Freeware to Shrink Volume on SSD in Windows without Limits

What is SSD and Volume?

SSD is the abbreviation of Solid State Drive. It’s a type of hard disk which stores mediums on the computer. According to the working principle, hard drive can be divided into HDD (Hard Disk Drive), SSD, HHD (Hybrid Hard Disk). Among them, SSD is usually used nowadays.

Volume is nearly the same as partition. However, volumes exist at the logical OS (operating system) level and partitions exist at the physical, media-specific level. Sometimes there’s a one-to-one correspondence, so volumes are commonly referred to as partitions.

Two ways to shrink SSD volume

To shrink a volume or said partition can release some unused space so that you can increase another one. Here are 2 methods that will show you how to shrink SSD volume in Windows 7. Meanwhile, the methods also apply to Windows 10/8.

▶ By Windows built-in Disk Management
▶ By freeware AOMEI Partition Assistant

▶ By Windows built-in Disk Management

Disk Management is an extension of the Microsoft Management Console which is used to manage drives installed in a computer.

Step 1. Right-click "Computer" and select "Manage".

Step 2. Click "Disk Management", then choose the volume (here is D) you want to shrink and right click on it.

Step 3. In this dialog box, you can decide the amount of space to shrink.

Step 4. After clicking "Shrink", a new unallocated space appeared after D. That’s all.

People usually shrink one volume in order to extend another one. But you’ll find that when right-clicking Volume C or E now, the option "Extend Volume" is greyed out. Why? Disk Management has a great limitation in resizing partitions. If you want to extend a volume, first, there must be unallocated space on the same disk. Second, the unallocated space must be adjacent to the volume and on its right side. While the function of shrinking only makes the unallocated space locate behind that volume. That is to say, like the example above, you can’t extend volume C or E with the unallocated space behind volume D. What’s more, you can not shrink a volume beyond the point where any unmovable files are located. Anyway, AOMEI Partition Assistant solves these problems perfectly. This is the second ideal way to be introduced.

▶ By freeware AOMEI Partition Assistant

AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard is a free partition manager software. It can help you resize partition(even BitLocker partition) without limitation and data loss in Windows 7/8/10/11 are also supported. Before you do, you’d better check partitions to ensure that there’s no error. Free download the software and see how to use it.

Step 1.  Install and launch it. Choose the partition you want to shrink (here is D) and right-click on it. Select "Resize/Move Partition".

Step 2. Move the mouse pointer to the border of the partition and drag it. Either the left side or right side is OK. You can also move the partition when the mouse shows like this:

Step 3. You’ll see changes on the main interface. Don’t forget to click “Apply” on the toolbar to commit the operation.

Please pay attention that the operation will be performed under PreOS Mode and your computer will reboot when shrinking system partition or shrinking a partition where applications are running.

Conclusion

According to your need, these two unallocated spaces can be used to create new partitions or extend any other partition through the functions such as "Merge Partitions", "Allocate Free Space" (this exists in AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional version) and so on. Besides, AOMEI Partition Assistant also supports to align SSD partition.