Hi all,
I have a dual-boot system and, in Zorin 18, I asked GParted to reduce the size of the Windows 11 partition, which is on the same SSD as Zorin. I think I must have done something wrong because now the PC are totaly freeze...
Did you perform the action from installed Zorin OS or from a LiveUSB?
In Windows OS, was Fast Startup enabled (it is by default) in the control panel > Power settings? If so, Windows is not shut down, but is in Hibernate - if someone resizes the partition at that time, yes, the partition would be stuck as Mounted and that can definitely damage things.
I recommend a S.M.A.R.T. (test) on the drive - and you may have luck at recovery using sudo ntfsfix followed by the /dev/ device I.D.
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I launched gpaded from my Zorin session. Windows 11 hadn’t booted up yet, and fast boot is definitely disabled. Now it’s been stuck at 86.77% for 20 minutes and the PC is frozen, except for the mouse.
Do Not Force Shutdown.
That can make things worse.
If Windows OS was fully shutdown - Fast Startup disabled... But if the NTFS was Heavily Fragmented - it may take a really long time to defrag and move a lot of files - so it may seem frozen. It might take a couple of hours.
The mouse cursor moves. That suggests that you are not locked up...
Running it From The Disk and not from LiveUSB is a risky move...
But it does not look yet like you are in the danger zone.
If a couple of hours pass with No Progress, then it may be the kernel stuck in an I/O loop and... the only way out would be a Force Shutdown followed by what I posted above about S.M.A.R.T. and using sudo ntfsfix...
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If a forced shutdown is unavoidable, what are the risks to my SSD? Will Windows 11 definitely crash? Will Zorin crash? Will the SSD itself fail?
The SSD will probably take no physical damage or anything. It should be usable, even if an OS must be reinstalled.
It may not boot. It may crash. It may be corrupted.
It might survive.
So worst case is most likely that it cannot boot at all.
No, Zorin should be fine. It is on a different partition and an SSD, with no spinning disks, should be physically fine.
Windows OS is the high risk area, now.
I forced the system to shut down. When it restarted, I selected Zorin, which booted up fine. I shut down the PC normally and booted into Windows 11, which also booted up perfectly.
When I checked my partitions in the disk manager, it seems GParted didn’t do anything; they’re exactly as they were before.
If you want to resize, it is best to use Windows Disk Management to shrink the Windows partition. Having said that, Windows now usually has a partition after C:\ and trying to move that may cause issues as it contains recovery options for Windows which will look for that partition where it currently resides so if trying to move that may cause issues.
If it were me I would take an image of all of Windows partitions using Rescuezilla, then remove the partition that appears after C:\ and resize C:\ but not before running chkdsk.
Then I would also change the hidden Power Settings in Windows that prevents the hard drive from ever truly shutting down. I don't use Windows 11 but are there some settings to schedule its built-in TRIM of the SSD?
I suspect the power setting issue is why you were having issues with GParted freezing, becauseen though Windows 11 was not nounted, the drive is in what I would call 'active sleep mode'.
I would agree with @swarfendor437 to use the Disk Management in Windows for shrinking the Windows Partition. When the Zorin Partition is directly on the Windows Partition that should be fine. Maybe You could post a Picture of the Disk Management here. So, we could take a Look at it.
The process never completed.
The good news is that nothing was corrupted in the attempt.
While booted into Windows OS - I recommend defragging first, then using partition management to resize...
I nearly mentioned defragging, but that is not recommended for SSD's on my searches. Just ensure TRIM is scheduled weekly in Windows and a CRON job for FSTRIM in Zorin.
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A wise point.
The reason defragging (regularly) is fine on HDD, but discouraged on SSD is not because it is inherently dangerous - but because SSD's have limited write cycles.
Running it once - with purpose - is not a big deal in that perspective.
Running it weekly - becomes a big deal over a long period of time.
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I’m sharing this in case it helps others 
So, after yesterday’s issues, I was able to reboot and repair my Windows 11 and Zorin partitions.
To properly resize my Zorin partition, I did the following:
-In Windows 11, I shrunk the Windows partition using the built-in Disk Management tool. I did not format it.
-I downloaded GParted Live and put the ISO on my Ventory USB drive.
-I booted from my USB drive and launched GParted, then moved the Zorin partition so it was between the Windows 11 partition and the previously created “empty” partition, and then I dragged the arrow to the right so that Zorin took up all the space.
-GParted did its job
-First reboot into Windows 11 to let it run any necessary checks. But it just booted up fine.
-Shut down and rebooted into Zorin; no issues there either. GParted had done a good job
Thanks to everyone for your replies; they really helped me
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