In the shrinking window, there is a tip - You cannot shrink a volume beyond the point where any unmovable files are located, what does it mean?įor example: C drive is made up of 4 blocks, if any unmovable files are located in block 3, you cannot shrink C drive to block 2 or 1 even though there is free space. Cannot shrink volume because of unmovable files Solution: repeat the shrinking operation by entering a smaller amount by yourself. When you shrinking any partition (especially to C drive), if you shrink with default maximum amount or even entered a larger amount by mistake, you are very likely receive error - There is not enough space available on the disk(s) to complete this operation. The most common trouble is not enough space and unmovable files.
It is very easy to shrink partition with Windows 7 Disk Management, but you may encounter issue. Can't shrink system partition - not enough space It is the same to shrink partition D or other data volumes. In most cases, C drive will be shrunk in a short time. When shrinking partition D with Shrink Volume function, Unallocated space can only be made on the right side of D, but to expand C drive with Extend Volume, Unallocated space must be on the left side of D.įollow the steps to shrink system partition C in Windows 7 Disk Management: This is not an issue if you just want to shrink a volume to create new, but if you want to extend a volume by shrinking other one, it is impossible with Windows 7 Disk Management. This is one of the reasons why Shrink Volume is disabled. NTFS and FAT32 are most common partition type in Windows 7, but Disk Management can only shrink and extend NTFS partitions. But on the other hand, it has many disadvantages. In fact, it has an advantage than all third party partitioning software: it is able to shrink system C drive without rebooting. It is able to shrink system partition and data volumes without losing data. Shrink C drive in Windows 7 Disk Managementīetter than Windows XP, Windows 7 has Shrink Volume function built in Disk Management. If you cannot shrink system C drive with unmovable files or if Shrink Volume greyed out, run NIUBI Partition Editor. If it works, you can shrink hard drive partition without software. This article introduce how to shrink C drive and data drive with Windows 7 Shrink Volume function in native Disk Management. In most of Windows 7 computers, system C drive is running out of space, so many people want to shrink volume D to extend system partition. In this situation, you can shrink C drive to create more partitions. If you forget to create and edit partition when installing Windows 7 on a new disk, so all disk space except the system reserved partition is occupied by C drive.