This brief tutorial is going to show you how to resize your primary local disk or partition in both Windows 7 and Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin). Even though these methods are different, the goal is the same – resizing your primary partition in order to create new ones. Most computers today have only one hard drive and one primary partition that is being used by the operating systems – both Windows and Ubuntu.

So, in order to create additional partitions from the existing primary partition, you’ll need to shrink or resize the primary partition. This is true for both systems.

And although these systems are different (Windows 7 and Ubuntu 12.04), they’re almost similar in many functions. Almost everything you do in Windows 7 and be done in Ubuntu 12.04. Without wasting anymore of your time, let’s get going.

Objectives:

  • Resize the primary partition on both Windows 7 and Ubuntu 12.04
  • Enjoy!

 

How to Resize the Primary Partition (Drive C: ) in Windows 7

To shrink or resize your primary partition in Windows 7, go to Start –> right-click ‘Computer’ and select ‘Manage’.

 

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Next, select ‘Disk Management’ on the left menu, then right-click on the (C:) and select ‘Shrink Volume’

 

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Then specify the amount of free space you wish to create and click ‘Shrink’

 

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Finally, right-click on the free space (unallocated) and create a new volume

 

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Follow the wizard until you’re done. That’s it!

 

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How to Resize / Shrink the Primary Partition in Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin)

Unlike Windows 7, you cannot be logged-in to your computer and resize the hard drive. For Ubuntu, you must boot from a live CD / DVD (Gparted) to shrink your partition.

To do that, download Gparted from here .  After downloading it, use Windows or Ubuntu to burn it to a blank CD / DVD and boot from it.

 

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Next, boot from it to continue.

 

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Then select ‘GParted Live’ option and press Enter.

 

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When you login, select the partition and click ‘Resize/Move’ button.

 

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Then specify the free space you wish to create and click ‘Resize/Move’

 

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When the space is created, right-click it and select ‘New’  to create a new volume.

 

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Finally, click ‘Apply’ to complete the setup.

 

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Restart your computer and you’re done.

Enjoy!