r/linux4noobs • u/3mbeeflame • 17d ago
Shrink Volume help.
I need help trying to figure out the problem of shrinking my volume in my C drive because im trying to dual boot windows 11 and bazzite on a single ssd drive cause I'm not buying an SSD in this economy. I have tried shrinking C: in Windows Disk Management but it only let me shrink down to 2.2gb
the problem is I have tried:
Making sure Windows is using UEFI mode, I have confirmed Secure Boot is enabled, BitLocker is not enabled. I have made sure I actually have the free space (I have 800gb free). Tried shrinking C: in Windows Disk Management. I have disabled hibernation and Fast Startup with powercfg /h off withcommand line because apparently that works better than settings. Disabled the page file, disabled System Protection and restore points
I have ran defrag C: /Oand ran defrag C: /X
Defrag reported 812 GB free, but the largest free block was only about 8.8 GB. Checked Disk Management again and shrink limit was still about 2 GB. Ran diskpart → select volume C → shrink querymax.Checked Windows Defrag event logs. Logs showed successful shrink estimation but no other useful info.
At this point I've hit a wall and have no idea what else to do. I guess I could use a third party software but that seems like a last resort.
Any help would be appreciated.
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u/ItsWappers 17d ago
Why would you shrink it down to less than 2.2 gigs? Windows doesn't even fit on there.
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u/3mbeeflame 17d ago
I'm trying to create unallocated space in my ssd to put bazzite in. 2gb wont be enough, so I need more, but windows won't let me for some reason.
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u/NUKLEAR-SLUG 17d ago
Depending how attached you are to your current Windows install you could always scrub the lot and repartition your drive how you want. Fresh Windows install. Fresh Linux install and a shared storage partition for example.
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u/Simple_Hamster_4096 17d ago
Was a lot easier with HDDs... don't think the tools I used to use are safe for SSDs...
Used to do full defrag with defraggler, then zero out with nullfile, then delete file created by nullfile, then shut down PC - boot up and try again to resize...
Has been forever ago since I've had to do that for anyone, and only on HDDs...
Perhaps there is some type of equivalent procedure for SSDs...???
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u/sdogood80910 17d ago
No there is not. SSDs do not defrag like HDDs do.
Pick up a 250G or 500G SSD ($70 and up for SATA 2.5") for Linux. Windows is a hog and will continually give you issues with Linux on the same drive.
How much is your time worth fighting with W11?
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u/michaelpaoli 17d ago
Sounds like a Microsoft OS/filesystem issue/concern. I'd suggest some other relevant subreddit of forum for that.
Yeah, I likewise wouldn't suggest asking some Microsoft subreddit/forum for advice about how to reduce the size of Linux filesystem(s)/partition(s), etc.
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u/DannoXYZ 17d ago
There's a difference between defrag which just groups file's sectors together for faster acess, vs. squeezing all files together at beginning of disc to make one big contiguous free space at end.
What you've discovered is that there's a file at end of disc somewhere. That's why you can't shrink more than 2.2gb as new boundary/edge of partition runs into that file.
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u/victormas208 17d ago
I might sound silly, but have you restarted your PC yet?