Resizing Windows OS Disk Past 50%

bwestrup777

Active Member
Mar 28, 2012
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Normally, one cannot resize a Windows partition past 50% because the Master File Table (MFT) is placed in the middle of the disk and is marked immovable by the operating system. To get around this, perform the following steps:
  1. Create a "servicing" VM and install Windows 7 into it.
  2. Install Minitool Partition Wizard (free edition) into the servicing VM . It can be downloaded from here: http://download1.minitool.com/10.2.2/pw102-free.exe
  3. Once the installation is complete, attach a blank virtual drive to the newly create servicing VM with the desired size. The size should be the size you're attempting to reduce the target disk to. Note: The disk will need to be large enough to hold all of the the data from the disk being copied.
  4. Then attach the target disk to to the VM. This is the disk that will be resized and has the OS on it.
  5. Start Mini Partition Wizard and select the copy disk option from toolbar. Insure that the disk your copying is the target OS disk (not the servicing machine's) and the destination is the blank virtual drive. Then click apply to carry out the action.
  6. Once the copy operation completes, shut down the servicing VM and attach that the newly copied drive is to the target host.
  7. At this point, you should be able to boot into the VM with the resized disk.
  8. The servicing VM can now be destroyed/disposed of.
 
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