Vista - Disk Management - Shrink Partition

HI,

Cant you make the Size of Available Shrink Space any bigger?
I have 700Gb. I splitted HDD into 2 partitions using your method Shawn[Brink] (thanks by the way)
Now I got C: 450 D:250
But I wanted C: 150 D:550

Please Help. I will delete 2nd partition (D) if needed to.
Thanks

Hello EFI027, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Unless you use some 3rd party partitioning program to make the change instead of using Vista's Disk Management, then you will need to delete the D: partition and extend C: into D:, then shrink C: again for the correct size. (1 GB = 1024 MB)

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Hi Brink,
Was hoping you could give me some advice. Have been trying to shrink (OS) C: to about 160GB so I can increase (Data)D: to 300GB or so, have followed this tutorial and changed the recommended settings but still no joy.
When I got this desktop (Dell i530) the first day I added a partition from drive C, the max it would allow was C: 292GB and D: 163GB, leaving the Dell recovery now F: at 10GB.
I use the C: drive for the operating system and D: drive for data.
When I click shrink on drive C it gives me 1.2GB available to shrink, Drive C is 292GB total with 43GB used.
Have done the following as recommended:
Changed the System Restore Space Usage amount, C: drive only checked
Changed the System Restore Automatic settings
Changed the Virtual Memory Paging File min/max size
Ran Disk cleanup to reduce number of restore points

I have Paragon Hard Disk Manager and it won’t let ‘Redistribute Free Space’.
When I select D: to enlarge I get “Operation failed, No free space (can’t create partition of requested size). Not sure why it’s doing that. It says you can use the ‘Redistribute Free Space’ option if the partitions are next to each other. These are when I look at them in Vista Disk Manager but, when I look at them in Paragon Hard Disk Manager I see this info, check the attachment (sorry about the file).

There is a small volume between C: and D: with no drives letter (unallocated), size 843 KB type 'Free Space', strangely it shows Used as 2047.9GB on the numarical window, in the lower window (graphical) it shows 'Used 0 bytes'. Can't do anything with it, tried to format it, tried to assign a drive letter so I could delete or merge it.
Do you think this is the reason it won't let me ‘Redistribute Free Space’?
Any other options I might try?
Thanks for any help,
Dave

Hello Dave,

Looking at your image, about the only thing you can do that would be easy is to delete the D: partition, extend C: into the deleted D: partition, then shrink C: by how much you would like for D: , and create and format D.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

When the computer was new I did that and ended up with C: 292GB and D: 163GB. With out finding the underlying issue, can't see how it would be different this time?

Found this from the MS site just a few minutes ago. It's a reply to the question of why you only get 1-6GB available to shrink for a partition with 250GB of free space.

“This is probably a function of how the disk was partitioned and setup by the maker of the system. Many OEM system makers will establish a recovery partition as the first partition physically on the drive. Then they create the "C:" partition second, making their first partition appear to be "D:" in most cases. This prevents the built in repartitioniong software from resizing C:. If D: was removed (not recomended, and would void your warrantee and support), you would probably find more than 6 megs to play with."

Partitoning Vista (c) drive with built-in Vista tool

First time I have seen this issue, Does it sound reasonable to you?
Any ideas?


Any ideas why Paragon Hard Disk Manager won't do anything with it?
What's that small 'partition' in front of the D: drive?

Would the command prompt approach work for me?

Thanks again,
Dave

The small 63MB partition is used to restore the drivers and applications that came with your computer.

I'm not exactly sure why Paragon cannot change anything for you other than the message it gave you.

The post at the link you provided does make sense though. Do you have a Dell Vista recovery disc?

Hello Brink,

Thanks for the reply.
I do have the Dell recovery disk, the Dell re-installation disk and the drivers installation disk. I asked for the complete set when ordering the desktop.
Correct me if I'm wrong but, I thought the 10GB partition which came installed labeled 'Recovery D:' was the recovery partition.
I know only a little about computers but am trying to learn.
Thought I read somewhere that this 63MB was a boot partition. I'm probably wrong about that. It must be holding the current drivers and programs, seems to be a small space to hold much of anything. Might be the 'boot disk' that your link to Dell talks about.
The Recovery D: (I changed to Recovery F has a 'Factory.wim' 4.6GB file and what appears to me to be other installation files, again, I may be wrong on exactly what this is for.
I've read on the Dell community site that a lot of Dell users delete that partition and use the recovery CD and re-installation DVD instead. Not sure if that would cause warranty problems. Wouldn't think so as long as you have a way to re-install the OS.

Paragon says it can 'Redistribute free space' if the two partitions are next to each other. First you click the partition you want to enlarge, thats when I get the 'Operation failed' message, then you click next and click on the partition you want to take the 'free space' from, but won't let me get that far.

From what I saw on the last link sent, about the recovery partition being the first one on the Disk0 will cause the second partition to not be able to give any shrinkage, could I move or copy then delete the recovery partition? Then adjust the C and D partitions, then add another partition at the end and make it the recovery partition?
If I understand this right, I won't be able to do anything with the 10GB of now unallocated space that's in front of the C partition. Not the best senerio but, would I be able to adjust both C and D partitions then?

I just went to Paragon Hard Disk Manager and selected C: to expand and then it let me go to the next window and I selected Recovery F: to take the free space from, it will let me take all of the 4.5GB of free space.
Do you think If I delete the Recovery F: partition that I can add that unallocated space into the C: partition?
With this first partition removed can I then resize both C and D to my desired volumes?

Do you see any problem with copying the Recovery (on my computer I changed it from D to F) drive F: 10GB partition, then delete it, extend C: into the unallocated space.
This would make the C: partition the first partition on Disk0. Then, hopefully, I could adjust C: and D: partitions to my desired size.
Then add the 10GB F: partition after the D: partition and copy the recovery files back to there.

The current order on Disk0:
63MB small partition, EISA Configuration
10GB Recovery F:, Primary Partition
292GB OS C:, Primary Partition, System, Boot, Page File, Crash dump
163GB Data D:, Logical Drive

What I would like to have:
63MB small partition, EISA Configuration
150GB OS C:, Primary Partition, System, Boot, Page File, Crash dump
305GB Data D:, Logical Drive
10GB Recovery F:, Primary Partition (or?)

I'm hoping not to lose any files on the C drive. I can copy/backup and restore the D and F drives if needed.

Any thoughts?
To be safe should I just leave it alone until I'm ready to do a clean install?

Thanks for any feedback,
Dave

Well, it's up to you, but since you have both sets of recovery disks (Vista & Drivers/Applications), then you could delete both the 63MB (twice) and F partitions to save more space. Afterwards, see if you can extend C: into the one's you just deleted to now only have C and D partitions. Now, see if you can shrink C to extend D into that.

If you still can't, then delete D as well and extend C until it is the only partition left. Next, shrink C by how much you want for the D drive.

To be safe, I would recommend that you backup anything that you do not want to lose.

Hello Brink,

Well, I think I solved it.
Decided to get Easeus Partition Master and try it.
Shrank C (OS) partition to 160GB and put the 140GB into D(Data) partition.
Everything is running great as before.
Then just to check it out a little more I shrank the 10GB recovery drive to 8GB, has 5.6GB used, and added it to the C(OS) partition, worked with no problem.
Not sure why Paragon wouldn't do it.

Hope this helps anyone that has the same issues, It can be done.

Regards,
Dave

Dave,

I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted out. Not sure why Paragon didn't work for you either, but it would have been nice to have been able to do it from within Vista using Disk Management instead. Microsoft probably couldn't do it without getting another antitrust lawsuit on them again though.