  Name                          Flags
 1      1049kB  106MB  105MB   fat32        EFI system partition          boot, esp
 2      106MB   123MB  16,8MB               Microsoft reserved partition  msftres
 3      123MB   107GB  107GB   ntfs         Basic data partition          msftdata
 4      107GB   107GB  524MB   ntfs                                       hidden, diag
 5      107GB   429GB  322GB   ntfs         Basic data partition          msftdata
 6      429GB   512GB  82,6GB  ext4
2

You can use gparted with a live USB of manjaro to resize partitions. Might be an idea to upload your participation table to see what can be allocated where

3

Resizing is sometimes risky. It would be a good idea to backup any important files before trying it. Also it might take a long time, I would recommend starting it right before you go to bed and leave it run.

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4

Yep, I do recall this process being somewhat long when I managed it upon installing Win10 and Manjaro for the second time, after I figured out some mistakes I’ve made in this regard. But do you think this resizing may take even longer in this particular case?

5

Thank you, will try this.
May you please suggest me the way to upload a participation table properly? I mean, the way it would be the most informative?

6

Resizing linux isnt bad, but making a nice sized Windows reduction may take some time. Even longer if the drive has not been defragmented recently.

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7

If I’m not mistaken, I’ve turned automatic defragmentation off due to using an SSD. Read somewhere that this procedure makes more harm than benefit with this type of drives. That being said, I have a 512 GB storage in general, so I don’t think we’re talking about much here. But thank you anyway!

8

I guess you mean the “partition table”… Here you go:

sudo parted -l
9

Yep, this is exactly what I meant. Just copied the term from the user I’ve answered to. Wasn’t sure which is right.

Thank you, and here you go:

Model: KXG60ZNV512G KIOXIA (nvme)
Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 512GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End    Size    File system  Name                          Flags
 1      1049kB  106MB  105MB   fat32        EFI system partition          boot, esp
 2      106MB   123MB  16,8MB               Microsoft reserved partition  msftres
 3      123MB   107GB  107GB   ntfs         Basic data partition          msftdata
 4      107GB   107GB  524MB   ntfs                                       hidden, diag
 5      107GB   429GB  322GB   ntfs         Basic data partition          msftdata
 6      429GB   512GB  82,6GB  ext4

Updated the OP as well.

10

Well in that case you need to shrink:

and move:

to the left. Then you can expand it to right.

That can be done with gparted. Just note, you need to do this with a the Manjaro Boot Disk on a live session. You cannot move or shrink partition which is mounted.

Just for the record:

  • mounted ext4
    • can grow
    • cannot shrink or moved
  • mounted btrfs (just like ntfs since both are COW)
    • can grow and shrink
    • cannot be moved.

I guess it is not necessary to say that while changing to the new partition layout, the data is in danger. If you abort it, the risk is high that the data is lost.

And just note that shrinking a ntfs partition means that the dirty flag will be set. Windows will run chkdsk on boot what is totally normal.

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11

I’d definitely first try to clean up the ntfs partitions, defrag, reboot and shrink the ntfs partitions in Windows!

Only if you get the ‘can’t be moved’ error before recovering enough space I’d use gparted. I know it works but be prepared to recover Win.

After you have created enough unused space in Windows boot a manjaro usb drive and use gparted to resize the ext4 partition.

2 Likes
12

Do you have only one drive?
Do you have space for another?

My first answer to this is to put my bulkier /home folders onto a /mnt/Data folder on another drive.

So you can use Windows to shrink your Windows partition as much as is comfortable - noit sure what we can see in your list, there isn’t one labelled ‘Windows root partition’ :))) You should manage Windows maybe 256, Linux maybe 150, then share the rest.

Wow, life with one drive must suck dude!

What’s the prospect of backing up your data and doing a clean wipe?
Whatever the plan, the first plan is backing up - before you have any other plan.

There is NO plan B.

1 Like
13

To be honest, I’m now drifting towards an idea of getting rid of Windows entirely, but my second guess is that I might be unable to use specific kind of soft (as well as some vidya). Anyway, it’s an interesting experiment for me to do as I described above, hope to post an update when I have time to back everything up and give it a shot.

Thank for your advice.

14

Once bare metal Linux opens the door, you won’t need windows to see out anymore.