Resizing and moving partitions around

[Rua]

When I first started using Linux I installed it on my laptop, and split the drive into two partitions, one for the root and one for home. I split it so that the root partition comes first, and then the home partition. But when I installed it on my desktop I thought it made more sense to do it in reverse, so that the data on home can be kept where it is while the 'end' can be extended further if it needs more space. But the laptop still has the old layout, and now I'd like to increase the size of the home partition... except there is no room because it's at the end of the drive. Is it possible somehow to move a partition to the beginning of a drive without losing what's on it? (Assuming the root partition is deleted first)

[xenopeek]

You can move a partition as long as there is no other partition in its way (e.g., you can't "jump" a partition over another partition). If as you say you intend to delete the root partition (and perhaps swap?), you should be free to move the home partition around.

Alternatively, you can also decrease the size of a partition so that you can increase the size of an another adjacent partition.

For either option, boot from the Linux Mint installation media and run GParted from there to edit partitions. You may have to "unmount" any partitions you want to edit first (right-click them in GParted > Unmount).

[Rua]

I was intending to delete the root partition before installing or upgrading Mint, so that is not really a problem I think. I normally keep my home partition between installations, while the root partition is formatted during the installation.

I didn't know that partitions could be moved as well. I imagine it's faster and easier to resize a partition at the end than it is to resize the one before it and move it then? Because that's my reason for doing this... to make the home partition easier to resize when upgrading or reinstalling Mint.

[DrHu]

to make the home partition easier to resize when upgrading or reinstalling Mint.

Curious: a few questions..

• Q1 have you ever run out of space on a /home drive that you needed to re-size it
• Q2 What are you using root for
  --system files, applications
• Q3 What are you using /home for
  --applications, user files/data ?

I think if you answer those questions, you could decide whether or not you need a re-sizable /home are or not..

[Rua]

Originally I tried to guess how much space I would need for each one. But now that I've been using it for a while I realise that home is filling up much faster than root, so I want to change the sizes of the partitions to match what I need better.

[xenopeek]

Root of 15 to 20 GiB is usually enough. If you plan on installing GNOME and KDE on the same Linux installation, perhaps add 5 to 10 GiB to that. That should be enough in most cases.

As far resizing and moving around; unless you have free space for some reason on your hard disk, it doesn't really matter where the partitions are on the disk. It makes sense to have root and home adjacent. If you have a swap partition that would be best suited to have at the very end or very beginning of the disk, so as to not be in between other partitions. (I'm assuming you have no Windows partitions.)