Windows Vista Forums

Shrinking a drive
  1. #1


    RonBes Guest

    Shrinking a drive

    I have a 250GB drive that I partitioned into a C and D drive. All I have
    on the C drive are Windows Vista and its ancillary files i.e. Program Files
    etal and my data files on D

    The properties show that Windows and its files are only taking 56GB of
    the C drive.

    Unfortunately I cannot seem to shrink the drive to and less than
    166.33GB so I am wasting 110+GB of the C drive. I would like to allocate
    more to drive D but cannot. I tried to shrink it without a swap file and
    that didn't help.



    Does anyone have a solution?


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  2. #2


    Rock Guest

    Re: Shrinking a drive

    "RonBes" wrote
    > I have a 250GB drive that I partitioned into a C and D drive. All I
    > have on the C drive are Windows Vista and its ancillary files i.e. Program
    > Files etal and my data files on D
    >
    > The properties show that Windows and its files are only taking 56GB of
    > the C drive.
    >
    > Unfortunately I cannot seem to shrink the drive to and less than
    > 166.33GB so I am wasting 110+GB of the C drive. I would like to allocate
    > more to drive D but cannot. I tried to shrink it without a swap file and
    > that didn't help.


    Shrink in Vista doesn't always give what you would look do to the location
    of certain files on the partition you are trying to shrink. You can use
    other programs do manipulate partitions. Acronis Disk Director Suite
    version 10 works fine. And I believe BootIt NG from Terabyte Unlimited will
    do this.

    --
    Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]


      My System SpecsSystem Spec

  3. #3


    Richard Urban Guest

    Re: Shrinking a drive

    The built-in shrink utility will be able to decrease the partition size till
    it bumps against the first unmovable/locked system file.

    If you want to decrease the partition further you will need a 3rd party Disk
    Management tool. I use Acronis Disk Director suite. The latest posted
    version (10.0 build 4940) is 100% Vista compatible. After installing the
    program, create the
    emergency CD. Reboot the computer and boot up with this CD. Do your
    partition work from there. You will not be hampered with locked files.

    --


    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!

    "RonBes" <ronknief@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
    news:OM5pV0XpHHA.4132@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
    > I have a 250GB drive that I partitioned into a C and D drive. All I
    > have on the C drive are Windows Vista and its ancillary files i.e. Program
    > Files etal and my data files on D
    >
    > The properties show that Windows and its files are only taking 56GB of
    > the C drive.
    >
    > Unfortunately I cannot seem to shrink the drive to and less than
    > 166.33GB so I am wasting 110+GB of the C drive. I would like to allocate
    > more to drive D but cannot. I tried to shrink it without a swap file and
    > that didn't help.
    >
    > Does anyone have a solution?



      My System SpecsSystem Spec

  4. #4


    Jonathan M. \TacticalSniper\ Boyko Guest

    Re: Shrinking a drive

    Program like Partition Magic would work. The problem with Vista is that it
    can shrink the last partition and leave unallocated space. Meaning, if you
    have, for example, C, D and E, it will be able to shrink E but none of the
    others.


      My System SpecsSystem Spec

  5. #5


    ray Guest

    Re: Shrinking a drive

    On Sat, 02 Jun 2007 20:18:23 -0500, RonBes wrote:

    > I have a 250GB drive that I partitioned into a C and D drive. All I have
    > on the C drive are Windows Vista and its ancillary files i.e. Program Files
    > etal and my data files on D
    >
    > The properties show that Windows and its files are only taking 56GB of
    > the C drive.
    >
    > Unfortunately I cannot seem to shrink the drive to and less than
    > 166.33GB so I am wasting 110+GB of the C drive. I would like to allocate
    > more to drive D but cannot. I tried to shrink it without a swap file and
    > that didn't help.
    >
    > Does anyone have a solution?


    Suggest you try the Gparted Live CD.


      My System SpecsSystem Spec

  6. #6


    Rock Guest

    Re: Shrinking a drive

    "Jonathan M. "TacticalSniper" Boyko" wrote
    > Program like Partition Magic would work. The problem with Vista is that it
    > can shrink the last partition and leave unallocated space. Meaning, if you
    > have, for example, C, D and E, it will be able to shrink E but none of the
    > others.


    Partition Magic is not a good choice. Vista has problems with partitions
    created by it. Acronis Disk Director Suite version 10 or BootIt NG are
    Vista compatible.

    --
    Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]


      My System SpecsSystem Spec

  7. #7


    Jonathan M. \TacticalSniper\ Boyko Guest

    Re: Shrinking a drive

    Oh, didn't know that. Don't know about the second one, but Acronis one is
    good as well, that's true.

    --

    «Kono kuni wa mada, hontô no hero wo shiranai»

    TacticalSniper
    http://tacticalsniper.blogspot.com/


      My System SpecsSystem Spec

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