can not shrink my c drive

dumborambo · 18 Mar 2011

hi i have 320 gb of hard disk, i made partiton earlier out of 320 gb and was able to make a partiton of 100 gb, 40 gb and 80 gb (total 220gb)......but due to some reasons i reset my windows 7 starter to factory settings....how ever now when i try to shrink c drive it only allows me to shrink 140 gb out of 280 gb and rest 140 gb is used up by C drive only. it has 118 GB free but i can not shrink it to make new partitions...what do i do?here is a screen shot of my computer

severedsolo · 18 Mar 2011

Can you please post a screenshot of Disk Management? (Start>Right Click Computer>Manage>Storage>Disk Management or search for it in Start Menu)

dumborambo · 18 Mar 2011

here are the screen shots of disk management and also when i try to shrink c drive the available space shown is 0

severedsolo · 18 Mar 2011

Ya know... I find it very hard to believe you need all those partitions. You are really going to knacker your HDD out very quickly like that.

Shawn has explained what is causing your problem WAY better than I can in his tutorial, so I will just quote him:

The size of the available shrink space can be restricted by the amount of space currently allocated to on the hard drive for the virtual memory page file, System Protection maximum storage space size, and hibernation files. The location of the files on the hard drive plays a big part here because these files are marked as unmovable, and Disk Management is unable to relocate them. As such, if these unmovable files are located in the middle of the total amount of free space on the disk, then only the amount of free space on the other side (to the right) of these files will actually be available for the new partition. This will result in you showing that you have x amount of free space, but not being able to use it for your partition. The only way around this is to use a 3rd party hard drive partition management program, or setup the partition when installing Vista.

Source: Partition or Volume - Shrink (step 5)

gregrocker · 18 Mar 2011

Run Auslogics Disk Defragger on C, you will likely see System Files at the end of the partition blocking further shrinkage.

Next backup your files and a Win7 Backup Image, boot free Partition Wizard bootable CD, rightclick C to Resize, drag right grey border to the left to see how much it will allow you to shrink. It should allow more since the OS files will not be running and can be moved easier. Free Download Magic Partition Manager Software - Partition Wizard Online

If PW CD cannot shrink it as much as you need, next I would install free Perfect DIsk 10 trial version, defrag for Compactness, then rightclick on C to Offline defrag System files. Now try shrinking with PW CD.

dumborambo · 18 Mar 2011

Gregrocker please repeat it in a slow way and step by step...its too fast for me to understand as english is not my native language....i would be very grateful...thanks

dumborambo · 18 Mar 2011

here is what it looks if i click on resize....is it going to affect my hard drive or windows? i have heard that if i perfrom this operation windows can get corrupt as well? is it true?

Bare Foot Kid · 19 Mar 2011

Hello mate.

It would be much better and safer for you to use the bootable version of Partition Wizard rather than the installed version; download the ISO file from this link below and burn the file to a CD and boot that to make changes.

Partition Wizard Free Bootable CD

ImgBurn Free ISO Burning Software

You can get some ideas on how to use the PWBD from this tutorial at the link below and be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.

Partition Wizard : Use the Bootable CD

gregrocker · 19 Mar 2011

It appears it is willing to let you shrink C safely, but I agree with BFK you should use the PW CD application to do this most safely.

I would also back up externally my files and a Win7 backup image: Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup