Why Can't I Reduce Partition Size of C for more than 455GB?

[bruce20]

Hi guys, I just bought a new laptop with 1TB hard drive and 24GB SSD. It only had 1 partition of 910GB & a Recovery partition. Now I'm trying to repartition the Primary drive (C), but I'm noticing that I can't reduce C's partition size less than 455GB? I want to make it 100 GB.

Please help. Thanks.

 

[bruce20]

I think that would be the best option before doing your partitions. Keep your recovery media in a safe place, as from what I know that can only be done once.

Yes, it only can be done once. I've saved the Flash drive in a safe place. Please tell me, can I copy the data from that flash to my 1 TB WD passport size hard drive, to keep a safe backup? And can I use it in future JUST IN CASE?

Thanks.

 

[nukemaster]

I personally go with the DVD option because flash drives over many years can loose data(as can the dvd's, but flash drives it is the lack of power over time that can cause it), but It is very easy to image the dvd's to a hard drive for an extra layer of safe keeping(I am the kind of person who has 3 copies of anything important.). The DVD's can be re-burned from the image if needed. I do not actually have an image of my OS for my personal systems. I just seem to never need to reinstall(I have cloned from drive to drive from time to time).

For anyone else I HIGHLY recommend getting a system setup the way you want it and then image it.

Yes, once you turn on hibernate after you will get back the fast boot.(it is under start search "chance what power buttons do" on windows 8). I turn that feature off for SSD systems(space saving and ssd's are soo fast), but your Seagate Hybrid drive should not have issues leaving it on.

I have used Macrium Reflect Free and it is GREAT(does not have the issues some software does with GTP formatted drives and EFI partitions).

 

[IrvSp]

If you can't resize it from Windows Disk Management, you can try to use Partition Wizard http://www.partitionwizard.com/ . But first, did you buy your laptop preinstalled with windows 8.1? Because messing with your normal partitions can render your Refresh/Reset functionalities useless (meaning you won't be able to restore/use your recovery anymore), and it's a big pain in the *ss to fix.

Yes Win 8.1 came preinstalled. But why on earth Windows Disk Management can't resize it below 455GB???

I believe that the problem is the layout of your hard disk. Windows places 'stuff' that you can't normally see, like the MFT and the system Restore Area. These don't show as part of your available space, and are not moved that far during a partition size reduction.

I had a similar problem and after trying the reducing a few time (each time it got smaller) I was able to get close enough. However I decided to do a Ghost backup of C: and then restored it to the new SSD I had. Worked better.

I do question one thing? You mentioned a 24GB SSD. Too small to be of real value holding the OS. Some systems do come like that, but the SSD is part of the C: drive, that it the SSD and Mechanical hard drive are bound together. The SSD is usually an mSATA SSD and holds most of the boot files while the hard drive holds the rest. I wonder if you shrink it if you'll retain that functionality?

 

[dustinhunt78]

If you can't resize it from Windows Disk Management, you can try to use Partition Wizard http://www.partitionwizard.com/ . But first, did you buy your laptop preinstalled with windows 8.1? Because messing with your normal partitions can render your Refresh/Reset functionalities useless (meaning you won't be able to restore/use your recovery anymore), and it's a big pain in the *ss to fix.

Yes Win 8.1 came preinstalled. But why on earth Windows Disk Management can't resize it below 455GB???

I believe that the problem is the layout of your hard disk. Windows places 'stuff' that you can't normally see, like the MFT and the system Restore Area. These don't show as part of your available space, and are not moved that far during a partition size reduction.

I had a similar problem and after trying the reducing a few time (each time it got smaller) I was able to get close enough. However I decided to do a Ghost backup of C: and then restored it to the new SSD I had. Worked better.

I do question one thing? You mentioned a 24GB SSD. Too small to be of real value holding the OS. Some systems do come like that, but the SSD is part of the C: drive, that it the SSD and Mechanical hard drive are bound together. The SSD is usually an mSATA SSD and holds most of the boot files while the hard drive holds the rest. I wonder if you shrink it if you'll retain that functionality?

The way that those 24GB "SSD's" work is not the same as a true SSD. Basically, it is 24GB of cache. The hard disk constantly makes changes to the 24GB part of the disk. The most used files in your system are placed there. From what I gathered in the information that I read describing it, key Windows boot files are stored there, as well as other frequently used files. A 64-bit version of Windows 8.1 is 20GB. This would only leave 4GB of space left for other frequently used files, but since the whole of Windows is not stored there you have considerably more space than 4GB.

According to what I read, the system actually works quite well. But still, there is no substitute for the speed of a true, high-end SSD. SSD's are the future of computing. While there will undoubtedly be more advances in SSD technology, the days of the HDD with it's spinning disk is very much so numbered. SSD's beat them in pretty much every category that counts, and the SSD's just keep getting better in every way. They are more dependable, faster, and have longer service lives than ever before, and all information tells us that this will only keep improving.

 

[bruce20]

[SOLVED]. OK, I reset the OS back to factory default (It removed all the data & took like 6-7 hours, as I used "Clean my PC" option). But when I turned the PC on, I noticed C was still stuck at the same size restriction & I still couldn't reduce the size of C Drive. So though this process wasn't helpful from partitioning point of view, but the good thing is, Now I know the process or Reset & Stuff .

So What actually worked for me? I followed the following article, Disabled Hibernate, Paging & System Protection and tried again. I used Win 8.1 Disk Management Tool (NO 3rd Party Tool) and it worked just fine for me this time.

http://mindwithheart.wordpress.com/2012/11/18/windows-8-fix-you-cannot-shrink-a-volume-beyond-the-point-where-any-unmovable-files-are-located/

Once Done, I activated all 3 things.

By the way, I've a question about Hibernation Activation. Please tell me, how can I VERIFY if the hibernation is Activated/Turned Back On?

Thanks a lot guys. I really really appreciated all the help from you guys.

 

[dustinhunt78]

[SOLVED]. OK, I reset the OS back to factory default (It removed all the data & took like 6-7 hours, as I used "Clean my PC" option). But when I turned the PC on, I noticed C was still stuck at the same size restriction & I still couldn't reduce the size of C Drive. So though this process wasn't helpful from partitioning point of view, but the good thing is, Now I know the process or Reset & Stuff .

So What actually worked for me? I followed the following article, Disabled Hibernate, Paging & System Protection and tried again. I used Win 8.1 Disk Management Tool (NO 3rd Party Tool) and it worked just fine for me this time.

http://mindwithheart.wordpress.com/2012/11/18/windows-8-fix-you-cannot-shrink-a-volume-beyond-the-point-where-any-unmovable-files-are-located/

Once Done, I activated all 3 things.

By the way, I've a question about Hibernation Activation. Please tell me, how can I VERIFY if the hibernation is Activated/Turned Back On?

Thanks a lot guys. I really really appreciated all the help from you guys.

To see if "Hibernation" is turned on, go to Advanced Power Settings and set your PC to hibernate after 1 minute of being "idle". If it goes into hibernation, then it is turned on.

 

[bruce20]

To see if "Hibernation" is turned on, go to Advanced Power Settings and set your PC to hibernate after 1 minute of being "idle". If it goes into hibernation, then it is turned on.

Thanks.

 

[vivsan123]

[SOLVED]. OK, I reset the OS back to factory default (It removed all the data & took like 6-7 hours, as I used "Clean my PC" option). But when I turned the PC on, I noticed C was still stuck at the same size restriction & I still couldn't reduce the size of C Drive. So though this process wasn't helpful from partitioning point of view, but the good thing is, Now I know the process or Reset & Stuff .

So What actually worked for me? I followed the following article, Disabled Hibernate, Paging & System Protection and tried again. I used Win 8.1 Disk Management Tool (NO 3rd Party Tool) and it worked just fine for me this time.

http://mindwithheart.wordpress.com/2012/11/18/windows-8-fix-you-cannot-shrink-a-volume-beyond-the-point-where-any-unmovable-files-are-located/

Worked for me as well, thanks alot for sharing the link.!!

 

[bruce20]

Worked for me as well, thanks alot for sharing the link.!!

Awesome, glad to hear that. Enjoy the big space buddy.

 

[hari hara sudhan]

Worked for me as well, thanks alot for sharing the link.!!

Awesome, glad to hear that. Enjoy the big space buddy.

hey dude.....(bruce20) are you guys sure it will not cause any problem in future...... that is partitioning a drive using previous 3 steps....thanks....

 

[Mick128]

Hey, just in case anyone is interested in this post, here is what worked for me (in Windows 10, recently: Aug 2015):

SHRINKING A VOLUME

Some info gathered from this site (and others): http://www.download3k.com/articles/How-to-move-Pagefile.sys-and-Swapfile.sys-to-another-drive-in-Windows-8-8.1-or-10-00430

To shrink a volume (e.g. a partition) on Windows 8.1/10 follow these steps:
1. Open Computer Management (Search "Computer Management")
2. Go to Storage > Disk Management
3. Select the drive you wish to shrink e.g. C:
4. Right click on it and select Shrink Volume
5. If it does shrink much (e.g. there is a lot of Free Space indicated but it can't shrink much of this, then it is likely there is a PAGEFILE issue / file 'stuck' somewhere in the partition which can't be shrunk past.
6. Run a Defrag: Right click on the C: drive and select Properties, then Tools tab, the select "Optimise and Defrag drive" > click "Optimise" button. Select the drive to defrag (e.g. C, then click "Optimise" button. Let it finish and then…
7. Open Event Viewer (type Event Viewer in Search)
8. In Evet Viewer, locate and click on: Windows Logs > Application
9. Check out the recent events: there should be your defrag event there at or near the top. Look for Event ID "259" which will provide details of the defrag: especially of importance to us: the name of the last file which it can't move (last unmoveable file):
e.g. it will look something like this:
"
A volume shrink analysis was initiated on volume Windows (C. This event log entry details information about the last unmovable file that could limit the maximum number of reclaimable bytes.

Diagnostic details:
- The last unmovable file appears to be: \pagefile.sys::$DATA
- The last cluster of the file is: 0x11956cc
- Shrink potential target (LCN address): 0xcf87d0
- The NTFS file flags are: P---D
- Shrink phase: <analysis>

To find more details about this file please use the "fsutil volume querycluster \\?\Volume{c0d5ac1a-0549-4049-94c3-46478595be9a} 0x11956cc" command.
"
10. Now you can see it is the \pagefile.sys::$DATA file that is causing an issue (can't be defraged to allow you to shrink your volume)
11. Now we know the 'stuck' file we want to get rid of it… if it is this pagefile, then..
12. Right click on This PC ( = the old "My Computer" I think), or, similarly go to Control Panel > System and Security > System
13. Click on Advanced System Settings on the Left hand side. In this dialogue box, click on the Advanced tab.
14. Next click on the "Setting" box which opens the Performance Settings box click on the Advanced Tab.
15. In the Virtual memory section click the "Change" button.
16. Deselect the "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives" and then for C: drive [Windows]; select the "No paging file" option and then press the "Set" button. Click "yes" on the warning dialogue box that pops up.
17. Next, select a (ideally different drive, preferably a different INTERNAL drive, in this case I will put it on my E: [Music] volume (which is on a different internal HDD to my [Windows] volume, then click the "System managed size" option, and then press "OK" button:

18. RESTART your computer now!
19. Open Computer Management again and then Volume Shrink to desired size...
20. Then, don't forget this final step! - go back into System properties and change back the system paging file to how it was originally (before steps 16 & 17 above).


You may have a different problem to this, but if its the pagefile problem this should fix it.
(Otherwise you can probably just use a free software package to do a similar thing!).
Good luck.

 

[nukemaster]

Hey, just in case anyone is interested in this post, here is what worked for me (in Windows 10, recently: Aug 2015):

SHRINKING A VOLUME

Some info gathered from this site (and others): http://www.download3k.com/articles/How-to-move-Pagefile.sys-and-Swapfile.sys-to-another-drive-in-Windows-8-8.1-or-10-00430

To shrink a volume (e.g. a partition) on Windows 8.1/10 follow these steps:
1. Open Computer Management (Search "Computer Management")
2. Go to Storage > Disk Management
3. Select the drive you wish to shrink e.g. C:
4. Right click on it and select Shrink Volume
5. If it does shrink much (e.g. there is a lot of Free Space indicated but it can't shrink much of this, then it is likely there is a PAGEFILE issue / file 'stuck' somewhere in the partition which can't be shrunk past.
6. Run a Defrag: Right click on the C: drive and select Properties, then Tools tab, the select "Optimise and Defrag drive" > click "Optimise" button. Select the drive to defrag (e.g. C, then click "Optimise" button. Let it finish and then…
7. Open Event Viewer (type Event Viewer in Search)
8. In Evet Viewer, locate and click on: Windows Logs > Application
9. Check out the recent events: there should be your defrag event there at or near the top. Look for Event ID "259" which will provide details of the defrag: especially of importance to us: the name of the last file which it can't move (last unmoveable file):
e.g. it will look something like this:
"
A volume shrink analysis was initiated on volume Windows (C. This event log entry details information about the last unmovable file that could limit the maximum number of reclaimable bytes.

Diagnostic details:
- The last unmovable file appears to be: \pagefile.sys::$DATA
- The last cluster of the file is: 0x11956cc
- Shrink potential target (LCN address): 0xcf87d0
- The NTFS file flags are: P---D
- Shrink phase: <analysis>

To find more details about this file please use the "fsutil volume querycluster \\?\Volume{c0d5ac1a-0549-4049-94c3-46478595be9a} 0x11956cc" command.
"
10. Now you can see it is the \pagefile.sys::$DATA file that is causing an issue (can't be defraged to allow you to shrink your volume)
11. Now we know the 'stuck' file we want to get rid of it… if it is this pagefile, then..
12. Right click on This PC ( = the old "My Computer" I think), or, similarly go to Control Panel > System and Security > System
13. Click on Advanced System Settings on the Left hand side. In this dialogue box, click on the Advanced tab.
14. Next click on the "Setting" box which opens the Performance Settings box click on the Advanced Tab.
15. In the Virtual memory section click the "Change" button.
16. Deselect the "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives" and then for C: drive [Windows]; select the "No paging file" option and then press the "Set" button. Click "yes" on the warning dialogue box that pops up.
17. Next, select a (ideally different drive, preferably a different INTERNAL drive, in this case I will put it on my E: [Music] volume (which is on a different internal HDD to my [Windows] volume, then click the "System managed size" option, and then press "OK" button:

18. RESTART your computer now!
19. Open Computer Management again and then Volume Shrink to desired size...
20. Then, don't forget this final step! - go back into System properties and change back the system paging file to how it was originally (before steps 16 & 17 above).


You may have a different problem to this, but if its the pagefile problem this should fix it.
(Otherwise you can probably just use a free software package to do a similar thing!).
Good luck.

Thanks for the detailed post.

I tend to use 3rd party software mostly because running outside of the OS it can move the page file without issue.

 

[Parvatha]

1. Go to system properties
2. System protection
3. Click on Windows C then on "configuration"
4. Disable system protection, then "apply" and "ok"
5. Then go to disk management,
And shrink 'C' drive as yous wish and
6. Turn on system protection.