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Lenovo laptop, Windows 10 Home 64-bit, 1TB HDD.
I created a USB recovery drive that includes system files.
My partitions:
EFI System Partition 260MB
Microsoft Reserved Partition 16MB
Windows (C:) 930GB
Recovery Partition 1000MB
I want to make the Windows partition much smaller.
I don't think I want to try to shrink it, because I read that Windows may have a hard time with it as some files cannot be moved.
To this end, I want to boot into the Gparted Live CD and do the following.
- Delete Windows partition.
- Create an unformatted partition of 120GB in its place for Windows.
- Move the Recovery Partition immediately to the right of the 120GB partition.
- Leave the rest of HDD unallocated for future use.
- Restore the Windows installation from the recovery drive to the 120GB partition.
This is where things could get tricky.
Is it possible to direct the recovery process to use the unformatted 120GB partition?
I was reading this:
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/38595-recover-windows-10-recovery-drive.html
And it says:
If you've repartitioned your system drive, this will restore its default partitions.
This would defeat what I am trying to do.
Can I instruct the recovery process not to change my partitions?
What else can I do? Re-install from a Windows 10 iso instead?
mcu
Posted 2018-08-01T06:04:09.443
Reputation: 197
I think the size is default. I don't think you can change it. – marijnr – 2018-08-01T06:23:24.227
I think Windows 10 64-bit requires <20GB for installation. – mcu – 2018-08-01T06:27:23.390
Yes but that doesn't mean you can configure the size of the partition. – marijnr – 2018-08-01T06:30:38.407
With default I meant you can't edit it. My bad. – marijnr – 2018-08-01T06:31:04.587
I don't think I want to try to shrink it, because I read that Windows may have a hard time with it as some files cannot be moved. You may use any defragmentation software which can move those "unmoveable" files (ever including $MFT, static swap and another those files) to the upper clusters. Defraggler, for example. It is safe. Then you can shrink your volume freely. – Akina – 2018-08-01T07:02:50.073
Or try to shrink it from Gparted Live CD? I remember reading years back about some people having problems with their Windows installations after doing this. Maybe it works well now. Can Gparted shrink Windows partition safely? – mcu – 2018-08-01T08:29:25.647