How to Resize an NTFS Partition in Windows XP

By Jim Campbell

Shrink an NTFS partition on your hard drive.
i hard drive image by iMAGINE from Fotolia.com

The NTFS file system is a Windows-specific format for your computer's hard drive. It allows your operating system to store data on the hard disk. The advantage of NTFS over the older FAT system is the security properties placed on files. This allows Windows users to protect files and folders using passwords and sharing security. Reduce the size of the NTFS partition to free up hard drive space for other operating systems on the computer.

Click the Windows "Start" button and click "Control Panel." Click "Administrative Tools" and then double-click "Computer Management." In the opened window, select "Disk Management" to view your hard drive configurations.

Right-click the NTFS disk partition you want to change and select "Resize." This opens a new dialog box where you set the size of the partition.

Enter a new size in the text box labeled "Partition size." This value is entered in megabytes (MB). Therefore, if you want to size it as 2 gigabytes (GB), enter "2000" into the text box.

Click "OK" to save your settings. If prompted to restart, click the "Restart" button to reboot your machine for the settings to take effect.

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