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I have bought a laptop with a 1 TB bitlocker encrypted drive and Windows 10 installed. I want o reduce the Windows C partition from under 1TB to ~200 GB. I was able to reduce it by ca 476 GB. Now it still has more than 450 GB free but cannot be shrunk anymore.

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Why is that?

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It most likely has the NTFS MFT in the middle (of the original 1 TB). The MFT can only be moved when the partition is dismounted (i.e. NTFS is not actively using it), which you can't do when it's the OS volume.

Reboot into a Windows install USB stick (any recent version will do), hit Shift+F10 for the console window, then use manage-bde to unlock the BitLocker volume (will need the recovery key) and diskpart to shrink the partition to the size you need.

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  • Thanks, I'll try it with a linux usb and gparted first
    – cipricus
    Commented Mar 28 at 13:07
  • @cipricus The same should be able to be done from WinRE, simply dismount the OS partition via diskpart
    – JW0914
    Commented Mar 28 at 13:16
  • Trying with Linux live session I cannot resize either because it's locked (I guess): it appears as "bitlocker" type partition. The laptop was bough t as such - second hand - I haven't locked the drive myself and I don't have a recovery key. Or is it stored somewhere on the recovery partition maybe?
    – cipricus
    Commented Mar 28 at 13:42
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    Reboot into your normal system, run manage-bde -protectors C: -get, then write it down. (There's also an option to save/print it from BitLocker GUI.)
    – grawity_u1686
    Commented Mar 28 at 13:43
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    @cipricus: Then it's probably in "pending activation" mode, i.e. encrypted but with the key unprotected on the same disk so that it appears as if BitLocker is still off (Windows sometimes does this because it makes future activation instant). Should be possible to unlock it via manage-bde from the recovery environment without any key, too.
    – grawity_u1686
    Commented Apr 1 at 10:27

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