Vista - disk space lost during unsuccessful disk shrink

I have vista ultimate 32bit pre-installed and wanted to try windows 7 beta and I tried to create a separate partition using disk management tools in vista. I tried to shirnk my main C: drive (288GB total and 142GB free). I tried to shrink it but it wouldn't let me shrink more than 1MB so I downloaded a tool called perfect disk 2008. I defragged C: and it let me shrink to the amount I wanted. 60GB that is. So I let it run and about 20 minutes later I thought it might have gotten stuck so I closed it and restarted my PC. I then saw that some of the space went missing, now the C: drive shows 126GB of 229GB free.. need some help here...I already tried system restore and I have no restore points..its a fairly new computer

Screenshot as requested...

Hello JumboWumbo,

Give this a try to see if it can help you out.

Right click on the 55 MB partition and click on "Delete" to make it an unallocated partition again. Afterwards, follow METHOD TWO in the tutorial below to create the partition again.

Disk Management - Shrink Partition

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Hey, thanks again. I tried that and the only option it gives me if I right click on the 55mb partition is "help"..

I've tried searching on google and can't really find anything that helped....thanks again for any suggestions guys.

Ok,

We will see if using the diskpart command can help. Be very careful when you get to step 5. You do not want to use the wrong volume number. If you do you will delete one of the other partitions.

1. Open a elevated command prompt.
Elevated Command Prompt

2. In the elevated command prompt, type diskpart and press Enter.

3. In the elevated command prompt, type list volume and press Enter.

4. In the elevated command prompt, type select volume # and press Enter.
NOTE: Substitute the # in red, with the Volume number listed for the 55 MB partition that is messed up. For example, if the 55 MB partition was listed as Volume 0, then you would type Select volume 0 and press Enter.

5. In the elevated command prompt, type delete and press Enter.

6. In the elevated command prompt, type exit and press Enter.

7. Close the command prompt.


Now look in Disk Management to see if the E: drive is not unallocated so that you can create it again.

Hi, I did exactly what you said but it didn't work. I deleted E: (which is the letter for my DVD ROM/RW) and when I went back to Disk Management the E: part is blank.

E: was just an example for a drive letter. You will need to select the volume number for the 55 MB partition instead.

I know but E: was only for the dvd rom. There isn't any volume number for the 55mb partition. I added an extra 1GB of ram btw hence the difference between last few screenshots and this one..

Was the EISA partition there before? After doing some more research on it, it appears that this is a partitoin that Dell has installed for it's diagnostic utility and should not be deleted unless you have the Dell system tools disc to use instead.

If you still want to remove it, then press F12 every second during boot to enter the Dell Diagnostic Utitilty for a option to remove it. If there is not one, then see:

Delete and Remove to Unlock EISA Hidden Recovery or Diagnostic Partition in Vista » My Digital Life


I would recommend leaving it as is.

You will need to use a 3rd party partioning program to shrink the C: partition to create another one instead.

Well I'll use a third party program to shrink it but where did the rest of the space go lol 288GB was the total before on C: and now it only shows 229GB..:S

thanks again, I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out