Copying partitions and re-sizing

Hi folks
I suggest if you do partition copying / re-sizing then an excellent tool is the FREE GPARTED app. Download iso and create bootable USB stick -- will work on both MBR and EFI machines. Partitions can be smaller (or larget) - good also for copying Linux partitions to new HDD's.

The GUI is similar to Windows stand alone partition managers - but has the advantage of having a decent conole (CLI) facility available if needed and unlike Macrium (which I hugely like BTW) can copy partitions to smaller target ones (so long as they are big enough to accomodate all the data).

Simply ensure target drive is clear then in gparted go to source disk, select partition and copy , then select target disk,. select paste, enter the size in the window if you want to change it and then select copy.

Then apply.

If copying Linux partitions a typical Disk clone from Macrium won't always work especilly if copying to smaller ones..

After copying --if you are using things like ARCH-LINUX, MANJARO or related distros - after copying - reboot with say the arch-linux install iso --it acts as a live distro as well .

Then edit /etc/mkinitiopio.cnonf so in the HOOKS block comes before autoconf (otherwise you might get problems when trying to install the bootloader typical errors when installing --cannot find canonical path of " " when tryimg grub-install to efi partition.

so after editing the mkinitcpio file then arch-chroot into the system (arch-chroot /dev/sdx /mnt (or equivalen).
then mount /dev/sdy /boot/efi
run grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --bootloader-id=YOURNAME --efi-partition= /mnt/efi
grub-nkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

exit chroot and re-boot

Any problems / error messages at the grub-install stage means you have an error and system won't boot.
if system does boot OK then seems to go into a wait state - this might be due to entry in fstab (/etc/fstab) having wrong UUID for a partition e.g swap. Just wait for 90 secs -- system tries for 90 secs ti attemt to find partition -- if it cam't then you get a console == just use blkid and nano to fix and re-boot. Other distros probably use things like intraxxxxx or whatever --haven't played with those yet. However this is a convenient way of moving partitions particularly to a smaller drive -- GPARTED also also works with Windows partitions BTW


Cheers
jimbo

Or just install MiniTool Partition Wizard right in your Windows OS. Click on the shortcut to run it.

Oh Jimbo, Jimbo, Jimbo ... what on earth has this got to do with Win 11? Appreciate the Linux passion but uhmm, yup! ... LOL

NavyLCDR said:

Or just install MiniTool Partition Wizard right in your Windows OS. Click on the shortcut to run it.

Click to expand...

Hi there
that works for Windows but not Linux Hosts !!!!

@Superfly

this is basically to show that you can run the latest W11 builds on a VM on totally "older hardware" including non UEFI machines - MBR only and without any TPM's installed that haven't a dogs dinner of passing the hardware requirements for installing on even some quite modern machines - so should save people a bit of money !!

I'm sure there's plenty of people around who might have an older laptop lying around who probably haven't even thought of attempting to install the latest release of W11 (or even any version of W10 !!) on them. Using KVM these laptops can be brought back into service using a modern OS -- the W11 VM's actually run quite efficiently too. No registry hacks etc required either.

Cheers
jimbo