Cannot shrink C: partition: Not enough space

Question

I am trying to create a new partition on my laptop (XPS 12 9Q33, 128GB SSD) by shrinking the C:\ partition. However, despite the fact that it indicates there is enough space, it displays an error message. I have successfully done this on my desktop, but for some reason it fails on my laptop.

There is not enough space available on the disk(s) to complete this operation.

I am trying to shrink C:\ (which has ~25GB free) by 10GB.

I have:

• ensured there are no files at the end of the sector (disabling pagefile, etc.). See How can I shrink a Windows 10 partition? for how to do that (and you do need to do that).
• turned off my antivirus temporarily.
• disabled BitLocker encryption.

And it still fails. I've even tried Paragon's Partition Manager, which claims there is not enough space on the disk, which is not true.

I have even tried shrinking different sizes (down to 256MB), but to no avail (it still displays the same error).

Screenshots:

Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

I got this error when trying to shrink by 150GB, but shrinking three times by 50GB worked fine.

Answer 2

Try launching the Event Viewer to see which individual files are blocking the partition shrink.

1. Once again, attempt to shrink the partition. You should get the "There is not enough space" error.
2. Launch Windows' Event Viewer application.
3. In Event Viewer, go to Windows Logs > Application.
4. Find and Click a recent log of type Warning. It should have the message, "Error: during volume shrink initiated on volume Windows (C:) we failed to move a movable file extent."
5. The Diagnostic details will give you the name of the "last unmovable file"
6. Delete this file (Simply send to recycle bin. I did not need a hard delete).
7. Try shrinking your volume again.
8. Repeat steps 2-7 until you successfully shrink your partition. (In my case, I had to do this 3 times, as I had 3 pdf files in my local Google Drive that were for some reason stuck as 'unmovable'.).
9. Restore your deleted files.

CAUTION: Make sure you know what you are deleting! In my case, I knew that these pdf files were:

1. Not system files
2. Easy to download again if they become lost

Answer 3

The reason why Windows won’t let you shrink the volume is as the message shown in Disk Management suggested, because there are immovable system files at the very end of the volume, as this screenshot from utility shows us. there are multiple things you could try to work this around.

1. Run the Disk Cleanup Wizard, making sure to remove the hibernation file and all restore points.

2. Disable System Restore

3. Disable the pagefile ( Open up System in Control Panel, then Advanced System Settings \ Advanced \ Performance \ Advanced \ Change \ No Paging File.

4. Disable kernel memory dump. In the same Advanced Settings, go to Startup and Recovery \ Settings and then change the Write debugging information drop-down to “None” to disable the kernel memory dump.

5. Disable Hibernation mode in your power options \ advanced power options screen.

Reboot the machine, and then delete your c:\pagefile.sys file, following these instructions if you are having issues. details about the fix and cause of this problem, see http://www.disk-partition.com/articles/shrink-volume-not-enough-space-4348.html

Answer 4

MS's Disk Management never shrinked right for me, usually having this kind of problems. I'd try a different program, my best experience is with MiniTool Partition Wizard Free. It won't shrink BitLocker encrypted partitions though. Since it's your system disk, you'd better do it from some live environment (such as some Windows PE environment if you have a license for that and use MiniTool Partition Wizard Free or other Windows tool there, or GParted Live CD or SystemRescueCD if you're comfortable enough with Linux) – and DON'T FORGET TO BACKUP before shrinking the drive.

Lists of live rescue/administration environments can be found at many places, such as at gfi.com in post "Top 5 Free Rescue Discs for Your Sys Admin Toolkit".

Answer 5

Something that people haven't mentioned yet is the Master File Table. In NTFS that's where the disk keeps track of where all the files are. By default it is placed in the center of the partition for ease of access, but without a 3rd party program you can't move it to shrink your partition past that halfway point.

Answer 6

As some people mentionned, there are unmovable files on the partition. On Windows 10, fast boot and hibernate create such files, so you have to disable these features before resizing. Here are the steps to disable them (in the "pre-setup" part): https://hackernoon.com/installing-ubuntu-18-04-along-with-windows-10-dual-boot-installation-for-deep-learning-f4cd91b58557

Answer 7

I had this on a Windows 2016 server, the solution was to try and try again, every time choosing a smaller value till it works, and then using a larger value again till it fails. I had to repeat around 15 times to get to the desired size.