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Partition details (1 TB hard drive):

┌───────┬───────┬──────┬──────────┬────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Drive │ Total │ Free │ Free (%) │              Contents              │
├───────┼───────┼──────┼──────────┼────────────────────────────────────┤
│  C    │    93 │   67 │    72    │ Windows; few apps                  │
│  D    │   840 │  374 │    45    │ Docs, music, movies, portable apps │
└───────┴───────┴──────┴──────────┴────────────────────────────────────┘

Recently, I decided to have portable versions of almost all the applications I use. So, that resulted in a lot of free space in C drive, and I'm thinking of shriking it to make D drive bigger.

Can I be 100% sure that it'll be safe to expand the D partition (which doesn't contain system files) by shrinking C partition and moving the start of D?

Will it affect the portable apps I'm using?

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  • Where are the portable apps stored? If you move them from D: to C: you won't need to change your partition structure, and you may achieve better performance if it's a hard drive, because of reduced head movement when launching an application. Just make sure that you include the portable apps in your back-up schedule. Personally, I wouldn't be happy with a Windows install partition much under 100GB, especially on Windows 10. There's more than one way to make use of your freed space on C:.
    – AFH
    May 4, 2018 at 12:50
  • @AFH the portable apps are currently stored in D:. I've avoided placing them in C because recently, I've had to do clean install of OS multiple times. Would it affect the hard drive in the long run if I continue keeping the apps in the D drive?
    – popeye_the_sailorman
    May 7, 2018 at 2:18
  • No. I keep my portable apps on a separate drive, because of restricted space on C:, but that of course has separate heads, so there is no performance issue,
    – AFH
    May 7, 2018 at 8:47

1 Answer 1

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It will be rather safe. It shouldn't affect anything.

Rather, because partition operations always come with a risk - for example due to a power failure or a software bug. So make backups unless you can take the risk of losing that partition.

Windows' built-in Disk Management won't let you move a partition, you'll have to use a 3rd party tool. I personally boot from an Ubuntu flash drive and use GParted to move partitions.

NTFS partitions can't be "simply" resized left. Your partitioning tool of choice will have to copy its contents to the new location, then extend it right. This will take some time.

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  • This is a good answer due to the fact you point out, the default partition tool, shouldn't be used in a case like this.
    – Ramhound
    May 4, 2018 at 14:45

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