5.3. Using free space from an active partition

Destructive repartitioning destroys the partition on your hard drive and creates new partitions in its place. Backup any needed data from the original partition as this method deletes the entire contents.

After creating a new partition from your existing operating system, you can:

Non-destructive repartitioning resizes partitions, without any data loss. This method is reliable, however it takes longer processing time on large drives.

The following is a list of methods, which can help initiate non-destructive repartitioning.

The storage location of some data cannot be changed which can prevent the resizing of a partition to the required size; ultimately requiring a destructive repartition process. Reorganizing data within an existing partition can help you resize the partitions as needed to create space for additional partitions or maximize the free space available.

To avoid any possible data loss, create a backup before continuing with the data migration process.

By resizing an already existing partition, you can free up unused space. Depending on your resizing software, the results may vary. In the majority of cases, you can create a new unformatted partition of the same type, as the original partition.

The steps you take after resizing can depend on the software you use. In the following example, the best practice is to delete the new DOS (Disk Operating System) partition, and create a Linux partition instead. Verify what is most suitable for your disk before initiating the resizing process.

Some pieces of resizing software support Linux based systems. In such cases, there is no need to delete the newly created partition after resizing. Creating a new partition afterwards depends on the software you use.