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 tool





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Now Look for Computer Management
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Select the Disk Management option.
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Disk Management
 
There are several partitions on the hard drive. There is also an external hard drive attached.

Next select the disk or 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.




The amount of space is determined and displayed.




Results of Review StatusAt 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.


After the volume has been resized, these are the results.



Now we prep the volume to be used




Microsoft uses a wizard to make the volume. Select the New Simple Volume, and you get the following:




To keep it simple, select the defaults when possible.




Next Specify the Volume Drive Letter






Complete the Wizard



The new disk management features





The result of the partition and format on the new volume (J)