Although there are many tools available to resize partitions for a hard drive, Windows 7 comes with two built in features, shrink and extend.
Their functionality is limited, but if you only want to make the hard drive partition smaller or extend it to make it bigger, then these tools will suffice. Here we will limit our discussion to modifying the volume by shrinking.
Step 1. Start -> Control Panel -> System and Security ->Administrative Tools
Control Panel
Select Administrative Tools
Now Look for Computer Management
Computer Management
Select the Disk Management option.
Computer Management Detail
Disk Management
There are several partitions on the hard drive. There is also an external hard drive attached.
Next select the disk or volume.
Various options exist but select Shrink Volume
In this example we will use the Simple Drive (I) Disk1, and perform the shrink volume option.
The first step will be to determine how much if any space is available to shrink from the volume.
Querying Volume for available space
The amount of space is determined and displayed.
Results of Review Status
At this point the amount of the review show that there is close to 20000 mb available. For our purposes, we will choose a smaller amount to resize the hard drive.
Amount To Shrink - 200mb
After the volume has been resized, these are the results.
A New Volume has been made - 201 mb size
Now we prep the volume to be used.
Creating a New Volume - Simple Volume
Microsoft uses a wizard to make the volume. Select the New Simple Volume, and you get the following:
Launching the Simple Volume Wizard
To keep it simple, select the defaults when possible.
Specify the Volume Size
Next Specify the Volume Drive Letter.
Assign A Drive Letter - J
Format the Volume.
Format the Partition with NTFS
Complete the Wizard
Complete The Simple Volume Wizard
The new disk management features
New Volume - Partition
The result of the partition and format on the new volume (J)
