How to shrink C drive in Windows Server 2019?
The most common issue in Windows Server is low disk space, especially for system C drive, so you need to expand it to larger size. But in some situations you need to shrink C drive, for example: when installing Operating System to a new hard disk, if you forget to create and edit partition, you’ll get a large C drive that occupy all disk space except several small system reserved partitions. Then is it possible to shrink partition C without reinstalling?
Yes, in this article I’ll show you how to shrink C drive in Windows Server 2019 with native Disk Management and third party disk partition software.
Shrink partition C without software
Windows Server 2019 native Disk Management has Shrink Volume functionality, which can be used to shrink C drive on the fly. It is also very fast, but in some situations, you cannot shrink C drive.
Steps to shrink C drive in Server 2019 Disk Management:
- Right click
on bottom left corner of the screen and select Disk Management. - Right click C drive and select Shrink Volume.
- In the pop-up window, enter the amount of space to shrink in MB and click Shrink to start.
on bottom left corner of the screen and select Disk Management.
In a short time, C drive is shrank and 120GB Unallocated space is generated behind C drive.
Cannot shrink C drive in some situation
After the last step, my C drive is shrank to 39.4GB and there is 28.95GB free space in it. But when I shrink C drive again, the maximum space can be shrank is only 19072MB (18.63GB).
Actually, not all but many people feedback such as issue, some people can only shrink little space, some people can’t shrink C drive to half size. If you noticed the tip in this window, you’ll understand the reason: you cannot shrink a volume beyond the point where any unmovable files are located.
For example, the unmovable files are located in block 3, the available space is in block 4, so you cannot shrink C drive to block 2 or 1.
Then is there a better method to decrease C drive in Windows Server 2019? Yes, run disk partition software.
Shrink C drive with partition software
As the most popular partition software for Windows Server and PC, NIUBI Partition Editor can help you reduce C drive and any data volumes. You just need to drag and drop on the disk map to shrink volume. The most important, it can move the “unmovable” files, so it is able to shrink C drive to minimum size if you want.
Download NIUBI Partition Editor, right click C drive and select Resize/Move Volume feature.
In the pop-up window, drag the right border leftwards.
C drive is shrank to 20.06GB and there is only 1.136GB free space.
Note: this is to show you how to shrink C drive on Windows Server 2019, do NOT shrink it too small, otherwise, C drive will be full in a short time. The suggested minimum size for C drive is 50GB, the larger the better.