Minimum size that I can shrink the C drive to is too big

[carrierpigeon]

Using disk management, Windows is letting me shrink the C drive to a size of 1/2 of the current size.
I know there is a way to shrink it more than that. This requires changing some settings.

Does anyone know how to do this?

 

[USAFRet]

Using disk management, Windows is letting me shrink the C drive to a size of 1/2 of the current size.
I know there is a way to shrink it more than that. This requires changing some settings.

Does anyone know how to do this?

Please show us a screencap of your Disk Management window.

 

[Rocky Bennett]

I would not have a C: drive under 120 GB, show us your disk management screen.

Edit: If you have 250 GB to spare that would actually be better for most Windows 10 installations, but everybody has different needs.

 

[carrierpigeon]

Before reading your post, I decided to put it at 107 GB. I think you are right about that being a little low, but I suppose it varies a lot from user to user.

Here is the solution:
https://superuser.com/questions/1017764/how-can-i-shrink-a-windows-10-partition

Should I change the settings back after I resize the drive?

 

[Rocky Bennett]

What settings?

 

[carrierpigeon]

What settings?

I was referring to the answer posted in what I linked to. At the time of writing this, it had 49 upvotes.
I looked into this more and it turns out that after resizing the drive you should change the settings (that you had to modify to do that) back.

 

[Colif]

this answer?

There seems to be absolutely no need for any third party software.

I have followed the instructions here, and I successfully shrank my OS partition in about 10 minutes. Running under Windows 10, but I doubt it makes a difference here.

The steps are:

1. Disable hibernation.

At a an elevated (admin) command prompt, run the command

powercfg /h off
2. Disable pagefile.

Open the System page in Control Panel (from “This PC”/“My computer”, open the Properties). Click “Advanced System Settings”, then in the “System Properties” dialog's “Advanced” tab, open the “Performance” settings, go to the “Advanced” tab, click “Change...” under “Virtual memory”, untick “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives”, select the drive you want to shrink, select “No paging file” and click the “Set” button.

3. Disable system protection.

In the “System Properties” dialog as above, go to the “System Protection” tab, click “Configure...” and select “Disable system protection”.

Restart.

Now the three files that were preventing partition reduction are gone. Reduce partition size, and then restore the three items.

I would re enable page file as if you play games at any stage and PC wants more ram than is currently free, PC is going to crash. win 10 only uses page file as last resort but its still handy to have one. My page file is only 1gb even though I have 16gb of ram, win 10 only takes what it needs. Set it back to system managed.

might want to turn on system protection as well -

System protection is a feature that allows you to undo unwanted system changes by being able to do a System Restore. System Restore enables users, in the event of a problem, to restore their computers to a previous state (restore point) without losing personal data files.

Each restore point contains the necessary information needed to restore the system to the chosen state. Restore points are automatically generated when you install a new app, driver, or Windows update, and generated when you create a restore point manually. Restoring won’t affect your personal files in your %UserProfile% folder, but it will remove apps, drivers, and updates installed after the restore point was created.

This can be handy if your PC isn't working well after you recently installed an app, driver, or update.

Hibernation isn't so important.

 

[carrierpigeon]

this answer?

There seems to be absolutely no need for any third party software.

I have followed the instructions here, and I successfully shrank my OS partition in about 10 minutes. Running under Windows 10, but I doubt it makes a difference here.

The steps are:

1. Disable hibernation.

At a an elevated (admin) command prompt, run the command

powercfg /h off
2. Disable pagefile.

Open the System page in Control Panel (from “This PC”/“My computer”, open the Properties). Click “Advanced System Settings”, then in the “System Properties” dialog's “Advanced” tab, open the “Performance” settings, go to the “Advanced” tab, click “Change...” under “Virtual memory”, untick “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives”, select the drive you want to shrink, select “No paging file” and click the “Set” button.

3. Disable system protection.

In the “System Properties” dialog as above, go to the “System Protection” tab, click “Configure...” and select “Disable system protection”.

Restart.

Now the three files that were preventing partition reduction are gone. Reduce partition size, and then restore the three items.

I would re enable page file as if you play games at any stage and PC wants more ram than is currently free, PC is going to crash. win 10 only uses page file as last resort but its still handy to have one. My page file is only 1gb even though I have 16gb of ram, win 10 only takes what it needs. Set it back to system managed.

might want to turn on system protection as well -

System protection is a feature that allows you to undo unwanted system changes by being able to do a System Restore. System Restore enables users, in the event of a problem, to restore their computers to a previous state (restore point) without losing personal data files.

Each restore point contains the necessary information needed to restore the system to the chosen state. Restore points are automatically generated when you install a new app, driver, or Windows update, and generated when you create a restore point manually. Restoring won’t affect your personal files in your %UserProfile% folder, but it will remove apps, drivers, and updates installed after the restore point was created.

This can be handy if your PC isn't working well after you recently installed an app, driver, or update.

Hibernation isn't so important.

Yes, that answer.
I agree with your post.