[SOLVED] Win 10 disk management wouldnt let me shrink my primary partition used 3rd party tool

[R2burkholder]

i had my windows partition taking up as much space as it could on my 240gb drive. I was thinking i wanted to shrink it to like 60gb cuz i was only using like 40gb, but disk management would only let me shrink it by 9gb when i had at least 150gb unused. Idk why disk management woudnt let me, i used a 3rd party tool that made quick work of it, but now disk management says its a 225gb drive. Also, my recovery partition was after unallocated space so i just deleted it, and will make a new one with usb cuz i didnt know if it would still work. Anyone know where that extra space went? Or if i should be worried about hidden malware?

 

[hotaru.hino]

The reason why Disk Manager doesn't sometimes let you shrink a partition is because files that shouldn't be moved while the computer is in use (e.g., the page file, the partition's database, etc) isn't anywhere near the other data. So it can only shrink the partition so far. And for some reason, or I haven't figured it out, Disk Manager won't work in a pre-boot environment to get around this.

As for what the third party tool did, it helps to know what third party tool you used.

 

[USAFRet]

i had my windows partition taking up as much space as it could on my 240gb drive. I was thinking i wanted to shrink it to like 60gb cuz i was only using like 40gb, but disk management would only let me shrink it by 9gb when i had at least 150gb unused. Idk why disk management woudnt let me, i used a 3rd party tool that made quick work of it, but now disk management says its a 225gb drive. Also, my recovery partition was after unallocated space so i just deleted it, and will make a new one with usb cuz i didnt know if it would still work. Anyone know where that extra space went? Or if i should be worried about hidden malware?

This is for your OS partition?
Even though it may only be using 40GB currently, 60GB is NOT enough for that C partition.
Upcoming Windows updates WILL cause that 60GB thing to fail.

What other drives are in this system, and what do you use it for?

 

[R2burkholder]

I thought that might be a problem with updates so i redid it. I didnt have any irreplaceable data installed yet so i used my media creation usb deleted my os partition, then restored from image on second drive to make sure it would work. this is my new setup

https://imgur.com/a/yRGr0K1

View: https://imgur.com/a/yRGr0K1


still showed up as 220gb after reformat.

the tool was called easeus, and it rebooted a couple times to get job done, which makes sense about active files. maybe my ssd always only showed 223gb instead of 240, i feel like it didnt but i cant remember.
i made a bigger backup image partition, with a bigger primary partition, so i can regularly backup more important stuff onto it that would take a long time or be impossible to recover. i wanted to just have a small partition with basic setup, with settings for all my apps imaged, but i guess it doesnt hurt having a larger one and larger backup i can always get another drive.
on a side note, i downloaded memtest86 onto a flash drive, and reformatting didnt work to get space back, had to zerofill it. dont know if this 3rd party tool created a similar problem.

 

[USAFRet]

223GB is exactly what a "240GB" drive will read as.
There is nothing missing or lost.

 

[R2burkholder]

223GB is exactly what a "240GB" drive will read as.
There is nothing missing or lost.

good to know learned two thinks- disk size, and partition on primary should be done in recovery environment with nothing in use. Thx

 

[hotaru.hino]

maybe my ssd always only showed 223gb instead of 240, i feel like it didnt but i cant remember.

Long version: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_prefix

Short version:
Windows measures space in magnitudes of 2^10, 2^20, 2^30, etc. drive manufacturers measures space in magnitudes of 10^3, 10^6, 10^9, etc.

Windows will always report "less" storage space.

 

[R2burkholder]

Thx i bookmarked it so i can geek out on it later.
Im embarrased i didnt know lol.

 

[USAFRet]

Thx i bookmarked it so i can geek out on it later.
Im embarrased i didnt know lol.

1TB = 931GB
2TB = 1.81TB
500GB = 465GB
etc.

There is no loss of space, just different reporting units.
Like - Which is faster, 160kph or 100mph?