Why do you need shrink volume?
Many people face the problem of imbalanced allocation of volumes which may cause
troubles like computer crash, disk failure and so on. Especially the lack of system
space will make a computer work very slowly even leading to data loss. In such
situation, if there’s enough free space on one volume, you’re capable to create a
new volume through shrinking.
How to shrink Volume with Disk Management
Because "Extend Volume" and "Shrink Volume" these two features
are added to Disk Management since the appearance of Windows 7, you can shrink
volumes through this built-in tool. Following steps will tell you how to do it in
Windows 7/8/10.
Step 1: Open
disk management.
Step 2: Right click the volume you want to shrink (here is D) →
Shrink Volume.
Step 3: Decide the amount of space to shrink.
Step 4: After confirmation, a new unallocated space will appear
after D drive.
It’s easy to create a new partition with this unallocated space. While you will
notice if you want to extend C or E drive now, the option "Extend Volume"
is greyed out. Anyway, Disk Management has a great limitation in resizing
partitions. 1st, there must be an unallocated space on the same
disk when extending a volume. 2nd, the unallocated space must be
adjacent to that volume and on its right side. 3rd, you can not
shrink a volume beyond the point where any unmovable files are located.
4th, "Shrink Volume" only makes the unallocated space
locate behind the volume you shrink. Thus, it seems that you need hire a third-party
software for help.
Resize partition with AOMEI Partition Assistant
AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard Edition is a free disk management software which
comes with a lot of powerful functions that enables you to control hard disks and
partitions easily. It breaks the limitations mentioned above and resizing partition
without data loss for AOMEI is just like a piece of cake. Apart from Windows 7/8/10,
Windows XP, Vista are also supported. Let’s see how to deal with it.
Step 1: Download, install
and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant.
Step 2: Right click the volume you want to shrink → Resize
Partition.
Step 3: Drag the border (either left/right side). You can move the
partition when the mouse shows like this:
Step 4: Click "OK" and you’ll view changes on the main
interface. Then click Apply to execute.
Tips: Before execution, it’s possible to extend other partitions by
using resize or merge
partitions even the unallocated space is not near them. Please pay
attention that the operation will be performed under PreOS Mode and your computer will reboot
when shrinking system partition or shrinking a partition where applications are
running.