How to Resize (Shrink) your Partition in Vista

Let me guess, you’ve downloaded your copy of Windows 7, and you want to dual boot. Maybe you’ve heard that you can re-claim unused space on your hard drive, and you want to know how. Heck, maybe you want to see what the big deal is with Windows 64 bit.Well never fear, here’s a quick guide on how to reclaim some unused space to use for a shiny new partition.

Note, these steps were done on Windows Vista Ultimate, so if it’s different in other versions, I warned you. Also, messing with partitions always makes me a little nervous. You should already have a backup, but it you don’t, make a good backup first.

Step 1 - You’ve got to get into computer management. I like right clicking on my computer, either on the desktop or in explorer, or even in the start menu, and then choosing “manage”.

Step 2 – In Computer Management, expand storage, and click on “Disk Management”.

Step 3 – In the right hand side of the screen, right click on the disk with the free space. Now choose “Shrink Volume”.

You’ll see a Status like the one below. Don’t panic, just be patient.

Step 4 - One the above dialog goes away, hopefully you’ll see a Window like the one below. Just enter the amount of space you would like to shrink the volume below, and click on Shrink (you’ll want at least 16G for Windows 7).

When you install windows, don’t choose upgrade, choose custom install, then install to the new partition.

Have fun!