Why can't I shrink c:\ any more than 35MB????

Hi guys,

I'm trying to create a partition so as to install XP. I'd like to be able to dual boot...

I have a 160gb hard drive, with about 25gb left. When I enter "disk management" and try to shrink the c:\ drive, Vista maxes out at 35mb. It won't let me shrink it any more.

Does anyone know why this might be?

Also, any advice on how big an XP partition should be? I was thinking 12-15 gigs?

Thanks!

 

I'm assuming you have Vista installed on C:/, in which case it's minimum would be however much Vista takes up, plus a little more.

 

Don't know, but probably because it doesn't want to run out of disk space on the boot drive?

Also, this is a pretty bad idea. Some software will insist on downloading or installing to C:, which is hard if it's 35MB big. I've made a habit of always having >5GB free on C:, no matter what.

And yeah, 10-15GB sounds good for your Windows partition (I'd go with 15)

 

Yep. It's the darn MTF files.
Vista (and XP) have this nice habit of placing system files (like the pagefile, the hibernation file, the boot error log file) at the middle and near the end of the partition. I think this is done to reserve as much space possible for the OS and probably to make harder installing other OSes.

At any rate, this happened to me too. I had to:
temporarily disable the pagefile, the hibernation file, the shadowcopy, the recovery points and the boot error log. Then I deleted the remnants of the hibernation and page files.
Last thing to do is to find a defragger able to defrag MTF files. The only one I could find was Perfect disk 8: I ued the 30 days free demo. There is an option for defragmenting system files at boot (i.e. out of windows). I was able to over come the 72 GB shrink limit imposed by Vista and shring the partition to 15 GB (but I ended up in letting 25 GB for that resource hog).

Could be fine. But I'd keep the program folder and the OS data (temp, temporary intenet files, desktop folder...) in separate partitions. !0 GB in that case would be plenty of space.

 

Thank you all for your expert advice, especiall you, Sredni Vashar.

Now, I'm looking at disk management, and the bizarre thing is this. I *already have* a partition, but I don't know what the heck it's being used for.

I have c:\ "Healthy system, Page File, Active, Crash dump, PRIMARY PARTITION: 142.21 GB NTFS

And I have another drive, no name, "Healthy, Primary Partition": 6.84 GB.

The second drive does not say NTFS or IDE or whatever.

So, I imagine Vista *is* actually installed on c:\, since the 6.84 GB partition is way too small for the OS. That leaves me with two questions

a) Is it, in fact, possible, to shrink that 6.84gb partition into my main c:\??

and

b) If not, would you kindly explain the process by which you were able to create a partition, Sredni Vashar? I'm going to try to figure out myself, based on your preliminary description, but I'm fairly certain I'll encouter difficulties! I don't know *how* to disable those Vista functions, for one...

Thanks again!

Does

 

It's likely a recovery partition.
I would not remove it. Ask in the forum dedicatet to your laptop manufacturer to get more info on what it is and what it does.

a) yes, it surely is possible, but not advisable.
b) it's a long story and I don't remember every step and every file name: take what a write with a pinch of salt and fill in the voids.

Also, note that by disabling shadow copies and recovery points you will lose previously saved backup information. Before starting doing that, and before changing the partition table, make sure you have a backup of all your precious data.

IIRC disabling the pagefile, the hibernation file and the boot error log can be done via the control panel, choose system management and then fiddle with the tabs. You have to be an administrator to modify those options.
You might have to delete the pagefile.sys and hiber.sys files under C.

Disabling shadow copy can be done from a prompt with admin privilege, by typing
powercfg -h off
re-enabling is powercfg -h on

Once you've got ridden of all the offending files, launch the defragger I told you about and then you can shring the partition to the extent allowed by the actual occupied portion.

Once you have shrinked it, you'll end up with a lot of unallocated space.
You can then create, for example a primary partition for another OS (XP, or Linux, or just a copy of the same OS to be used in case of severe crash) and then and extended partition that could host as many logical partitions as you wish (Windows has a 26 partitions limit, Linux has 15).

I strongly suggest that you create at least one partition for OS data and programs and one (or more) for your documents. But that's up to one's tastes.
In Vista PM you can specify if you want a primary partition or a logical volume. The logical volume is automatically placed into an extended partition, it seems.

What you have to do is:

• Disable and delete offending files
• Defrag
• shrink vista partition
• create a primary partition (10-15 or 25 GB for another os) after C: (call it D or whatever you like)
• create a logical volume after D:, call it E:
• (optional) create one or more logical volumes after E: until you use up all of your unallocated space.

Don't forget to backup your personal files before starting.

 

A tip of my hat to you, Sredni. I am much obliged!

I'll let you know how it goes

 

Actually I have posted a similar thread regarding limit on available Shrink volume....
Here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=186963

I even moved the pagefile to D: .... But still available size for shrinking is only 18 MB , whereas the total free space on C: is 25 GB++ ... (++ because Vista has all that shadowcopy thingy which reduces free space until u use disk cleanup)


I really want to use D: to max for data & C: only for program files ..... I ll try the methods you mentioned above & let u all know if it worked .....moving pagefile currently didn't work.


Thanks