Solved shrink free disk space

[dorothyr]

I was dual booting Windows 7 with Linux. I erased the linux partition because I could not shrink its partition. now I have “free space” where it was and cannot shrink it. I want to reinstall Linux in a smaller partition but the linux installer is not recognizing windows.

 

[BrainDamage]

What exactly do you mean that you cannot "shrink" free space, and that Linux installer is not recognizing Windows?

Please post a screenshot of the partition layout in Windows's Disk Management or Linux's gparted (or the command line output of fdisk or gdisk or such if you use that).

 

[dorothyr]

when I try to shrink the space and install linux to smaller partition, The size of the disk partition is the same as the minimum size, so any smaller size I enter to change to just gets the message that it is unacceptable.

With windows installed, I try to add Linux. The installer should recognize that windows is there and offer to install linux alongside it, but it just sees the whole hard disk as available which is going to erase windows if I hit install.

From the windows 7 disk mgr I see the space once occupied by linux as “free space”, but cannot shrink it.

I don’t know how to state it more simply.

 

[dorothyr]

 

[dorothyr]

disk mgmt attached

 

[BrainDamage]

Uhh I can only see a tiny thumbnail here, not sure if it's a problem with Sevenforums or my browser or you uploaded a 250x94 pixel picture.

The green part is free space, I can't read the amount but it looks like you have 48 GB. That should be more than enough for any Linux distro. Try adding a new empty non-formatted partition into that space using Windows, then installing Linux on that partition.

 

[dorothyr]

I am not concerned with installing Linux right now. I want to enlarge the partition windows is using into the space Linux occupied before I erased it.

 

[BrainDamage]

Oh sorry I thought you wanted to make more space to have a bigger Linux partition.

You can enlarge the Windows partition by right-clicking on it and selecting Extend volume. If it's not the rightmost one (immediately left of the green free space box), you'll have to move the other ones further towards the end of the HDD

 

[dorothyr]

Yeah , I know. But it doesn’t work. Did you really read my post?

 

[dg1261]

I can't really see your screenshot, but it looks like a light green header within a dark green outline. In Disk Management that usually denotes an Extended partition. You cannot expand partition 2 because there is another partition (the Extended partition) in the way.

Many people fail to understand the distinction between "Free Space" and "Unallocated Space". (That's not surprising, given Microsoft itself has a predilection for misusing terminology -- hence, the confusion nowadays with seemingly simple terms like "drive" or "boot partition".) In this case, Free Space means unused space *within* a partition, while Unallocated Space would mean space *not part of* any partition. Disk Management can only expand a partition (such as partition 2) into Unallocated Space. It cannot expand into Free Space because the partition enclosing the Free Space is ... [drumroll], a *partition* ... and in the way.

This might all be a little more obvious to you if you were using a real partition manager. A real partition manager would clearly show the green area as being a partition. Disk Management is not a real partition manager, it only pretends to be one. It's function-limited and glosses over the details of what's going on, leading to confusion and misunderstanding.

You should be able to right-click the green area and select "Delete". That should return the space to "Unallocated", and subsequently allow you to expand partition 2.

 

[dorothyr]

So I "right-click the green area and select "Delete"." I get this message, " This is an extended partition. The partition will become inaccessible if you delete it. Are you sure you what to delete this partition?"


I have gotten a gparted disk and tried it. Had a hard time getting it to work at all and when I did, it doesn't see any partitions either.

 

[dg1261]

Before you can expand part.2 you must move the front edge of part.3 (the Extended partition) toward the right to make room into which part.2 can expand. But as I indicated, Disk Management is a crippled partition manager. One of its limitations is it cannot move the front edge of any partition.

A real partition manager would be able to shrink part.3 from the back (right) end to leave some unallocated space, then slide the whole partition to the right so the unallocated space is in front of it instead of behind it. With that, part.2 could then be expanded into the unallocated space.

While a real partition manager is preferable, you could still do this with Disk Management, but because of its limitations you would have to first entirely delete the Extended partition. After that, you can expand part.2 the desired amount, and if there is still unallocated space remaining you can recreate a new part.3 out of what's left.

 

[dorothyr]

Please read my last post. cannot delete extended partition. tried gparted.

 

[Snick]

BrainDamage

ctrl+ + to enlarge window, ctrl+ - to shrink window ctrl+ 0 (zero) to restore original window size.

Still can't read it, too blurred to read the text below the green portion of the disk report.

 

[Snick]

dorothyr

How did you obtain the image? You have way to much white space.

I use windows snipping tool for my post or printscreen if I wish to post the entire windows.

How to take screenshots with the Snipping Tool in Windows

Cropped with snipping tool



Save it to your desktop, default is Capture.jpg, then upload it, then navigate to where you wish to place the image, and leave the cursor there, at the top of the window you're working in click on the paper clip, choose Capture.jpg. and save or go advanced, preview post, and save.



Snick

 

[townsbg]

Disk management has some restrictions when shrinking space. There are files that it can't touch while the system is running so it won't let you decrease past the unmovable files. A third party utility when do better. I've used easus. Free partition manager software to resize partitions - EaseUS(R) Partition Master Free

 

[Snick]

Disk management has some restrictions when shrinking space. There are files that it can't touch while the system is running so it won't let you decrease past the unmovable files. A third party utility when do better. I've used easus. Free partition manager software to resize partitions - EaseUS(R) Partition Master Free

I believe I covered that, however, glad to hear that you agree.

Snick

 

[dorothyr]

iPad. photo attached. Cant use win 7 to communicate, no support for it.

Need some sort of disk mgr e evidently, on a disk.

 

[dorothyr]

Can’t delete.

 

[Snick]

So I "right-click the green area and select "Delete"." I get this message, " This is an extended partition. The partition will become inaccessible if you delete it. Are you sure you what to delete this partition?"

I have gotten a gparted disk and tried it. Had a hard time getting it to work at all and when I did, it doesn't see any partitions either.

You appear to have a misunderstanding as to how you extend a partition into Free Space. YOU CANNOT DELETE FREE SPACE, THERE IS NOTHING TO DELETE IS FREE. You have been trying to delete nothing, i.e. free space.

Here are 6 ways to extend a partition in Windows without data loss
and
extend C drive with unallocated space but not with Free space partition

Success, found what I was really looking for a video
Re-Allocate free space - YouTube

Here's more info
Difference Between unallocated and Free Space - It Still Works

Gotta' love Google

Snick