Method #1 – Shrinking the system partition by using the GUI 1. Log on as an Administrator. Go to Control Panel System and Maintenance Administrative Tools Computer Management. Expand the Storage section, and in it go to the Disk Management console. Select the disk you want to.
Can You Expand a Partition in Windows 7
Windows 7, announcing to make your PC simpler and things you do every day easier, has come to us now. True, many Windows fans have rushed to use and test it before it releases officially and give a thumb up to its good performance and advanced features.
However, there are still some different voices, like 'Windows 7 won't let me expand partition', 'boot errors after expanding the Windows 7 partition'. How to expand or extend partition in Windows 7/8 or even Windows 10, especially when to expand the system partition is needed?'
Method 1. Use Disk Management to Extend Windows 7 Partition
- Notice:
- Please note that there must be unallocated space behind the partition which you want to expand with Windows built-in Disk Management utility.
- Otherwise, you might find that the Extend Volume option is greyed out and not available.
At this moment, you have two choices to solve this problem: shrink a partition and then extend the target partition with Disk Mangement tool or apply third-party partition manager software for help.
See the detail steps to see how can you expand your partition size with Disk Management in Windows 7 now:
1. Right-click My Computer and choose Manage -> Storage -> Disk Management.
2. Select the adjacent disk of the disk you want to extend, right click and choose Shrink Volume to create some free disk space.
3. Select the disk you want to extend, right click and choose Extend Volume to expand the partition.
4. Set and add more size to your target partition and click Next to continue.
Follow the onscreen guidelines to complete the process.
Method 2. To Expand/Extend Windows 7 Partition with EaseUS Partition Software
When Disk Management in Windows 7 cannot manage your partition as your desire, or if you know little about Windows, an easier and safer alternative solution - EaseUS free partition software will be a nice choice to expand partitions in Windows 7. Here is the step-by-step guide.
EaseUS Partition Master, as a comprehensive hard disk partition tool, also works as system optimization software for Windows-based administration, not only enabling you to increase Windows 7/Windows 8 partition size without data loss, extending system partition without reboot can also be done on your own.
Step 1: Launch EaseUS Partition Master
Step 2: Free up space to extend partition
If the hard drive has enough unallocated space to extend the target partition, jump to Step 3 and continue.
If not, free up space first:
1. Right-click on a partition next to the target partition and select 'Resize/Move'.
2. Drag the partition ends to free up space, leaving enough unallocated space behind the target partition, click 'OK'.
Step 3: Extend partition
1. Right-click on the target partition and select 'Resize/Move'.
2. Drag the target partition handle into the unallocated space to extend partition.
Step 4: Keep all changes
Click the 'Execute Operation' button and click 'Apply' to keep all changes.
KEEP NOTED:
If you extend the Windows system C drive in Windows 7 or Windows 8/10 by following the above four steps with EaseUS Partition Master, and the program asks you to restart your PC.
Please do as the software required. All changes will be kept into the system and you'll get a bigger C drive after rebooting.
I have just bought an HP laptop with Windows 7 (64 bit). It has a 500 GB HDD with three partitions: a small hidden system partition, a 12 GiB HP recovery partition, and a 450 GiB C: boot partition.
I would like to split this large C: partition into two partitions, leaving only 100 GiB for the system, and giving the rest to a new data partition.
Although the Windows built-in Disk Management utility has an option to shrink the bootable partition, it only allows me to shrink it roughly by half, even though only 20 GiB on the partition is used. As far as I understand, system unmovable files lie in the middle of the partition, preventing Disk Management utility to do what I want.
And since new HP laptops don't come with OS installation disks (they only allow you to create recovery disks yourself), I can't just repartition HDD and then reinstall OS.
So, is there a way to shrink the C: bootable partition and preserve Windows 7 working?
P.S.: I have tried to use the third-party GParted utility, and after shrinking the partition, Windows 7 stopped booting, with a BSoD. System recovery didn't work, and I had to do factory recover. Since this is a long process, I would like to avoid doing it again :) So, please, suggest only proven solutions.
Peter Mortensen
Alex CheAlex Che7 Answers
TL;DR
- Try to shrink the partition in the Windows Disk Management snap-in. Proceed to the step 2, if the shrink fails.
- Find the event with ID 259 in the Windows Event Log and see it's details.
- For even more details, optionally, run the fsutil command with the appropriate parameters given on step 2.
- Given the details from the steps 2 and 3, determine what component, program or feature is locking your partition.
- Temporarily disable or uninstall it.
- Go to the step 1.
Possible culprits: Virtual Memory, System Restore and/or Windows Search Index (System Volume Information folder), Hibernation, Internet Explorer temporary files.
Detailed version:
In the low-level tasks, like working with an HDD system partition, I prefer to use native tools as much as possible, and switch to third-party tools only as a last resort, if none of native tools worked. So, directed by harrymc, I gave Windows Disk Management another try.
I first turned Virtual Memory and System Restore off, removed System Volume Information folders, and after that Disk Management utility allowed me to shrink the C: partition as much as I needed. After that I turned the features back on.
The following instructions may help you to identify what application or component is preventing your partition to shrink. First you need to find the latest event with ID 259 in the Windows Event Log (see Event Viewer / Windows Logs / Application). The event is generated when the system analyses a partition, and if you have already tried to shrink a partition via right-clicking on it in the disk management snap-in, then the event should be there. Another way to make the system analyze a partition is to run the Windows built-in defragmentation utility. The event tells you the last unmovable file or just the number of the last cluster of such a file. It also tells you the complete command to run from the command line to get more details about the last unmovable file. (Alternatively, you can probably also try to calculate the cluster number as min allowed partition size divided by cluster size, and then run the fsutil command with the appropriate parameters).
The filename will give you a hint to guess, what program or feature is locking your partition. And then you can turn it off or uninstall, and see if it helped. In my case turning off Virtual Memory and System Restore was enough. Sometimes it is also necessary to turn off hibernation, etc. And sometimes partition defragmentation may also help. Also, as stated in the WindowsITPro article, Windows Search Index files and Internet Explorer temporary files can also be 'unmovable'. Sometimes just disabling the System Restore and Windows Search Index will automatically remove unmovable files from the System Volume Information folder, and sometimes you may need to remove the folder manually after that.
P.S.: Thanks everyone for answers. Probably third-party tools would also work in my case, and probably they are easier to use, but as I have already told, for such kind of tasks I prefer to use native tools as much as possible. Also, personal thanks to harrymc for the important hint.
Alex CheAlex CheIf I was you, I would give Gparted another try, it can be used as a Linux boot disk and can resize disks very well.
Shrink System Partition Windows 7
If you take a look at the download page, there is a warning with a bug relating to NTFS disks so you may want to try a previous version.
WARNING: Recently there have been several reports of problems when resizing file systems using gparted-live-0.5.0-3. In the case of the NTFS file system, The error message seen after the partition is resized is:
The problem appears to be related to the combination of packages, Linux kernel, and patches used in the GParted Live image. We are investigating to find the root cause of the problem. Until this problem is solved we recommend GParted Live 0.4-6-1 for resizing all file systems.
William HilsumWilliam HilsumFirst, I would backup the system partition (for example, with Symantec Ghost v11 Enterprise). And for good measure, also image the ENTIRE drive (you can restore much faster than with HP's restore facility). Download usb card reader driver.
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Then delete the C: drive and create two new partitions to your likings with a partitioning tool of your choice. Then deploy the image of the former C: drive to the first partition.
Peter MortensenSome Windows files are unmovable and are unhelpfully allocated by Windows at the end or middle of the disk, so that one can only shrink C up to a limit. Which is exactly what you have discovered: The disk cannot be further reduced without destroying Windows.
The only solution is to reinstall Windows in a smaller partition. In your case, you will need to delete the existing system partition and divide it into two partitions via a third-party tool, then restore Windows into the first partition on the disk. Do not touch the restore partition!
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I suggest using Paragon Partition Manager 2010 Free Edition as having a good user interface. Otherwise you can use any other tool such as GParted.
Peter MortensenI've been banging my head for several days in an attempt to shrink a Windows 7 primary partition that hosts the OS. The problem was a set of system files located in the middle of the partition that were excluded during the defragmentation process. Various attempts with several disk partitioning programs, some of which touted their ability to relocate all system files, succeeded in creating only more frustration.
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The solution:
Turn off System Recovery. The files that would not relocate during defragmentation were created by that utility and contained all the restore points. When you turn off System Recovery, these files are deleted. Once deleted, Windows 7's Disk Management utility was able to shrink my 259GB C: partition to a bit over 40GB.
GaffGParted solved my problem! After struggling with unmovable files in the standard Windows Disk Manager I finally used GParted from the Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) live CD. It worked like a charm!
Peter MortensenFor a bitlocked drive I have successfully used the tool Raxco Perfect Disk 12 (evaluation version).
It contains a defragmentation tool with a 'shrink drive' profile. It can move many unmovable files on the fly. In my case, I needed to schedule it at boot anyway and it did the job. After that, I was able to shrink the drive from the Disk Management console in a standard way.
Advantages:
- It worked despite the fact that my system drive was bitlocked. Bitlocker would prevent Linux tools I suppose.
- It did not upset my bitlocker setup. Some tools that do mess with the boot sequence turn on bitlocker recovery mode.
- It did not require disabling, uninstalling or removing any files.
Resize Hard Drive Partition Windows 10
protected by DMA57361Mar 1 '11 at 8:20
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