Tip #32: Shrink your current disk partition to create new partitions

Most new PCs come with only a single partition
for programs and files.

Reader Kam Yew recently received a new laptop with Windows 7. He pointed out that in Tip #15: Disk partitions, or "I have a C and D drive in My Computer", there were no steps on how to create a second partition if there is already a single partition occupying the entire hard disk.

Most new laptops or desktops purchased from an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) like Acer, HP and Dell usually come with only one usable partition whereby the operating system is installed and where they expect you to store your files. If you're not happy with that, it is possible to shrink (make smaller) that partition so that there is room for a second partition.

To do this, you must be using either Windows Vista or Windows 7. Windows XP is not capable of shrinking partitions. And like all potentially-dangerous disk operations, there is always a possible chance of losing data, so do a backup if you can. With that in mind, let's get started.

1. Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management (if you don't see Administrative Tools in Control Panel, switch to Classic View in Vista, or change View by Category to View by Large/Small icons in Windows 7).
   - OR -
   Click on Start (or open the Run dialogue box), type compmgmt.msc and press Enter. Vista users may get a User Account Control prompt, just click Continue.
2. In the Computer Management window, under Storage click Disk Management. Wait for that to load a while.
   
   
   
   
   


3. All your disks (hard disks, DVD drives, pendrives) should appear in a chart-like manner. Look for the disk with the partition you want to shrink. In my example dummy disk, the partition that I want to shrink has the letter E: and is labelled "System Partition".
   NOTE: if this computer was purchased from an OEM, you might see other partitions like a small one at the beginning of the hard drive which is about a few hundred megabytes, and also a recovery partition at the end of the drive. It is recommended that you DO NOT touch these partitions for your own (and your computer's) sake.
4. Once you are really, really, really sure you want to shrink that partition, right click on it and (naturally) choose Shrink Volume.
5. Windows will tell you how much space you have to shrink, so type in the amount of space you want to shrink, in megabytes (MB). Remember that Windows calculates a gigabyte as 1024 megabytes, not 1000. The amount of shrink space you have is not dependent on the amount of free space you have.
6. When you're happy with the total size of the current partition after shrinking, click Shrink.

You have just shrunk your partition and created some free, unallocated space behind that partition. In this space you can create one (or as many) new partitions as you like.

1. Right click on the unallocated space (coloured black), and choose New Simple Volume.
2. The New Simple Volume wizard appears. Click Next.
3. Type in the size of the new partition. The default number will be the maximum possible size of the new partition. Click Next.
4. Windows will ask you to choose a drive letter for the new partition. Change it if you want to, and click on Next again.
5. On the next page, you should choose "Format this volume with the following settings":
• File system - NTFS should be fine for most cases, choose FAT32 if you are planning other uses for this partition
• Allocation unit size - leave it as Default
• Volume label - here you can name the partition, e.g. My Files
• Leave the last two options unticked
6. Lastly click Finish to create the partition.

You can now store your files on a seperate partition, even if your computer didn't come with one. One more thing: it is best if you do this as soon as you have received your new computer - the more you use a partition (i.e. your system partition), the smaller the available shrink space becomes.