How to Shrink a Windows 7 Hard Drive Partition and Create New Drives

Step 1: Check Available Shrink Space

1. Press Windows + R.
2. Type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter.
3. Right-click the C: drive and select Shrink Volume.
4. Review the available shrink size reported by Windows.

Step 2: Disable Hibernation

Open Command Prompt as Administrator and run:

powercfg -h off

Step 3: Disable Page File

1. Right-click Computer and select Properties.
2. Click Advanced System Settings.
3. Open Performance Settings.
4. Select the Advanced tab.
5. Click Change under Virtual Memory.
6. Select No Paging File.
7. Restart the computer.

Step 4: Disable System Restore

1. Open System Protection.
2. Select the system drive.
3. Click Configure.
4. Turn off system protection temporarily.

Step 5: Consolidate Free Space

Run the following command as Administrator:

defrag C: /X

This consolidates free space and may increase the available shrink size.

Step 6: Shrink the Partition

1. Open Disk Management.
2. Right-click C: drive.
3. Select Shrink Volume.
4. Enter the desired shrink size.
5. Click Shrink.

Step 7: Create a New Partition

1. Right-click the Unallocated Space.
2. Select New Simple Volume.
3. Assign a drive letter.
4. Format the partition as NTFS.
5. Complete the wizard.

Using DiskPart Command

diskpart
list disk
select disk 0
list volume
select volume C
shrink desired=102400
create partition primary
format fs=ntfs quick
assign letter=D

Additional Recommendation

If Windows still cannot shrink the partition enough, use advanced partition management tools such as GParted, MiniTool Partition Wizard, or AOMEI Partition Assistant to move unmovable system files.