I cannot shrink my Windows 7 partition past a certain amount

[Google]

I am trying to shrink my windows 7 partition in order to give my Ubuntu partition more space since I barely use windows anymore. But forget about that, this is a Windows 7 issue, has nothing to do with Ubuntu.

I am using Windows 7 Disc Management tool (diskmgmt.msc) to shrink my partition. When I go to shrink it - it says the maximum amount I can shrink by is about 30473 MB - 30GB. Yet I clearly have 300GB of free space on my disk. I read other threads here about hidden system files that could be locking that space so you can't use it - but I can easily download large files onto the drive to take up that space, so why can't I shrink it? Even if there is hidden system files using that space, would it really be using that much? I mean 270GB is a lot for system files is it not??

I ended up shrinking by just the 30GB it allowed me because I need more space ASAP on my Ubuntu partition, I was running out. But I would really like to get more than that and make use of that ~300GB that's doing nothing right now.

Thanks guys!

Edit: I see here that it says to try magic partition manager - but it looks like it's not totally free? Is the trial/free version good enough to do what I want? Or is there maybe other software I can try for this?

 

[Bongo]

Welcome to the Seven Forums

Windows 7 Disk Management is very limited on what it can do I would recommend you use Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Free

Jerry

 

[Google]

I will give it a shot, thank you.

 

[Bongo]

You're welcome, let us know how it turns out.

Jerry

 

[alphanumeric]

Usually that's because there are files there. Running a disk defrag may move them and get you more wiggle room.