shrinking partition

elobire

elobire

Member
im trying to shrink my C drive on windows vista but it says that i only have 301MB of shrink space. i actually have 50GB of free space.

anyone know how to solve this problem?
 
What is your fragmentation status? Vista can shrink, but cannot move data around, so it cannot do it beyond where there is data on the partition.
 
tyttebøvs said:
What is your fragmentation status? Vista can shrink, but cannot move data around, so it cannot do it beyond where there is data on the partition.
Click to expand...

what do you mean my fragmentation status?
i havnt ran any defragmentation software on my computer, should i do that?
 
Please, Right Click "My Computer", Manage, Disk Management.

Post screen shot...

Defrag can take hours depending on the size of the drive.

xp-disk-management.jpg
 
There are tools that can show you the files that hinders you. Or you can use some other tool to do it. Gparted can shrink and move files around.

Remember to backup files you cannot live without.
 
Now im confused and asking. I wanted to create and extended partition on the primary. Im good with defrag. for the record do i shrink the drive c: and then partition. Im figuring thats what it is.

im asking because i have two drive's. (internal). i dont really want to use the usb external. then again i won't loose both my internal drives at the same time. then i will sync the drives.
 
tremmor said:
Now im confused and asking. I wanted to create and extended partition on the primary. Im good with defrag. for the record do i shrink the drive c: and then partition. Im figuring thats what it is.

im asking because i have two drive's. (internal). i dont really want to use the usb external. then again i won't loose both my internal drives at the same time. then i will sync the drives.
Click to expand...

i think you just shrink the C drive and that will create the partition. if your unsure you could always unplug your external HDD.

heres the screenshot, ingore the query winodow, i wanted to see if its changed. problem is it takes 10 minutes to load.

prntmanagement.png
 
Windows is fussy about what it will let you do to the C: drive.

Although the option may be there to Shrink the Volume, there may be services or applications running that won't let you.

Download GParted Live, burn the .ISO do a disc and boot from it.

It will let you resize your C: drive.

Shrinking the C: drive will not create another partition. It will only make the Unallocated space on the drive larger.
 
Bodaggit23 said:
Windows is fussy about what it will let you do to the C: drive.

Although the option may be there to Shrink the Volume, there may be services or applications running that won't let you.
Click to expand...

The C drive is no different than other drives. The issue is Windows not being able to move data around. That issue exists not only on C.
 
tyttebøvs said:
The C drive is no different than other drives. The issue is Windows not being able to move data around. That issue exists not only on C.
Click to expand...

The OS partition (most commonly C: ) is very different.

Windows is running on it...and mostly won't let you muck with it, as stated.

Windows will have much less problems with most other partitions.
 
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But the point is still about where the data is stored. If you have a data drive and there is stored some data at the end of that partition then you will not be able to shrink that either.

The OS partition is not different in that way.
 
tyttebøvs said:
But the point is still about where the data is stored. If you have a data drive and there is stored some data at the end of that partition then you will not be able to shrink that either.

The OS partition is not different in that way.
Click to expand...

I've never had issues managing partitions using GParted, OS partition or not.
I've had nothing but issues managing partitions within Windows.

When shrinking the partition, the software should move any data from the end of the partition with no problems.

The problem here, in my opinion, is that the OP is trying to do this from within Windows...
imagine trying to change a tire on your car while you're driving? Bad analogy yes, but the principle applies.

The OS partition is being used while in Windows so therefore Windows is not allowing the changes.

elobire said:
still cant seem to find the problem. tried everything that i can think of.
Click to expand...

Elobire, please expand the window in Disk Management and post another screenshot so we can see the Free Space.

Untitled-19.jpg


Have you booted from the GParted Live CD?
 
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Bodaggit23 said:
When shrinking the partition, the software should move any data from the end of the partition with no problems.
Click to expand...
That was my entire point :-) Windows is capable of shrinking - but only if there is no data in the area that needs to be shrinked - regardless of type of partition :-)

imagine trying to change a tire on your car while you're driving? Bad analogy yes, but the principle applies.
Click to expand...
But that isn't an issue. If you try to shrink a new installation (on a newly formatted partition), you can shrink it 50% (goes for all your NTFS formatted drives, because of the MFT-mirror).
 
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