Cannot shrink C: Partition beyond 297 MB

Solution 1:

The reason why Windows won’t let you shrink the volume is because there are immovable system files at the very end of the volume. The immovable file is actually the MFT, or Master File Table for the volume. In other words, because it's a system partition.

I suggest to use this program AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard Edition, it's free and simple to use. It will do all you want in a restart.So, setup it in the normal windows interface, open it and do what you have to do, then restart and follow the instructions on the screen.

Solution 2:

You can use a defragmenting tool to defragment the drive you're trying to shrink to make the free space contiguous.

There's:

• Defraggler (Has an option specifically for doing this)
• Auslogics Disk Defrag (Does this with the "Defrag and Optimize Option)

The advantage of using this instead of partitioning tools is that this consolidates your free space block, so you can shrink a lot more, and it also defrags your files, which increases read speeds. You can defrag, shrink, and then partition without having to restart your computer.

The downside is that this isn't the best choice for an SSD because this is a bit heavier on the wear and tear side for SSDs with the large amounts of writing to be done. In that case, you may be much better off with the aforementioned partitioning tools. This process may also be fairly time consuming depending on how often you defrag your HDDs