How to shrink and create new partition on Windows Server

In this guide, you will learn how to shrink and create new partition on Windows Server. On Windows, you can decrease the space used by primary partitions and logical drives by shrinking them into adjacent, contiguous space on the same disk. Please, see how to Enable and use Sudo in Windows 11, how to Add Another Hard Drive to a Virtual Machine in HyperV, and how to Locate, Find and Grep: How to search for files and patterns in Linux or Unix-like OS.

In computing, we use the terms volume and partition to describe how storage devices like hard drives or SSDs are organized. Although they’re related, they refer to different things.

For instance as it is in my case, you may need another partition but don’t have more disks. To create a new unallocated space, you can shrink the existing partition from the end of the volume. That space can then be used for a new partition. Certain file types can block the shrink operation

You divide a physical storage device into partitions, which are separate sections of the disk. From those partitions, the system creates volumes, which provide the usable storage space that the operating system can interact with. In some cases, a volume can span more than one partition.

Also, see how to Shrink and Compact Virtual Hard Disks in Hyper-V, and how to create a Recovery Partition in Microsoft Windows 10/11, and how to create a Recovery Partition in Microsoft Windows 10/11.

Steps to Shrink Partition on Windows Server

To do this, launch Disk Management. There are several methods to launch the Disk Management tool in Windows. One common method is through Computer Management. From the search console, type computer management to open the console.

From the Computer Management console, navigate to Storage and click on Disk Management

Alternatively, you can launch the Disk Management utility directly by typing “Disk Management“. Select Create and format hard disk partitions from the search results.

This action will open the Disk Management console, allowing you to manage disk partitions and volumes

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Shrink Volume

Note: When you shrink a partition, any ordinary files are automatically relocated on the disk to create the new unallocated space. There’s no need to reformat the disk to shrink the partition.

Right-click the C: Drive and select Shrink Volume as shown below. This will query the shrink space

If the partition is a raw partition that contains data, such as a database file, shrinking the partition might destroy the data.

Please, enter the amount of space to shrink in MB. A total of 570498 MB will be 570,498. When divided by 1024, we have 557.1 GB. Then the available shrink space is 522631 MB. Which is 522,631 divided by1024 = 510GB.

Now, I wish to assign 200 GB on C: Partition only. Therefore, I will need to shrink the current 557 GB partition to 200 GB. This means, 557 GB − 200 GB = 357 GB to shrink. Therefore, I will need to convert 357 GB to MB. This will be 357×1,024=365568 MB.

Now, enter the value of “365568” into the available space to shrink as shown below. Do not forget to click on Shrink.

As shown, the C: partition has been successfully shrunk, resulting in unallocated space on the disk. This unallocated space is now available for creating a new partition or volume using the Disk Management tool.

Please, see how to “Analyse Disks with Treesize: Defragment and Shrink VMware Workstation VM Disks“, and How to install Pleasant Password Server.

Create New Volume

So, let us proceed and create a new partition. To do this, right-click the unallocated space that appears after shrinking and select “New Simple Volume”.

On the New Simple Volume wizard, click on Next

Yes, I will be consuming the entire volume size. Therefore, I will specify the volume size. But since I am consuming the entire which is the default full unallocated space, I will click on Next.

I will assign the drive letter D and click on Next and have it formatted with Format NTFS.

As you can see below, we have successfully completed the New Simple Volume creation. Click on Finish to close the wizard. To do this with the Diskpart.exe utility, please take a look at this guide.

Please, see How to create a BitLocker System Partition [Part 2], and “What are System Partition and Boot Partition in Windows“.

Rename Partition on Windows Server

There are different ways to rename a drive. This can be done via the File Explorer or Disk Management etc. To do this over the Disk Management utility, right click on the newly created partition you wish to rename, and select Properties.