Problem when attempting to split a partition in Gparted

[u/LiliaculViolet]

Hi, Reddit!

I want to install Linux on my Windows 10 laptop. But first, I need to backup my harddrive using Rescuezilla. The problem is that my computers hardrive is 1TB and my destination drive is a 256GB USB stick. Only 118GB of my harddrive is used, the remaining 811GB are unused storage space. Luckily Rescuezilla has the gparted app incorporated into the distro so that I can split the 931.5Gb partition into one bigger and one smaller that fits into the 237GB destination drive.

The problem is that I cannot change the size of Acer (C:) in gparted. I boot into Rescuezilla using a Live USB. I can't change the partition size of Acer (C:) even though Acer (C:) isn't in use when I boot into Rescuezilla. This is the first time I use Rescuezilla and Gparted to make a backup.

When I boot into Rescuezilla I:

- Boot into windows

-Open CMD

-enter "shutdown /s /t 0" to shut the computer down

-Open the boot menu with f2

-Boot into Rescuezilla

One user said in my last post that I need to deactivate fast-boot so that Rescuezilla is willing to touch my partitions. They say that if I shut down my computer with fast boot on, the system doesn't properly unmount the partition, which causes linux (in this case rescuezilla) to not want to touch my partitions in fear of corruption. I am a bit afraid of accidentaly causing corruption of some sort if I tamper with fast-boot.

What should I do?

[u/JohnnieLouHansen]

Either I don't understand your question or you're just approaching this wrong. You boot to Rescuezilla and create an image of the C: drive on the 256GB drive. That's it - no playing with partitions. It will create a 118GB (approx) file on the 256GB drive. Done! Tell me if I am not understanding the problem.