Shrink OS Volume

ignatzatsonic said:

Post another screenshot of Disk Management as it is right now.

Depending on what it looks like, you may not need to use the Partition Wizard disc that you burned.

Ok, here it is, along with a screenshot of the shrink attempt after restoring the Acronis Secure Zone space to the OS partition. As you can see, I'm still being restricted as to how much I can shrink the partition. There must be some immovable file(s) involved.

OK; Windows Disk Management is over-matched for your situation. It can't deal with those "unmovable" files very well.

Go with Partition Wizard boot disc.

One question; If I use Partition Wizard to shrink the OS partition to say, 150GB, will Partition Wizard move these unmovable files to where they belong? Will I still retain the unmovable files. They could be MBR files or system files for all I know, which isn't much.

Yes. It will move them as needed to allow you to shrink.

Back up all of your data before you begin.

It is a very high quality tool that has very few reported issues, but anything can happen. So you should be prepared.

ignatzatsonic said:

Yes. It will move them as needed to allow you to shrink.

Back up all of your data before you begin.

It is a very high quality tool that has very few reported issues, but anything can happen. So you should be prepared.

I'm almost ready to attempt to shrink the OS partition. The OS partition has always been and currently is a primary partition. In a previous post presented by whs, he states that before shrinking the OS partition I will first have to convert it to a logical partition, which is something I don't understand. Will changing it to a logical partition affect the ability of my computer to boot after after I shrink the OS partition? I certainly don't doubt what whs has said but why would I have to change from a primary to a logical when I'm simply shrinking the partition? Perhaps he was assuming that I would leave the Acronis Secure Zone in place, which would give me more than four partitions after shrinking the OS partition.

I'm going to back up my system now to an external drive before I attempt to do any shrinking using Partition Wizard.

CBM said:

In a previous post presented by whs, he states that before shrinking the OS partition I will first have to convert it to a logical partition, which is something I don't understand. ........... Perhaps he was assuming that I would leave the Acronis Secure Zone in place, which would give me more than four partitions after shrinking the OS partition.

I think you are right. He was just figuring you might otherwise end up with more than 4 partitions, which would suggest using extended/logical partitions.

The partition does not have to be logical in order to be shrunk.

When you boot to the Partition Wizard disk, make sure you can see and properly identify all partitions and space on the drive. Your drive letters may have changed, so you might have to ID each component based on its size, rather than drive letter.

Thank you, ignatzatsonic. I'll wait for the backup to complete and then I'll also create a restore point with System Restore. I'm aware that the drive letters may change but that's no problem. The Dell utility and Dell recovery partitions don't have drive letters and that leaves only the OS partition.

By the way, do you know whether or not a System Restore or restoring from a backup will change my drive also, putting it back into the configuration prior to the shrinking? I'm really clueless about all of this.

CBM said:

By the way, do you know whether or not a System Restore or restoring from a backup will change my drive also, putting it back into the configuration prior to the shrinking? I'm really clueless about all of this.

I very seriously doubt it and have never heard of it being a consideration.

I suppose theoretically, someone could:

Install a whole bunch of applications, making your occupied space swell.

Then make a restore point.

Then delete those applications and shrink the partition to an absolute minimum size so there is no unoccupied space.

Then attempt a system restore.

In such a case, the restore might balk due to lack of space?

But that's not what you have done here, so I say go ahead.

Once you shrink C, Disk Mgmt should offer you a Logical Extended partition for the fourth. If not use PW CD to create a new Logical partition in the shrink space.

Eventually as you become more at ease with backups you may no longer want the Recov partition or rely solely on the Recov Disks. You then have the option to delete it and the OEM partition once you determine if what is on it is used. Posting a cam snap of its contents or Disk Mgmt>Explore window will allow us to take a look.