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I have a 1TB hard disk with windows 8.1 running on it. I want to create a partition(preferably of the size around 20 GB) from my C drive to install a linux Operating System along with windows(Dual boot). It says it has 56.2 GB in the computer window. But when I go to the hard disk partition wizard, I am only able to shrink 801MB max. I already went through the defragmentation process with no help. If this question is a duplicate then please redirect it.

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  • So your asking why you are unable to shrink it more then 800MB?
    – Ramhound
    Apr 29, 2015 at 11:29
  • Yes exactly !!. I want to put a linux distribution in the other one. Here are the images stackoverflow.com/questions/29941253/…
    – goodbytes
    Apr 29, 2015 at 11:36
  • I don't visit Stackoverflow anymore. Their community is extremely passive aggressive. So I won't even visit the website to view the image, sorry.
    – Ramhound
    Apr 29, 2015 at 11:41
  • I do not have enough credits here to post images yet
    – goodbytes
    Apr 29, 2015 at 11:43
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    Just post the url to the image in a comment somebody can inline the screenshot, of course, you cross-posting isn't good either.
    – Ramhound
    Apr 29, 2015 at 11:43

2 Answers 2

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If @Ramhounds approach does not work, you could use Linux for this.

A tool to use would be the Gparted live CD (it can also be used as a usb stick).

Please be aware that you should reboot Windows twice after resizing.

PS: all these operations can damage your data, which should be backed up before

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  • "all these operations can damage your data": I never had a single little problem with gparted or whatever other tools. Anyone already had a problem apart for doing stupid things ?
    – Bertrand SCHITS
    Apr 29, 2015 at 12:01
  • actually gparted is way safer than some other ways of moving / resizing partitions
    – serv-inc
    Apr 29, 2015 at 12:05
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The reason why it doesn't allow you to shrink more than 800MB is because on Windows you have mandatory file lock. I.e. you can't move/delete a file on the disk when it's opened.

So if any of the system files (which are loaded when Windows runs) happens to be at the end of your partition, it will prevent shrinking beyond that part because Windows will be unable to move it somewhere else because it's being accessed and thus locked.

And that's why you can still do the shrink from a Live CD, because those files will not be loaded because Windows won't be running. As the others suggested, grab GPparted Live, it works pretty well and has a nice, intuitive interface.

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