Minimise data loss during SDD repartitioning

Hi

I've got W10 Home and a 256GB SSD in a Lenovo Yoga2Pro laptop.


When I first got the machine, I repartitioned the SDD into C: 90GB (OS) and D: 132GB (Userdata) (plus a few necessary OEM/Recovery partitions (more) ).


The C: partition is becoming too small for the ever-expanding Windows 10, so I intend to repartion the disk, 'stealing', say, 20GB of D: to give to C:

Obviously, I'll need to delete some data offa D first and I will back-up the rest, but is there anything I can do to shuffle my user data over to the right, so it doesn't get nuked when I do the repartitioning?

Windows "Optimize Drives" is set to run automatically weekly and I can manually force a "Optimize", but cannot do an "Analyze" (the button is greyed-out), so I can't see where the data is sitting.

I hear that Windows does a Defragment once a month, but I can't force it.

thanks


p.s.

I Have read this and this.


I will probably use these 1 2 or maybe 'Easeus partition_recovery' or 'AOMEI Partition Assistant_Std' to do the repartitioning.

thanks

With an SSD/Solid State Drive one uses Trim instead of Disk Defragmentation.

SAVE to a different drive/external drive everything on both C: and D: that you don't want to lose or that exists nowhere else and can't be recovered, working with changing drive layouts carries risks that should be avoided whenever possible.

Haven't done it on an SSD but Disk Management should have a way to first Shrink D: from the left then Extend/Expand C: to the right to include the resultant unallocated space. If it can't be done some will recommend DiskPart. Not having other partitions between C: and D: should be quite helpful. I'm more familiar with the GPARTED LiveCD [bootable] in managing partitions.

Neither built-in Windows disk management nor diskpart will do it. They will only shrink a partition by moving the end of the partition (the right edge), not the left edge. @BobSter2 needs to shrink the D: drive data partition from the beginning, the left edge, so it can be added to the end of the C: drive partition.

MiniTool Partition Wizard Free is the most reliable partition management program I've ever used:
MiniTool Partition Wizard | Best partition magic alternative for Windows PC and Server

and it can easily be done from within the running Windows installation, there is no need to create a boot drive to do it.

Thanks, both.

I have done it now, apparently without any damage to anything.

I cleared out 40GB on D first; then used MiniTool PW. It has a "Use Enhanced Data Protecting Mode" option.

Userdata hashes OK with the old version and Windows seems to work OK.

+1 for MiniTool PW and also Macrium Reflect for backing up partitions.

Overpartitioning makes me lose sleep at night. If that was my computer, I'd recapture the 1 GB in the front of the drive, then do away with the two partitions at the end of the drive, D and whatever the PBR_DRV partition is at the end.