GParted — The Complete Guide: Resize, Move and Create Partitions Without Losing Data
GParted is the graphical partition editor of the Linux world, open source (GPL-2.0 or later) and free for any use. Most of the time it is used through GParted Live — a small system booted from a USB stick — so it serves Windows PCs too.
GParted
GParted project (GNOME)
A graphical partition editor to create, resize, move and copy partitions, also as a live system booted from USB on any PC.
Get it from the vendorWhat you get
- Resizing — grow and shrink partitions without erasing their contents.
- Move and copy — rearrange partitions on the disk.
- Create and format — NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, ext4 and more.
- Partition table — create or repair a table on a new or damaged disk.
- Operation queue — everything is reviewed first, and nothing is written until you press Apply.
Before any change — a backup
Changing partitions is an operation where a power cut or a wrong choice erases data. Back up the whole disk, for example to an image with Clonezilla, and only then enlarge drive C after moving to a bigger SSD. On a laptop, plug in the charger. There is no automatic system cloning here as in commercial tools.
Related tools
To prepare a GParted Live drive — Rufus or Ventoy. To back up and clone the disk before the change — Clonezilla or Rescuezilla.
Ventoy
longpanda (Ventoy project)
One USB drive that boots many ISO files: copy the images to the drive and pick one from a menu, with no reformatting.
Get it from the vendor
Rufus
Pete Batard
Creates bootable USB drives from Windows or Linux ISO images, in a small program that runs without installation.
Get it from the vendor
Clonezilla
NCHC Free Software Labs
Disk and partition imaging and cloning from boot media, including deployment to dozens of machines at once over a network.
Get it from the vendorRescuezilla
Rescuezilla project
Disk backup, restore and cloning in a simple graphical interface from a USB stick, compatible with Clonezilla images.
Get it from the vendorThe bottom line
The most reliable free partition editor, for any operating system via a USB drive. On one condition: back up first.