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Windows tip of the week

Carve an extra partition from a disk

By Ed Bott

The most common disk configuration on a Windows PC is a single partition that occupies all available space on that disk. But sometimes it helps to have a second partition. You can, for example, install a clean copy of Windows on that second partition and use it when you need to troubleshoot or test without affecting your regular setup.

The first step is to shrink the existing partition using the Disk Management console (Diskmgmt.exe). Right-click the volume that contains the extra space you want to use and then choose Shrink Volume from the shortcut menu. That opens a dialog box that analyzes how much space is available and lets you fine tune the exact amount.

Note that even if there's plenty of free space, you might be unable to create a new partition the size you want, because of the presence of page files and volume shadow copy files, which can't be moved. Windows 10 is notably better than Windows 7 in this regard.

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