Whenever I install Linux on a box that has Windows, and I want to dual boot, I always defragment the hard drive as much as possible before resizing the partition. Is this just superstition, or is it actually a good idea?
Does defragmenting your hard drive before resizing the partition have any benefits
defragfilesystems
Best Answer
If your hard drive is already defragmented with all the data at the start of the disk, then it makes resizing the partition easier. Long ago the partition resizing tools were not able to move the data, so it was a requirement.
Today if you hard drive is not already defragmented then there is no reason to defragment it first in an attempt to move the data to the front of the drive since the resize utility will do that automatically. All you are doing is shifting the effort from the resize utility to the defrag utility. The only reason that is advantageous is if your defrag utility has a better progress indicator and gives you the ability to restart when your resize utility does not.