{"id":8934,"date":"2019-04-30T06:28:15","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T06:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.58.113.91\/blog\/?p=8934"},"modified":"2026-02-27T21:25:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T15:55:02","slug":"you-cannot-shrink-volume-beyond-point-disk-mgmt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/you-cannot-shrink-volume-beyond-point-disk-mgmt\/","title":{"rendered":"[Fix] “Cannot shrink a volume beyond the point” when Resizing a Partition Using Disk Management"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you use the Disk Management console to shrink the volume in which the Operation System is installed, you’re unable to choose a value (to shrink) beyond a limit. In the shrink volume dialog, the following message is displayed:<\/p>\n

You cannot shrink a volume beyond the point where any unmovable files are located. See the \"defrag\" event in the Application log for detailed information about the operation when it has completed.<\/pre>\n
If you use the diskpart’s “shrink desired” command-line to shrink the partition via Command Prompt, the following error may be shown even though the partition has ample disk space:<\/p>\n
Virtual Disk Service error:\r\nThe specified shrink size is too big and will cause the volume to be \r\nsmaller than the minimum volume size.<\/pre>\n
\"diskpart<\/p>\n
When you look at the Application event log, Event ID: 259 “defrag”<\/strong> event may show something this:<\/p>\n
\"You<\/p>\n
Event ID: 259 – Examples<\/strong><\/p>\n
A volume shrink analysis was initiated on volume OS (C:). This event log entry details information about the last unmovable file that could limit the maximum number of reclaimable bytes.\r\n \r\n Diagnostic details:\r\n - The last unmovable file appears to be: \\pagefile.sys::$DATA\r\n - The last cluster of the file is: 0x749141f\r\n - Shrink potential target (LCN address): 0x9b6c2f\r\n - The NTFS file flags are: P---D\r\n - Shrink phase: \r\n \r\n To find more details about this file please use the \"fsutil volume querycluster \\\\?\\Volume{2eeff2ba-3c96-4389-a407-6461354e612a} 0x749141f\" command.\r\n<\/pre>\n
(or)<\/p>\n
\r\nA volume shrink analysis was initiated on volume OS (C:). This event log entry details information about the last unmovable file that could limit the maximum number of reclaimable bytes.\r\n \r\n Diagnostic details:\r\n - The last unmovable file appears to be: \\System Volume Information\\{cead75c9-21e3-11ef-b9e4-cc96e535c78c}{3808876b-c176-4e48-b7ae-04046e6cc752}::$DATA\r\n - The last cluster of the file is: 0x189ac13\r\n - Shrink potential target (LCN address): 0x1231a79\r\n - The NTFS file flags are: ---AD\r\n - Shrink phase: \r\n \r\n To find more details about this file please use the \"fsutil volume querycluster \\\\?\\Volume{73033618-7179-458a-b854-bf5c6244b858} 0x189ac13\" command.\r\n<\/pre>\n
Event ID: 261 – Examples<\/strong><\/p>\n
\r\nError: a file blocked volume shrink on volume (C:).\r\n \r\n Diagnostic details:\r\n - The last unmovable file appears to be: \\pagefile.sys::$DATA\r\n - The last cluster of the file is: 0x74488cb\r\n - Shrink potential target (LCN address): 0x743a7be\r\n - The NTFS file flags are: P---D\r\n - Shrink phase: \r\n \r\n To find more details about this file please use the \"fsutil volume querycluster \\\\?\\Volume{2eeff2ba-3c96-4389-a407-6461354e612a} 0x749141f\" command.\r\n<\/pre>\n
\r\nThe last unmovable file appears to be: \\$Extend\\$UsnJrnl:$J:$DATA\r\n - The last cluster of the file is: 0xe635f87\r\n - Shrink potential target (LCN address): 0xafd8c74\r\n - The NTFS file flags are: P---D\r\n - Shrink phase: \r\n<\/pre>\n
Event ID: 264 – Example<\/strong><\/p>\n
The storage optimizer couldn't complete shrink on (C:) because: This shrink size specified is too big. (0x89000021)<\/pre>\n
(Go to the Solution<\/a> directly.)<\/p>\n
Cause<\/h2>\n
It’s usually pagefile.sys<\/strong> that prevents Disk Management from shrinking the volume beyond a point, as pagefile.sys is an unmovable file. Other unmovable files include hiberfil.sys<\/strong> hibernation file.<\/p>\n
\n
There may be a large free space area before pagefile.sys and after it.\u00a0For example, the disk map for C: drive is such as the one below:<\/p>\n
[50 GB occupied by data] | [50 GB free space] | [pagefile.sys (unmovable)] | [10 GB free space]<\/pre>\n
When you attempt to shrink the disk, only the 10 GB at the end of the partition will be shrunk, no matter how well your disk defragmenter has optimized the disk; It’s because the unmovable file (such as pagefile.sys) sits between the two separate free space blocks. You can’t decrease the allocated space beyond the point where the unmovable files are located.<\/p>\n
To avoid this issue, disable the paging file so that the free space will be be contiguous, for maximum shrinkage. Alternatively, boot into Windows RE, delete the hidden pagefile.sys<\/code> from the OS partition, and shrink the volume using DiskPart<\/a>, which is very effective. For more information on shrinking a volume using DiskPart, see these articles:<\/p>\n