Repartioning - Why Can't I Shrink More

[Boolean1]

I have an 80 GB hard disk, partioned at C: 40 GB and D: 40 GB.

I want to shink the D: drive from 40 GB to 30 GB (so that I can increase D:
from 40 to 50), but the system will only let me Shrink it by 4 GB. Why
would this be? There is only about 5 GB used on the D: drive.

Would defraggging help? I did have some big data files on there before,
which I deleted or copied off.

It says that the size of the available shrink space can be restricted if
snapshots or pagefiles are enabled on the volume. Could that be the
problem? How to I disable snapshots and/or pagefiles?

Thanks,

Boolean1

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

The last unmovable system file determines the amount of shrink available.
Defragging will not move such a system file but it will move other files.
If the last file on the volume can be moved then you may gain additional
space. As soon as the last file on the volume is an unmovable system file
you have reached the max shrinkage attainable. Defrag and analyze again.
It is hard to decipher what you mean by
"shink the D: drive from 40 GB to 30 GB (so that I can increase D:..."
There is a typo so please clarify.
You cannot change the size of the current active volume. If C: is your
system volume, you cannot change it.

 

[Boolean1]

I offloaded all the folders off the D: drive in an attempt to re-format the
D: drive. But I was unable to format it. Error -- Windows cannot format
the system partition on this disk. Why does Vista Disk Management think the
D: drive is the system partition?

Also, can't delete a file that belonged to Virtual PC...Destination Folder
Access Denied - You need permission to perform this action / Try Again / Try
Again...

So I can't format, I can't offload all the files, I can only shrink a 40 GB
drive by 4 or 5 GB. What else can I try? Maybe just log on to machine as
administrator and go to dos mode to format D:.

Thanks,

Boolean1

 

[Richard Urban]

Defrag the drive.

From the command prompt window run chkdsk on the drive with the /f option
(ex: chkdsk c: /f). Reboot the computer to allow this to run. Boot back into
Vista and try to resize again.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Boolean1]

The C: partion is the system drive.

The D: partion is the one I'm trying to shrink.

I logged onto command promt as administrator and tried to format, but got
error - System Partition is not allowed to be formatted.

I will defrag again

and will try

chkdsk d: /f

Thanks

Boolean1

 

[Boolean1]

Will try that.

Thanks,

Boolean1

Defrag the drive.

From the command prompt window run chkdsk on the drive with the /f option
(ex: chkdsk c: /f). Reboot the computer to allow this to run. Boot back
into Vista and try to resize again.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

But you can neither expand nor shrink the system volume. You cannot change
the size of C:. You cannot do this with diskpart by booting with the dvd
and you cannot do it from Disk Manager.

 

[Bill]

But you can neither expand nor shrink the system volume. You cannot
change the size of C:. You cannot do this with diskpart by booting
with the dvd and you cannot do it from Disk Manager.

What a second Colin, I've done it.

I've used computer management to shrink my C drive, create another
partition in the empty space, label it E, use it as needed, then
delete the E partition, and expand the C drive to fill up the disk
again. That was in 5744 I believe.

I haven't had a need to do it since, but I just checked and the option
to shrink is still in RTM.

 

[Guest]

How would this apply to the following situation: the active boot partition is
C, the Vista system partition is D. Then, which one can't be resized: C, D or
both? Sven

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Then clearly I am mistaken. I still remember the chat with the team when
diskpart was discussed. There was lively discussion about how diskpart and
defrag work together. The team kept remarking that there were issues (not
bugs, but how the system works) that prevent a boot volume from being
resized. That chat was six months ago, so perhaps they resolved the issues.
I hope so.

 

[Bill]

Then clearly I am mistaken. I still remember the chat with the team
when diskpart was discussed. There was lively discussion about how
diskpart and defrag work together. The team kept remarking that
there were issues (not bugs, but how the system works) that prevent
a boot volume from being resized. That chat was six months ago, so
perhaps they resolved the issues. I hope so.

If they haven't resolved the issues, and if those issues involve data
integrity on the C drive, then they have another very nasty bug to
squash. I can foresee people resizing and losing data, and in a
business, I foresee a lot harsh comments toward MSFT. Not good.

 

[Dylan]

it lets me shrink my active volume

The last unmovable system file determines the amount of shrink available.
Defragging will not move such a system file but it will move other files.
If the last file on the volume can be moved then you may gain additional
space. As soon as the last file on the volume is an unmovable system file
you have reached the max shrinkage attainable. Defrag and analyze again.
It is hard to decipher what you mean by
"shink the D: drive from 40 GB to 30 GB (so that I can increase D:..."
There is a typo so please clarify.
You cannot change the size of the current active volume. If C: is your
system volume, you cannot change it.

 

[Tom Porterfield]

Then clearly I am mistaken. I still remember the chat with the team when
diskpart was discussed. There was lively discussion about how diskpart
and defrag work together. The team kept remarking that there were issues
(not bugs, but how the system works) that prevent a boot volume from being
resized. That chat was six months ago, so perhaps they resolved the
issues. I hope so.

Apparently so as I resized my system partition in Vista RTM after install.
I shrunk using Disk Management. Haven't tried to do it using diskpart.

 

[MICHAEL]

Colin, I also was able to do basically the same as Bill
described. I didn't encounter any problems. I did this
at least two times- in RC1 and RC2.

-Michael

Then clearly I am mistaken. I still remember the chat with the team when diskpart was
discussed. There was lively discussion about how diskpart and defrag work together. The
team kept remarking that there were issues (not bugs, but how the system works) that prevent
a boot volume from being resized. That chat was six months ago, so perhaps they resolved the
issues. I hope so.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Disk Manager uses diskpart. Same thing except some capabilities are not
available in the GUI and must be used from the command line (diskpart).

 

[John Barnes]

Check which partition is labeled 'system' in disk management. It should be
the active partition that is so labeled

 

[andy]

I offloaded all the folders off the D: drive in an attempt to re-format the
D: drive. But I was unable to format it. Error -- Windows cannot format
the system partition on this disk. Why does Vista Disk Management think the
D: drive is the system partition?

That's because D: is the active primary partition. If you format it
(e.g., while not running Vista), you will destroy the Vista boot
files.

 

[Boolean1]

Well, It's good to know that there's no easy way to do this then...smile,
it's Friday.

Thanks,

Boolean1