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I'm currently using Bitlocker encrypted SSD. And system is on it. It's single partition and the entire disk is encrypted.

I'd like to split the single partition into two partitions while enabling Bitlocker encryption. Can it be done without turning encryption off?

I tried to do it using Windows Disk Managment (diskmgmt.msc) but it doesn't let me create a partition that more than 38-40 GBs.

Is there a way to solve this problem? I need a 64 GB partition.

Screenshot of Disk Management

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  • Yes, it can be done, your inability to shrink the volume has nothing to do with BitLocker
    – Ramhound
    Commented Feb 17 at 19:02
  • what is the reason then?
    – Azkoreo
    Commented Feb 17 at 19:04
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    Page files, hibernation file, any number of unmovable system files. How they can be moved or relocated on the disk is well documented
    – Ramhound
    Commented Feb 17 at 19:28
  • The dialog even tells you why: "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."
    – Joep van Steen
    Commented Feb 19 at 11:39

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Yes – you can boot from a Windows install USB, open the console with Shift-F10, then use diskpart to shrink the partition (after unlocking it with manage-bde). With the pagefile and other such things being inactive while the OS is not running from it, the partition should become more easily shrinkable.

(Diskpart is a CLI version of Disk Management – another interface to the same Virtual Disk Manager subsystem.)

From memory:

> manage-bde -status
> manage-bde -unlock C: -recoverykey 123
> diskpart
DISKPART> list disk
DISKPART> sel disk 0
DISKPART> list part
DISKPART> sel part 3
DISKPART> shrink minimum=65536 desired=65536
DISKPART> exit
> wpeutil reboot

If that doesn't let you shrink the partition by the specified amount, then you'll likely have to re-do the system from scratch (possibly making a WIM image or just reinstalling).

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