How to Partition bitlocker encrypted System drive C: on my OEM PC?

Dell sets up a bit locker sort of, you can log onto your MS account and find the Bit locker Key and disable it. That is what I have done with my dell 13 7386. Once Disabled you should be able to manipulate your partitions. If not try Mini tool partition magic. Also you'll have more options using Macrium Reflect as to Imaging SSD and Partitions With MR you adjust partition sizes when you Clone or Restore an Image. Here is a great Tutorial on how to use MR Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect
https://www.dell.com/support/article...he-key?lang=en

lx07 said:

Turn off bitlocker, shrink the volume and then turn it on again.

See Can not shrink partition for dual boot, new Win10 XPS 13 9360

It will take a while and the recovery key will change afterwards so make sure you backup the new one.

@lx07, That was a nice catch from Dell forum. merci beaucoup ( Thanks). I was actually looking for someone who has actually done it and you made my job easier. I may take another day or two to work on it.

Megahertz said:

jumanji, after you removed Bitlocker, i don't see any reason why you can't shrink more than 50 percent.
All files and folders should be on the first 10% of the disk.
My Win 10 SSD has a C: partition of 60G and the remaining space on D:

As you already created a disk image (hopefully without Bitlocker), after you removed Bitlocker, using Kyhi recovery tools you can delete the C: partition, create 2 (C: and D:) and restore C: using the image created.

@Megahertz , AOMEI says "What’s worse, even though there are no obstructive unmovable files, you can only shrink half space of the total amount with Disk Management." How to Shrink C Drive beyond Limit Successfully in Windows?

I haven't yet decrypted the C: drive. Still exploring Windows 10 . I created the disk image of the encrypted C: drive with AOMEI Backupper. When the disk is encrypted, it resorts to sector by sector backup and that is why the image is a whopping 92GB.

I am not going to delete the C: drive and restore it later. That would be a cumbersome process. Shrinking it will be easier. As lx07 pointed out in his post one user had already done it. Another user in Dell forum has also done it. He used EaseUS Partition Master which shrinks the partition under boot mode. "EaseUS Partition Master will automatically check and fix errors on the target disk, and securely shrink the target partition under the boot mode." Fixed: Windows 10/8/7 Can't Shrink Volume Partition – EaseUS

Clintlgm said:

Dell sets up a bit locker sort of, you can log onto your MS account and find the Bit locker Key and disable it. That is what I have done with my dell 13 7386. Once Disabled you should be able to manipulate your partitions. If not try Mini tool partition magic. Also you'll have more options using Macrium Reflect as to Imaging SSD and Partitions With MR you adjust partition sizes when you Clone or Restore an Image. Here is a great Tutorial on how to use MR Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect
https://www.dell.com/support/article...he-key?lang=en

Hi @Clintlgm

Thanks for the input. Here I have one who has actually done it. Good going.

What actually happens when you disable the Recovery Key in the Microsoft account? Can you please elaborate?

If it is that it decrypts the C: drive, it can easily be done in Windows itself. Start > Settings > Update & Security > Device encryption > Turn off (the last screenshot in my first post). That will decrypt the drive. ( I have already backed up the Recovery Key and used it to recover also - the last but one screenshot in my first post)

I have been using Paragon Hard Disk Manager 16.5 for backup and restore. I released the activation from the old , now defunct Windows 7 Desktop in my Paragon account, installed it in this new machine and reactivated it. So no Macrium Reflect. .

Megahertz said:

jumanji, after you removed Bitlocker, i don't see any reason why you can't shrink more than 50 percent.
All files and folders should be on the first 10% of the disk.
My Win 10 SSD has a C: partition of 60G and the remaining space on D:

As you already created a disk image (hopefully without Bitlocker), after you removed Bitlocker, using Kyhi recovery tools you can delete the C: partition, create 2 (C: and D:) and restore C: using the image created.

Hi @Megahertz,
You were right. Finally I managed to shrink the C: drive with Windows Disk Manager only.

Had I started the shrink operation on 29th Dec 19 itself when WDM showed that I can shrink C: to 60GB ( my screenshot in the first post) I would have finished the job that day itself. I believed AOMEI which said one can only shrink upto 50% of the volume and didn't try. Later on when I tried to shrink with WDM it showed that I could shrink the volume only by 3GB , that is to 813 GB from 816 GB . Somehow System Volume Information had been placed near the end of the 816 GB C: drive thus limiting the volume that can be shrunk to 3GB.

I was veering around to shrinking with third party tools like Partition Wizard, AOMEI Partition Assistant, and Easus Partition Master, which do the shrink at boot time. While many users had reported success with one or other of these programs atleast one user each had reported problems with PW and AOMEI. One user reported that during boot mode shrink, PW froze and he had to do a forced shut down using the Power button. The other user reported that after shrinking with AOMEI PA, many utilities like Windows Disk Management and System restore failed to respond and he had to do a fresh install of Windows 10. That put a brake on my thoughts of using these utilities and I went back to WDM .

I disabled hybernation, set no paging file , disabled System Restore and God bless,WDM reported that I can shrink C: to about 49GB. I set it to 116.5 GB and the rest of the space 800GB,I created partitions for my data. After successfully partitioning the 1TB drive, I reenabled System Restore and paging file.So then here are the screenshots.



So all is well that ends well .

Moral of the story: When critical operations are involved, it is always better to use the OS Tools. (Third party applications do work most of the time but if you are unlucky you will get a boot . Do it at your own risk. Be prepared to face the unexpected. )

Well maybe so, however I have found these particular tools Minitool Partition Magic and Macrium reflect have been 100% for me since 2012! They have saved me many hours of trying to solve issue and reinstalles etc. I only use Minitool for partition work. Also I always create a Macrium Reflect Drive/SSD Image before attempting anything that could damage my setup. Anything that fails I just restore the image I had created before making the attempt. then sort out what went wrong and solve that before the next attempt. I guess just different experiences and methods of operations