How to Shrink a Partition or Volume in Windows 7
Information
This will show you how to shrink an existing partition or volume using Disk Management or Diskpart in
Windows 7 to create unallocated disk space, from which you can
create a new partition or volume with.
Warning
You must be logged on in an
administrator account to be able to do this tutorial.
If while shrinking a partition below, you get a
Convert to Dynamic disks? type prompt,
do not do so.
If you disable the
Disk Defragmenter service, then you will get the error below when you try to do anything in Disk Management. If you get this error, then make sure that the
Disk Defragmenter service is set to only
Manual.
OPTION ONE
Using Disk Management
1. Open the
Control Panel (icons view), and click on the
Administrative Tools icon. then close the Control Panel window.
2. Click on
Computer Management in Administrative Tools, then close the Administrative Tools window.
3. In the left pane under
Storage, click on
Disk Management. (See screenshot below)
4. In the middle pane, right click on the partition that you want to shrink and click on
Shrink Volume. (See screenshot above)
5. Type in how many
MB (1 GB = 1024 MB) of the available shrink space shown that you want to shrink the partition or volume by to be used for the new unallocated space, then click on the
Shrink button. (See screenshot below)
Warning
The
size of the available shrink space can be restricted by the amount of space currently allocated to on the hard drive for the
virtual memory page file,
System Protection maximum storage space size, and
hibernation files. The location of the files on the hard drive plays a big part here because these files are marked as
unmovable, and Disk Management is unable to relocate them. As such, if these unmovable files are located in the middle of the total amount of free space on the disk, then only the amount of free space on the other side (to the right) of these files will actually be available for the new partition. This will result in you showing that you have x amount of free space, but not being able to use it for your partition. The only way around this is to use a 3rd party hard drive partition management program, or setup the partition when installing Vista.
6. The selected partition (step 4) has now been shrunk to create a new empty unallocated space. You can use this new unallocated space to
create a new partition with. (See screenshot below)
7. Close the Computer Management window. (See screenshot above)
OPTION TWO
Using Diskpart in a Elevated Command Prompt
1. Open a
elevated command prompt, or a
command prompt at boot.
2. In the elevated command prompt, type
diskpart and press
Enter. (See screenshot below)
3. In the elevated command prompt, type
list volume and press
Enter. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: This will give you a list of volume numbers to select from to shrink.
4. In the elevated command prompt, type
select volume # and press
Enter. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: You would substitute # for the volume number listed that you want to shrink. For example, I want to shrink the listed volume 2, so I would type select volume 2 and press Enter.
5. In the elevated command prompt, type
shrink querymax and press
Enter. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: This will give you the maximum amount of size in MB that you can shrink the selected partition or volume (step 4) by to be used as the new unallocated space. For example, I have 696 GB available to shrink.
6. To Shrink All of the Available Space
A) In the elevated command prompt, type shrink and press Enter.
NOTE: This will shrink the selected partition or volume by all of the maximum number of reclaimable bytes (step 4) to be used for the new unallocated space.
B) Go to step 8.
7. To Shrink the Available Space by a Specified Size
A) In the elevated command prompt, type
shrink desired=(# in MB) and press
Enter. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: You would substitute (# in MB) for how many MB (1 GB = 1024 MB) you want to shrink the selected partition or volume (step 4) by to be used for the new unallocated space.
For example, if I only wanted to shrink the partition or volume by 81920 MB (80 GB), then I would type shrink desired=81920 and press Enter.
8. In the elevated command prompt, type
exit and press
Enter. (See screenshot below)
9. Close the elevated command prompt.
10. The selected partition (step 4) has now been shrunk to create a new empty unallocated space. You can use this new unallocated space to
create a new partition with.
That's it,
Shawn