Shrink Operating System partition

[Sichuan]

I have a 1TB internal drive. The first partition is the Dell utility. The second partition is the Dell recovery. The third and final partition is my OS. I want to shrink the OS partition down to 150GB but Windows Disk Management will only allow me to shrink it a small amount. I suppose it is due to immovable MFT, shadow copies or page file files. I don't want to use a third party disk partition application, such as Partition Wizard, if I can avoid it. I don't want to lose the ability to boot after running Partition Wizard and have to restore from a backup or worse, do a clean install.

Will I be able to move these immovable files to the beginning of the OS partition by using MyDefrag? I have attached two files that shows my situation. Thank you in advance for your time and any assistance you may be able to provide.

C.B.

[Darlis]

Will I be able to move these immovable files to the beginning of the OS partition by using MyDefrag?

That depends on the file. MyDefrag can move the MFT and usually the system restore points, too. You can also disable the latter and the pagefile (and hibernation) temporarily. You should be able to move more files in Windows Safe Mode or from another OS, for example from a bootable Windows CD.

[jeroen]

Will I be able to move these immovable files to the beginning of the OS partition by using MyDefrag?

Some of them, but not all.
Tip: take a look at Gnome Partition Editor. It's a free tool for resizing partitions. It moves those pesky system files by itself, you don't first have to use MyDefrag.

[Sichuan]

Will I be able to move these immovable files to the beginning of the OS partition by using MyDefrag?

Some of them, but not all.
Tip: take a look at Gnome Partition Editor. It's a free tool for resizing partitions. It moves those pesky system files by itself, you don't first have to use MyDefrag.

Actually, after using MyDefrag I was left with only 12MB allowable shrink space. I used Partition Wizard to shrink the OS partition and then divided in half the remaining unallocated space. I experienced no problems.

C.B.

[BloodySword]

Before Shrinking, please do always a backup image with Macrium Reflect free it is very easy and 100% reliable.

[Darlis]

Sichuan has already shrunken the volume...

[BloodySword]

I know but everyone should do it to prevent data loss.