Arch Linux

MrKodomoh64

Member

Registered: 2021-02-14

Posts: 6

[SOLVED] Dual-boot Windows

I need to open piece of software. I've tried everything, including installing on VM, launching with wine and searching for alternative on linux. Nothing, but dual-boot Windows will help me with this. My probably dumb question is - can I just "cut off" part of my root partition for Windows installation without Arch reinstallation?

Last edited by MrKodomoh64 (2021-02-14 18:19:17)

Stefan_xyz

Member

Registered: 2019-09-01

Posts: 107

Re: [SOLVED] Dual-boot Windows

I need to open piece of software. I've tried everything, including installing on VM, launching with wine and searching for alternative on linux. Nothing, but dual-boot Windows will help me with this. My probably dumb question is - can I just "cut off" part of my root partition for Windows installation without Arch reinstallation?

Taking off partitioned but unused space is rather difficult and (as far as I'm aware) not possible in Linux (Windows can actually do this do a certain degree).
If you got unpartitioned space you can obviously take that for a windows installation.

MrKodomoh64

Member

Registered: 2021-02-14

Posts: 6

Re: [SOLVED] Dual-boot Windows

I need to open piece of software. I've tried everything, including installing on VM, launching with wine and searching for alternative on linux. Nothing, but dual-boot Windows will help me with this. My probably dumb question is - can I just "cut off" part of my root partition for Windows installation without Arch reinstallation?

Taking off partitioned but unused space is rather difficult and (as far as I'm aware) not possible in Linux (Windows can actually do this do a certain degree).
If you got unpartitioned space you can obviously take that for a windows installation.

I mean: I have /dev/sda4 with installed Arch on it. So I can't just take part of /dev/sda4 for Windows without reinstalling entire system, right?

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,346

Re: [SOLVED] Dual-boot Windows

You definitely can, you can usually not do it while the partition is mounted but that is what live disks are for, and whether you can shrink your file system depends on the file system, but most modern ones are able to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compariso … pabilities your filesystem needs at least an "Offline shrink" possibility.

MrKodomoh64

Member

Registered: 2021-02-14

Posts: 6

Re: [SOLVED] Dual-boot Windows

You definitely can, you can usually not do it while the partition is mounted but that is what live disks are for, and whether you can shrink your file system depends on the file system, but most modern ones are able to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compariso … pabilities your filesystem needs at least an "Offline shrink" possibility.

Alright, my partition with system formated in btrfs, so I can do this. Everything that I need to do is just boot from live usb and "cut off" needed part?

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,346

Re: [SOLVED] Dual-boot Windows

You need to shrink the btrfs file system first and then shrink the partition, https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pa … partitions happens to have a direct example.

Also all these operations have an inherent risk of messing up (either you making a mistake or software/system crashes during the resize operation) make sure you have backups of important data.

Last edited by V1del (2021-02-14 14:14:54)

MrKodomoh64

Member

Registered: 2021-02-14

Posts: 6

Re: [SOLVED] Dual-boot Windows

You need to shrink the btrfs file system first and then shrink the partition, https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pa … partitions happens to have a direct example.

Also all these operations have an inherent risk of messing up (either you making a mistake or software/system crashes during the resize operation) make sure you have backups of important data.

I have several questions to the wiki article you've provided.

(parted) resizepart number end

Where number is the number of the partition you are shrinking, and end is the new end of the partition (which needs to be smaller than the old end).

In number of the partition I need to type /dev/sdaX or just X? And how do I calculate end of partition?

When done, use the resizepart command from util-linux to tell the kernel about the new size:

# resizepart device number size

Where device is the device that holds the partition, number is the number of the partition and size is the new size of the partition, in 512-byte sectors.

What does

size of the partition, on 512-byte sectors

mean?

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,346

Re: [SOLVED] Dual-boot Windows

These are just normal partitioning terms and the answer depends on how much you want to shrink the existing partitions and how big they currently are. You can also use cfdisk for the partitioning part if you are more familiar with those.

You pass the device /dev/sda you want to manipulate first while invoking parted so the number is the partition of the device you are manipulating, the end is the new partition size you'll want to calculate this in a way so that your new btrfs size is still encompassed by it, but small enough so that you have enough free and unpartitioned space for windows. You can pass "friendly" MB and GB as unit sizes.

FWIW I'd personally suggest you use a gparted live disk if you don't feel comfortable doing this via command line

Last edited by V1del (2021-02-14 16:58:48)

MrKodomoh64

Member

Registered: 2021-02-14

Posts: 6

Re: [SOLVED] Dual-boot Windows

These are just normal partitioning terms and the answer depends on how much you want to shrink the existing partitions and how big they currently are. You can also use cfdisk for the partitioning part if you are more familiar with those.

You pass the device /dev/sda you want to manipulate first while invoking parted so the number is the partition of the device you are manipulating, the end is the new partition size you'll want to calculate this in a way so that your new btrfs size is still encompassed by it, but small enough so that you have enough free and unpartitioned space for windows. You can pass "friendly" MB and GB as unit sizes.

FWIW I'd personally suggest you use a gparted live disk if you don't feel comfortable doing this via command line

Thanks for gparted suggestion! I've burned gparted live usb, and shrinked root partition.