Is this a possible way to shrink my NTFS partition more?

hank863 · 2009-04-07 00:48:37

This may be ignorant, but I would like to shrink my NTFS partition more than the Windows partitioner will allow. It won't allow me to shrink any more because of "unmoveable files". So, I was wondering if I could copy my entire C:/ directory onto an external hard drive, clear the NTFS partition, shrink it down, and copy and paste all the files back from the external hard drive. I can't use my normal backup and restore ruitine because that restore my partitioning layout. Would my idea create an unusable Windows sytem or could it work?

Last edited by hank863 (2009-04-07 00:49:08)

Inxsible · 2009-04-07 01:43:12

its probably not allowing you to shrink it any further because of pagefile. What is the size of your pagefile?

hank863 · 2009-04-07 01:45:37

I have not bothered to get overly familiar with Vista. How would I find that out?

Ranguvar · 2009-04-07 01:51:36

It's a file called pagefile.sys, I think a hidden file in the root of the OS drive (usually C:\, obviously - wow, it's weird typing backslashes now xD).

hank863 · 2009-04-07 01:54:09

My pagefile is 2.2 GB. When I'm in windows, it says I have 70 more GB of free space on my partition, it just won't let me shrink any more.

Mektub · 2009-04-07 05:11:22

So, I was wondering if I could copy my entire C: directory onto an external hard drive, clear the NTFS partition, shrink it down, and copy and paste all the files back from the external hard drive.

Long story, but don' t do that. It will not work.

Somewhere in the Window$ configuration (right click on My Computer) you can configure it to not use a pagefile. Since I don't have Window$ I cant tell you the exact steps to achieve it,

Then remove pagefile.sys, from Arch if necessary.

Then defrag the disk with a free reasonable defrager, Goggle for "auslogics disk defrager".

Then try again to shrink the partition from within Window$.

Mektub

oopsicrappe · 2009-04-07 05:58:16

Have you tried using ntfsresize?

Mektub · 2009-04-07 12:08:39

In fact gparted uses ntfsresize. The problem is that XP/Vista has the nasty habit of noting the sectors, whatever,
where it is installed and will complain that the boundaries changed.

You can overcome this by having a Window$ install CD and booting from it into repair mode.

Take a look at:

http://tinyurl.com/28eol9

As an aside, perhaps a XP/Vi$ta installation under VirtualBox would spare you some trouble.

Mektub

perbh · 2009-04-07 16:26:56

I tried exactly the same as the OP - doesn't work! (sorry)

I can do the same under XP and it works fine - as long as you have a xp-cd to boot from and format the partition. As soon as it is finished formatting you can stop it by power-off and then you can use tar/whatever to copy all the files back. No problems whatsoever.

Vista seems to be a different beast alltogether - I'm not gonna touch it - ever!

R00KIE · 2009-04-07 17:10:34

I guess you need to do it from outside windows (using a boot cd) and maybe with proprietary programs (payed) that know how to move files around without breaking anything .... I don't know if a gparted cd will be able to do that for you.
Vista will complain after you reboot into it the first time and perform a filesystem check but then everything should be ok (but better backup all the important stuff before trying ... just in case).

ghostHack · 2009-04-07 18:38:27

I found that I could not shrink the vista partition on my laptop to less than half the size with the windows tool. When I looked at the drive with a defragging tool I saw that all the filesystem metadata was in the middle of the partition.

However, when I rebooted after shrinking the partition as far as windows would let me I found that the metadata had been moved (presumably during the bootup process?) so that it was in the middle of the new partition space. so with a couple of resize/reboot sequences I could shrink the partition as small as I wanted it.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-04-07 00:48:37

Is this a possible way to shrink my NTFS partition more?

#2 2009-04-07 01:43:12

Re: Is this a possible way to shrink my NTFS partition more?

#3 2009-04-07 01:45:37

Re: Is this a possible way to shrink my NTFS partition more?

#4 2009-04-07 01:51:36

Re: Is this a possible way to shrink my NTFS partition more?

#5 2009-04-07 01:54:09

Re: Is this a possible way to shrink my NTFS partition more?

#6 2009-04-07 05:11:22

Re: Is this a possible way to shrink my NTFS partition more?

#7 2009-04-07 05:58:16

Re: Is this a possible way to shrink my NTFS partition more?

#8 2009-04-07 12:08:39

Re: Is this a possible way to shrink my NTFS partition more?

#9 2009-04-07 16:26:56

Re: Is this a possible way to shrink my NTFS partition more?

#10 2009-04-07 17:10:34

Re: Is this a possible way to shrink my NTFS partition more?

#11 2009-04-07 18:38:27

Re: Is this a possible way to shrink my NTFS partition more?

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