I have a 500GB SSD with about 200GB of free space. However, when I attempt to shrink the partition using Windows' built-in tool, it only allows me to shrink by 366MB. I've already turned off paging and defragmented the drive, but nothing seems to work. What are my options for shrinking the drive more effectively?
5 Answers
The built-in Windows partition tool can be pretty limited when it comes to shrinking partitions. I recommend trying third-party software like EaseUS Partition Master or AOMEI Partition Assistant. They'll give you much more flexibility and allow you to shrink the partition better than the default Windows option.
To achieve a larger OS partition, you might want to move data off your data drive to another device, delete it from there, and then expand your OS partition into the free space. That often works best for your needs.
Have you considered using GParted? It's a powerful tool that's really effective for managing partitions on both SSDs and HDDs. You might have better luck with that than Windows' tool.
Make sure to optimize your drive first before attempting to shrink it. Although defragmentation is mostly for HDDs, it might help if there's some residual data placement issues on the SSD, but it's usually not necessary.
Just a heads up, SSDs shouldn't be defragged like traditional drives. They're designed to work differently, so defragging won’t help and can actually harm the drive.
Have you checked if that 200GB of free space is actually on your main OS partition? If it's not, the shrink might not be working because the data isn't on that partition. If the resizing is for your OS drive, you'll need to move some data off or delete it to expand properly.
Thanks for the suggestion! I ended up using DiskGenius to manage my partitions and it made a huge difference.