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    Resizing EFI partition after Win 10 install

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by jclausius, Dec 17, 2019.

  1. jclausius

    jclausius Notebook Virtuoso

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    A current EFI partition on one of my laptops is at 100MB, but I need to expand this to 500MB for multi-boot reasons. Here is the current partition breakdown:

    - Partition 1: 500MB (Windows Reserved)
    - Partition 2: 100MB (EFI)
    - Partition 3: 16MB (unknown, but for WIn 10 use)
    - Partition 4: ~440MB (WIndows 10 actual data)

    I can use GParted on Linux (or I think using diskpart on Win 10 boot rescue) to resize a partition. So, I would need to shrink Partition 4, 'shift' it up, shift partition 3, and then expand partition 2.

    So, when starting to shift/resize the 4th partition things get hairy. Using GParted, I know I can resize Partition 4 to ~380MB (to extra 400MB needed for EFI), and put in space at the beginning to shift it up to make room for Partition 3. However, during confirmation, it says doing so is risky and I most likely will lose the data on that partition or it won't be able to boot.

    As a backup plan, I believe I can make a backup of Windows, and re-do the Win 10 installation; this time, making the partitions the sizes I wish to make, but does anyone know of a tool that can do a move and shift of Partitions 4 and 3 that won't totally lose the data or put that data at risk?
     
    Last edited: Dec 17, 2019
  2. StormJumper

    StormJumper Notebook Virtuoso

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    I think Win10 has a minimum requirement that it needs and you can't shrink beyond that - Maybe. Maybe getting a bigger HDD or SSD that you can partition more easy. That's what I get from the read.