Windows Disk Management doesn't let me create a partition larger than 5gb even tho there's 80gb free
i'm trying to install Bazzite OS (KDE) on my main drive and i'm having trouble allocating space for Bazzite
28 Replies
Ah...this...
Windows put some "immovable files" across the disk. Sadly you'll probably need a third party disk resizer which always has a small risk of things breaking.
Usually it consolidates them at the front but sometimes windows just puts them wherever
Also word of warning
Do NOT let your windows free space drop under 1GB.
NTFS starts to collapse and the os starts breaking.
By 30mb left you won't be able to log in anymore.
To windows
thanks for the warning, do you know a 3rd party disk resizer ?
Hum let me find one I recommended to a friend that also did disk cloning...
But just know that it comes with risks. Especially with such little free space left they'll be a lot bigger so back your data up you can't afford to lose.
I think we wound up using https://www.diskgenius.com/free.php for his disk cloning but it should support partition sizing. A lot of them can be annoying with ads. But yes I supply this with plenty of warnings given your small disk space.
DiskGenius Free Edition - Free Partition Manager for Windows
DiskGenius Free Edition is free partition manager and data backup software, providing various features to help you optimize disk utilization and ensure data security.
Also look into reducing your recycle bin size by using its properties. Could be that too. Usually it holds a percentage of size for itself but you can specify it too.
well, a backup is a little complicated since i don't have any other drive big enough
it's set to 50gb by default wtf
i'm reducing this to roughly 10gb
I can always recommend buying a refurb enterprise hard drive or a slow one just for backups. Cheaper than SSD and good for just backups. I have a powered hub for mine plugged into USB 3.1
Yeah they usually set it up as a percentage initially which is pretty damn big sometimes. I usually set it to like 10GB since I rarely delete THAT much
i set it to 10gb and it's still not letting me create a partition larger than 5gb
Also be sure for windows to disk clean with right click properties. It usually holds into windows updates FOREVER.
Cleaned them up on our vms at work and it freed up like 5GB on some.
Yeah it's probably some other immovable system files.
So a tool will still be needed. But back up truly important things first since if the partition resizer goofs, though rare, windows might not boot.
They tend to sprinkle immovable files about but it's usually towards the front or back of the partition and it won't even tell you when you try to resize. Used to be you could tell with disk defrag like the oooold version of it as it colored immovable yellow
might be why my Windows folder is 53gb
Time for a good disk cleaning. Just be sure to do it through windows tools. You'll probably still need to use the disk tool to resize it but hey
More space is free real estate
Also don't worry about the recycle bin since you'll get yelled at if it can't hold more and offer to permandelete or cancel so it won't like just start skipping the recycle bin if you go over it's set amount
Disk cleanup, by the way. Often offers an admin check button but I forget the button as I haven't been on windows a few months.
You'll still need the disk resizer as immovable files won't go away but you'll buy yourself additional space for safety when doing the resize.
Also don't use disk compression except like...individual folders you don't mess with certainly not games. It's an old arse feature windows never improved and even on SSD stuff will slow down.
Uses like...zip deflate or something rather than a modern live speed compress/decompress.
And of course best of luck as I head to work.
thanks
even tho making a backup is a bit complicated for me
Yeah it sucks but when windows puts those files in places it's always an inherint risk. The more free space you have the less the risk usually is as disk utilities like DiskGenius are pretty good at ensuring those move.
But there's always the possibility.
Mostly recognize this because I had to do it on a few dual boots over the years where it threw it's important files near the end of the disk.
Definitely not to make it hard to free space for other OSes. Totally not.
Honestly they might just never have shrinking a partition in mind and not making it easy to make space to dual boot was just a bonus to not caring.
But would it kill them to at least give the reason why it can't shrink it more?
...You know some windows users might actually start deleting stuff they really shouldn't if it told them that so I guess maybe they don't for that reason. Like people that start randomly deleting registry entries because reddit told them to without looking up what it does.
well, i might have to do all of this today without doing backups since i still can't sign up for Windows 10 ESU (i'm in Europe)
and i have a few questions i'll like to be answered,
does mounting the Windows partition in Bazzite and transfer files over will affect the Windows OS in any way ? i intend to dual boot
does Bazzite OS uses the same file path system as Windows 10 ?
For that you'll want to look at the dual boot guide. But it'll show up as a disk to mount, yeah. Just don't run stuff like games off it. Copy/write/paste all works with NTFS, but running games off it and stuff is beyond messy and unsupported.
And don't rush yourself. They're not gonna disable Windows 10 and it should be a handful of months before any major issues arise or a day zero arises where 10 is truly a lost cause.
So you have some time.
Just be sure to follow safe network practices more diligently.
That said you aren't the first that microsoft has refused to give the ESU to in the EU. I expect quite a few fines to get levied their way, and subsequently written off as a business expense.
A few people in here in regions that are REQUIRED to give the extended support to have been rejected for...dubious reasons. A few flat out told no.
the dual boot guide doesn't answer any of my questions
You should just be able to mount the windows drive like any other drive. Just don't use it for like running software and stuff. Just copying off it and the like.
Example: Don't run your steam games off NTFS.
so, how do i transfer my steam games on Bazzite ?
Two methods really. One is to backup each one from the steam built in backup options.
Alternatively you can try copying SteamApps from the steam folder in windows to
$HOME/.steam/steam in linux ($HOME is a shortcut variable to your home directory. All files and folders that start with "." are hidden so you can either use the nav bar top to enter it in or use ctrl+h to show/hide hidden files/folders)
That will only copy the games, though. For videos and other things additionally copy the UserData folder to the same directory. For saves, that's game-dependent. Anything that uses steam cloud'll be fine. Anything that uses your document directory in windows someone else will have to help with.The "right way" of resizing more than what windows allows is disabling the subsystems creating those unmovable files. Can be swap file, system snapshots etc. Windows Event Log will have the relevant information
Read Shrink Volume Log in Event Viewer in Windows 10
How to Read Shrink Volume Log in Event Viewer in Windows 10
I hate windows immovable files and the fact it keeps throwing them near the disk end. If I wasn't familiar with the fact windows anti competitiveness included once using code to throw fake errors on DOS versions they didn't make I would give them benefit of the doubt but.
No they're putting the files late on the drive on purpose.
I guess the behavior is an old relic they cannot change even if they wanted to
Yeah but then I just recall the AARD code. And well...
Fairly sure they wouldn't change it if they could. Certainly a boon to stop shrinking for other OS Dual boot
If it's relic behavior that just adds an excuse
If the files are immovable, either the beginning or end are the most sensible places
The beginning already will have Windows itself, leaving only the end :(
Yeah you're probably right but they've had a lot of ire coming so I'm still gonna blame them being nasty.