Arch Linux

creepylove

Member

Registered: 2021-11-14

Posts: 2

Extending partition to the left

Hello everybody,
I've been dual-booting archlinux and windows 10 for almost a year now and am beginning to run out of space on my 100G archlinux partition.
Now I have shrunk down my windows 10 partition by 260G and want to extend my archlinux partition by those 260G.
The 260G partition (/dev/nvme0n1p6) is directly to the left of my 100G (/dev/nvme0n1p5) partition.
If I were to just try it out right now I would do:

Format "/dev/nvme0n1p6"
Boot into live usb
Mount the 2 drives to "/mnt/archold" and "/mnt/archnew"
Execute "sudo dd if=/mnt/archold of=/mnt/archnew" and wait for it to finish
Mount "/dev/nvme0n1p2" to "/boot/EFI" (I'm using UEFI and it says that "/dev/nvme0n1p2" is of type "EFI System" in "fdsik -l")
Execute "arch-chroot /mnt/archnew", "pacman -S grub efibootmgr os-prober", "grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/EFI --bootloader-id=grub" and "grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg"
Boot into the new system to check that everything is fine
Boot into live usb
Format "/dev/nvme0n1p5" and merge the partitions

Are these steps correct and is it safe for me to do it like this or is there a better way?
Please let me know if I missed anything. Thanks in advance and have a nice day

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 8,339

Website

Re: Extending partition to the left

I think you should use rsync instead of dd. See https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Rsync# … tem_backup for a method.

Also note that the EFI system partition should be mounted to /mnt/archnew/boot/EFI/ because it will not be accessible from the chroot environment if you mount it under /boot/EFI/.

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V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,300

Re: Extending partition to the left

You could also "just" make the partition space free and then move the entire partition without reformatting. This is a bit of a hairy operation with commandline tools, but e.g. a gparted live disk should make this fairly trivial. Still  would be a good idea to have backups of important data anyway.

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,230

Re: Extending partition to the left

Still  would be a good idea to have backups of important data anyway.

doubleplusgood

Seriously, don't even think about it unless you have known good backups.

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Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
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creepylove

Member

Registered: 2021-11-14

Posts: 2

Re: Extending partition to the left

You could also "just" make the partition space free and then move the entire partition without reformatting. This is a bit of a hairy operation with commandline tools, but e.g. a gparted live disk should make this fairly trivial. Still  would be a good idea to have backups of important data anyway.

I actually tried gparted but it's way too slow and would take multiple days

I think you should use rsync instead of dd. See https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Rsync# … tem_backup for a method.
Also note that the EFI system partition should be mounted to /mnt/archnew/boot/EFI/ because it will not be accessible from the chroot environment if you mount it under /boot/EFI/.

Good idea although since the file system stays the same and I got more space on the new partition wouldn't it just be easier to use dd? Also if I were to use rsync would I use the file system cloning or the full system backup command shown in the wiki?
Also thanks very much for telling me about the boot mount thing.

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 8,339

Website

Re: Extending partition to the left

Good idea although since the file system stays the same and I got more space on the new partition wouldn't it just be easier to use dd?

*shrugs* If you find it easier then yes :-)

if I were to use rsync would I use the file system cloning or the full system backup command shown in the wiki?

The method I linked would be my preference. If you need to preserve the filesystem metadata then use the cloning method.

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Para todos todo, para nosotros nada

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,230

Re: Extending partition to the left

Backups?

(ewwaller whistles nervously as he walks past graveyard)

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Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
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How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

Slithery

Administrator

From: Norfolk, UK

Registered: 2013-12-01

Posts: 5,776

Re: Extending partition to the left

Personally I'd just boot a gparted iso and move the partition left then expand it....
Backups are always required if you value any of your data.

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No, it didn't "fix" anything. It just shifted the brokeness one space to the right. - jasonwryan
Closing -- for deletion; Banning -- for muppetry. - jasonwryan

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twobooks

Member

From: rainforest

Registered: 2020-06-23

Posts: 46

Re: Extending partition to the left

fsarchiver is the way to go, you will have a backup during the process, and the new partition will have an exact same UUID, you don't need to change grub config. fsarchiver works great with ext4 or xfs. the -j 4 option will speed up the process if you have more cores just increase the numbers after -j.

Last edited by twobooks (2021-11-15 19:07:06)