How to Partition Primary Drive

[Wishmaster]

I am unsure about other defrag programs,as Perfect Disk is the only one I use/familiar with:

but with PD10:
you just select the drive (C in this case)

At the top menu youll see: System Files (click it)

Pd will inform you it can not defrag C's sytem files because they are in use. And ask to force handles close.
Say NO

it will then ask permission to do the task at boot time. Say YES

Finally it asks if it can reboot the system now, to complete the requested action.
allow it and it will reboot and defrag system files.

perhaps someone else can offer more help on how to do it with other programs.

Windows defrag itself is not capable of this as far as Im aware FYI

This "should" move everything in closer allowing for more room to shrink further.

 

[Venths]

Venths, I am somehow lost on what you are trying to accomplish. Could you restate the goal again. I am sure it can be done.

I have a 283 GB HDD with only C: drive (primary) with an OEM copy of Windows 7 Home edition. When i shrunk the C: drive, it allowed me a maximum of 140 GB only. And still 143 GB remains in C: Windows will not allow me to shrunk further. It has only 17 GB of data though. I just want to make my C: to 25-30 GB. How will i do that ? I had already defrag, deleted page files before i shrunk it

 

[whs]

Venths, I am somehow lost on what you are trying to accomplish. Could you restate the goal again. I am sure it can be done.

I have a 283 GB HDD with only C: drive (primary) with an OEM copy of Windows 7 Home edition. When i shrunk the C: drive, it allowed me a maximum of 140 GB only. And still 143 GB remains in C: Windows will not allow me to shrunk further. It has only 17 GB of data though. I just want to make my C: to 25-30 GB. How will i do that ? I had already defrag, deleted page files before i shrunk it

OK, Now I understand. First of all, I think a 25 to 30GB C-Partition is too small. Over time you will need more space (say 50GB) - and then there is always the shadowstorage. And if you leave your own files on C (which you may plan to put on the new partition), then you will definitely need a lot more space.
You are probably used to XP which was a lot more thrifty with disk space. But Vista and Win7 use it quite generously.
What I suggest you do is try to shrink your C a second time after you shrunk it to 143GB. That may yield some more unallocated space. Then you can combine that with the 140GBs you already gained. It may even work a third time - not sure though.

PS: If you say: " an OEM copy of Windows 7 Home edition ", does that mean you bought an OEM disk or did it come as is with the PC ? Because if you have the disk, you can always reinstall and change the partition allocations.

 

[Venths]

@ WHS

* Yeah, i understand that Win 7 uses more disk space than XP. But i never store any files in C drive or 'My Documents'. I always store all my files in the extended partitions. However, i will consider your advice

* As you suggested, I have already tried to shrink for the 2nd time in vain. I have a factory installed OEM copy of DELL Laptop

 

[whs]

@ WHS

* Yeah, i understand that Win 7 uses more disk space than XP. But i never store any files in C drive or 'My Documents'. I always store all my files in the extended partitions. However, i will consider your advice

* As you suggested, I have already tried to shrink for the 2nd time in vain. I have a factory installed OEM copy of DELL Laptop

OK, understand. Maybe you can get away with 30GB for the system, but that is tight. I would go at least for 40GB. If the Windows functions don't do what you want to do, you will have to use an OEM program. I messed things up a couple of times with "recommended" other programs, but maybe that was my mistake. Have a look at this for options: Working Around Windows Vista’s "Shrink Volume" Inadequacy Problems :: the How-To Geek

 

[Kuldeep]

Hi Jonathan,

You seem to have answered Venths's question on Shrinking the Primary Drive successfully so that it can be divided into multiple drives. I have a few questions on the similar lines.

I am a beginner in 'Disk Management' feature available in Windows 7.

I would request you to answer my following questions which would be of great help to me moving ahead with my Laptop usage.

1. I have recently purchased a Dell Studio 1450 with Windows 7 as the OS with 320 GB HDD.
2. I would like to break down my Primary Drive (C which is all of 280 GB into multiple drives say, E, F and G
3. On 'Googling' for the right answers, I learnt that we can actually 'Shrink' the Primary Drive to a smaller size so that we can get multiple drives out of it.
4. I tried to do that and this is where I am exactly stuck.
5. When I tried to Shrink my Primary Drive, it said that I can't Shrink it anything beyond 140 GB.
6. With this, I am now left with Primary Drive (C with 140 GB and a new Drive E: with 140 GB.
7. Having the Primary Drive (C with a size of 140 GB is somehow not digestible to me.
8. The only reason being, over a period of time, I may end up installing quite a few softwares and this may eventually slow down my Laptop every time it boots.
9. I am under the impression that the Primary Drive Boot Period will always be time consuming and this may make my Laptop crawl over a period of time. If my understanding is wrong in any which way regarding the Booting Time of Primary Drive then please correct me.
10. What would I like to do instead?
11. I would like to just keep 70 GB for my Primary Drive (C assuming that it would be sufficient.
12. If you have any suggestions on the preferred size for Primary Drive (C then am all open.
13. Now, through Disk Management, I cannot Shrink my Primary Drive anymore simply because, under the "Enter the amount of Space to Shrink in MB" section it simply shows "0" and the "Shrink" button is disabled.
14. Having this kind of scenario, I would like to proceed further down to Shrink my Primary Drive to say 70 GB so that I can have another 70 GB in a different Drive altogether.
15. Question 1: How do I achieve this Primary Drive to be partitioned with just 70 GB?
16. Question 2: You did mention in your earlier post about "Note: to increase available shrink space, try disabling hibernation, deleting the paging file, and then defragmenting your hard drive before shrinking." How do I go about this?

Your guidance will be deeply appreciated.

Thanks,
Kuldeep
[email protected]

 

[whs]

ad 15) not with Disk Management. It is the MFT that sits high up on the disk that prevents it from going any further than the 140GBs you saw. There are other programs that can do that, but I had nothing but trouble with them, so I do not recommend them any more.
ad 16) the hibernation file you delete with this cmd command: powercfg.exe -h off
For the page file settings, go to "advanced system settings" in computer properties.