Shrink Volume won't work Vista Bugs and Problems Discuss Shrink Volume won't work in the Windows Vista forums; Hi. I have an HP Pavilion dv6137tx notebook with a 120GB HDD (single partition) with Vista on it. I had Linux on it until recently, when I decided to dual-...

[maverick280857]

Hi.

I have an HP Pavilion dv6137tx notebook with a 120GB HDD (single partition) with Vista on it. I had Linux on it until recently, when I decided to dual-boot Linux and Vista. I want to shrink my 120GB (~111GB) primary partition to 80GB so as to create a 40GB partition to install Linux into.

When I try to use the Shrink Volume option in Disk Management (Computer Management), it says the maximum shrink size is 3298 MB. I have disabled System Restore and I have about 92GB free on my drive, but it doesn't let me shrink the volume to 80 GB. A screenshot is posted here: http://spinor.sitesled.com/shrink-volume.jpg.

I have tried diskpart as well, and it says 32GB is too large a shrink size. gparted doesn't boot up.

Any ideas?

[felix8406]

It seems many people have this issue. Try this: Disk Management > Click Help on the menu bar > Help Topics > Contents tab > Disk Management: Welcome > Manage Basic Volumes > Shrink a Basic Volume. See if this ifo will help.

[maverick280857]

felix, I know how to do this...the problem is that I can't change that number. Please see the screenshot.

[Snuffy]

Disk Management does have major problems with shrinking many partitions.
I also have major problems with this...currently I have found NO 3rd PARTY Program which will do ALL THAT IS NEEDED. a

The only solution I have found is...
1. make a full backup on a extra HDD.
2. Boot to a FLOPPY or CD which has all the required Windows required programs... FDISK, Format, etc etc... Format to FAT32 ... then use any XP program you prefer to set the partitions how you want... I use PQ Magic 8.05
3. Lastly after I have the partitions set the way I want them I convert to NTFS ... then install Vista ... or use RESTORE and do my System Restore from Backup...

[maverick280857]

But how can a tool meant to work on FAT32 partitions modify Vista partitions correctly? (AFAIK, Vista uses a diff version of NTFS if not plain simple NTFS).

I don't have another hard disk to taken an image on. I just want to partition this drive into 80+40GB partitions without destroying Vista.

If something goes wrong, I have to use the recovery DVDs to install XP Media Center edition first and then use HP's upgrade kit to install Vista. On the way, I have no freedom to partition the disk the way I want to.

[felix8406]

Originally Posted by maverick280857

felix, I know how to do this...the problem is that I can't change that number. Please see the screenshot.

Sorry, I didn't mean to insult your intelligence. We are doing this troubleshooting from long distance and is difficult to know how much knowledge a user has about the subject, so we cannot assume anything. I simply wanted you to be aware the depending where the page file is located, as stated on the help menu I indicated, could prevent you from shrinking the partition any farther than that specific point

[maverick280857]

felix, its perfectly okay...I put in the screenshot for precisely that reason. I had figured out how to do the shrinking but for some reason, vista is putting a limit to how much I can shrink the C drive. And sorry for sounding brisk...as for intelligence, haha, I am new to Vista...all I know is by playing around, experimenting and using the recovery dvd at least twice a week . Thanks a ton for your help...I really appreciate it.

I just tried gparted, but it doesn't work. (Earlier it wouldn't even start, but I figured thats because of an external usb mouse, which I removed.) It couldn't resize my vista partition.

Any ideas?

[maverick280857]

Hello again

I finally managed to use gparted. This is how I did it:

1. Boot from the gparted live cd.
2. At the command line (for some reason, the X window interface doesn't start on my machine automatically), type

ntfsresize -s 80G /dev/sda1

The GUI based utility (gparted) also doesn't work, as I stated in an earlier post on this thread.

Now, it appears that the resizing has taken place, but when I open Disk Management, I see only one partition called C and the capacity being shown is 111.79 GB. However, in Computer, the capacity of C drive is being shown as 74.5 GB.

As I understand, I should see the remaining space as unpartitioned space.

Here is the screenshot: http://spinor.sitesled.com/shrink-volume-2.jpg

Also, now the shrink limit is 357 MB as shown by Vista. I am going to start a Fedora installer to see what actually happened to my drive :P

[crabby]

You like making things difficult for yourself?

I would have just clean installed and used the Vista partition manager to set my sizes before installation.

Vista doesn't show unpartitioned space. You will need to format the extra partition outside of windows to see it. The reason the disk manager shows the extra space still is because it shows physical drives. I am sure you know how to do the formatting... but if not post back!

crabby

[maverick280857]

Haha, well :-D. Lets see:

My notebook shipped with XP, so the recovery media I have are for XP Media Center edition. I performe a full recovery and restored the system to XP. Now, as stated in another thread on this forum, my webcam does not work in XP. I came across the following piece of advice on HP's website (http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...lang=en#N536):

Things to do if you upgraded from Windows XP to Vista and want to return to XP
If you purchased a Vista capable HP notebook PC that shipped with Windows XP, and you upgraded it to Vista, you can reinstall XP, provided that you reinstall all the XP compatible drivers.
NOTE: In all cases, the BIOS and the hardware drivers must be designed as compatible with the operating system. Specifically, XP drivers will not work with the Vista OS, and Vista drivers will not work with the XP OS.

To resolve your hardware and software problems, you may reinstall the XP operating system that was installed on your PC as follows:
If you created your Windows XP HP Recovery discs while you were still operating with XP, insert the first disc and restart the PC to restore your system to XP.
If you did not create your HP Recovery discs while you were running Windows XP, you will need to order an XP Recovery disc set from HP directly. For details see HP Notebook PCs - Obtaining a Recovery CD or DVD set .
After the PC is returned to its original configuration, go to the Software and Driver Downloads web page on the HP web site and install any updated XP drivers. Be sure to install the latest BIOS listed on the XP pages and do not install any Vista drivers.

So the webcam doesn't work even after installing drivers for XP. I haven't done anything to my system yet except shuffle between XP and Vista (and the webcam works in Vista, so there's no hardware fault).

Now, how do I invoke the Vista partition manager from within the Vista installer? My copy of Vista came with the HP Express Upgrade kit. (Do I do Shift+F10? If so, when?)