Shrink Volume with Disk Management in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7
What does it mean to shrink volume?
Shrinking a volume actually reduces the existing volume on the disk, rather than creating additional space. This process is typically undertaken for two main reasons.
☞ Users can create new volumes to store important data or information after shrinking volume, or use the new volume to keep backup system files and run multiple operating systems.
☞ The user can extend the size of the adjacent volume by shrinking the volume.the volume
You can extend the space of a partition by shrinking an adjacent one, freeing up space on the same disk. For example, if your system disk has only one partition and you want to add more space, you can shrink that partition and create a new one to store other data. This is also useful if you have two adjacent volumes, like C and D, where C is full but D has plenty of space left - you can extend C by shrinking D. This helps avoid having all your data and operating system on one partition, making your system more organized and efficient.
How to use Disk Management to shrink volume
Disk Management (DM) is a Windows built-in program that allows you to troubleshoot issues like formatting partitions, deleting partitions, and changing drive letters. You can use it to shrink a volume by following these steps.
Step 1.To shrink a volume in Windows, press the Windows key + R, then type "diskmgmt.msc" and press Enter. On the Disk Management main page, right-click the volume you want to shrink and select "Shrink Volume".
Step 2.To shrink an image, enter the desired size in the input field, and then click the "Shrink" button. This will reduce the image to the specified dimensions.
In Windows 10, you can't shrink a volume using Disk Management in certain situations, such as when the volume is already at its minimum size, or if there's a file system error, or if the volume is corrupted, or if there's not enough free space on the volume, or if the volume is a system volume, or if the volume is a BitLocker-encrypted volume.
1. If you're trying to shrink a partition but the option is greyed out, it might be because there are unmovable files at the end of the partition that you want to shrink. This can prevent the partition from being shrunk.
2. If there is some virtual memory on the partition, the shrink volume option may still be greyed out.
3. If the disk file system isn't NTFS or RAW, you can't shrink the volume, but you can convert it to NTFS to enable shrinking.
4. The disk fragment is also the reason that causes you unable to shrink volume.
Disk Management alternatives to shrink volume in Windows
To shrink volume, you can use alternative methods beyond Disk Management. One approach is to use third-party disk management software, such as Acronis Disk Director or Qiling Partition Master, which offer more advanced features and flexibility than the built-in Disk Management tool.
│Method 1. Shrink volume via Command Prompt
In addition to DM, using "cmd" to shrink volume is also a method, the specific steps are as follows:
Step 1. Press "WIN+R", type "cmd" and press Enter.
Step 2. To shrink volume in Windows 10, type the following commands in sequence and hit ENTER.
● diskpart
● list volume
● select volume 4 (volume number of the partition to shrink)
● To shrink the partition, you will need to specify the desired size, which is 10240. This is the amount of space you want to shrink the partition to.
Note: When attempting to shrink a volume using the command line, if any bad clusters are identified, the volume cannot be shrunk due to this issue.
│Method 2. Shrink volume by PowerShell
First of all, click "Start" and search PowerShell.
Step 1. Open PowerShell, and then enter the following commands one by one and hit ENTER:
● diskpart
● list volume
● select volume 3
● shrink desired = 2048
● exit
Step 2. Hit enter and wait for completion.
Note: If you're unable to shrink a volume due to unmovable files, the shrinking process can only proceed up to the point where those files are located. This means you won't be able to reduce the volume size further than where those files are situated.
│Method 3. Shrink volume with Qiling Disk Master
NoteWhile the methods mentioned above can help shrink a volume, they have limitations. Shrinking a volume is not possible when virtual memory is enabled, or when there are files that cannot be moved at the time, or when the file system is not NTFS. Fortunately, there is a better alternative available.
Qiling Disk Master Standard is a free software that allows users to manage their disks more flexibly, particularly when shrinking volumes, which can be problematic in Disk Management. It supports Windows XP to Windows 11 and can help users resize partitions, including extending or shrinking volumes, even when the Shrink Volume option is grayed out in Disk Management.
If you need advanced features such as allocating free space from one partition to another, converting NTFS to FAT32, converting primary partition to logical, cloning computer systems, and more, you'll need to upgrade to Qiling Disk Master Professional.
To shrink volume, you can follow the steps below:
Step 1.Download the freeware, install and launch it, and you will see the basic situation of your disk.
Step 2. Right-click the drive you want to shrink the volume, then choose "Resize/Move Partition".
Step 3. Drag the border (left side). You can move the partition.
Step 4. Click Apply to submit the whole operation.
Things you might do after shrinking volume
After successfully shrinking the volume with the free partition manager, you can use the unallocated space to create a new partition or extend another partition that needs more disk space. This can be easily done using Qiling Disk Master Standard, which allows you to create a new partition in the unallocated space.
Conclusion
In addition to using Disk Management to shrink a volume, I also introduced three other methods that you can choose from to achieve the same result.
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