Partitioning in Vista (Acronis, Disk manager)

[boebi]

I got a problem partitioning.
I'm running Vista Ultimate and I have 2 RAID HDD's, each of 320 Gb, and it shows up as 1 HDD (as its supposed to be).

Now I'm trying to partition my HDD and make the C:/ drive smaller (from 310Gb to 50Gb). I try that using Acronis Disk Director. I chose resize, to 50Gb, everything works fine. I chose "Commit" and I can see again what its going to to, I click Proceed. It reboots and my C:/ is still 310Gb .

If I try resizing it using the Vista Disk Manager (Run diskmgmt.msc if you dont know it, winkey+r, then diskmgmt.msc ), and there I cant make it smaller then 310Gb either, I just cant make it less.

Does anyone know how to fix this?

[dangel]

Two things i'd mention - first, have you got the latest build of Acronis disk director suite? Make sure you have, as the last version 10.0 (build 2160) was for Vista compatibility. It's REALLY important that you use at least this build when resizing Vista partitions.
Second, have you tried doing it from outside the windows environment (create a rescue CD, and boot off it)? Tools->Rescue Media Builder.

When doing it from windows itself, acronis will reboot when you commit and do the resize during boot (before the login screen) normally (a bit like checkdisk does). If it's not coming up then there's something wrong for sure.

[boebi]

Yes I have the latest build. I can still do anything I want with the other 330Gb, that works.

No, I haven't tried that, I'll burn a Boot disc now.

And yes, because your changing the boot partition it needs to reboot.

[dangel]

Hope it works for you matey!

[Funkstar]

I ran into this problem on my new laptop.

Even using the boot media, it kept flagging my C: drive and wouldn't let me do anything with it. I had to use the Automatic as opposed to manual operation. It's a pain in the back side, but it worked eventually.

Vista will "detect new hardware" and want a re-boot because the drive sizes have changed.

[s_kinton]

I use good old Partition Magic 8. Its not listed as Vista compatible, but it works a treat. Grab a copy of that and you're sorted.

[jonathan_phang]

After reading about on this for my HTPC, I've found that the shrink/expand operation that you get from disk management doesnt always move the partitions as much as you want. What you can do is to run an app from the command line. Open up a cmd window and run diskpart.exe

Type \help for the exact commands (I cant remember - will try to find the page that i read this off), but the main gist of it is that you select a volume which related to the partition and then enter in an amount of MB to reduce by.

I just used it in my HTPC when I realised that i didnt really use the boot partition that much and shrunk it to 50MB just for vista. Sorry if its a bit of a rushed answer, but I'll try to dig up the link for you.

JP

[dangel]

I use good old Partition Magic 8. Its not listed as Vista compatible, but it works a treat. Grab a copy of that and you're sorted.

A word of warning: I've killed Vista installs with PM8..

[boebi]

If I try it outside vista, with the boot loader, it says it cant find any HDD's :S

I'll try with the automatic mode (inside vista)

[dangel]

Arse, that's unusual - which motherboard do you have (doesn't say in your system specs)? Picks up my raid arrays ok for me.. Hmm I wonder if it makes a difference having true image on the bootcd as well (I always do)? Did you try the 'safe' version too?

[s_kinton]

A word of warning: I've killed Vista installs with PM8..

Thats interesting. I guess Ive been lucky thus far then. Ive used it about 5 times in Vista and its worked fine each time. On 2 differents machines too

I've got Acronis too, but only use it to restore my basic Vista or XP installs, which contain a fresh install, with drivers and basic programs. I dont take cumulative images.

[boebi]

To honest, no idea what motherboard I have, I bought a Dell Dimension 9200.
I'll look it up in a second.

And how can you resize in automatic mode??? lol

[dangel]

Thats interesting. I guess Ive been lucky thus far then. Ive used it about 5 times in Vista and its worked fine each time. On 2 differents machines too

I've got Acronis too, but only use it to restore my basic Vista or XP installs, which contain a fresh install, with drivers and basic programs. I dont take cumulative images.

It may depend on the complexity of your partitions, I'm not sure to be absolutely honest. I bought in ADDS to replace our aging copy of PM8 after one or two bad experiences. In any case, PM8 is a long dead product that knows nothing about Vista etc.

To honest, no idea what motherboard I have, I bought a Dell Dimension 9200.
I'll look it up in a second.

And how can you resize in automatic mode??? lol

Good question - i can't see how you do it either?! I'm guessing your using an intel raid controller (just like me - work/home)

[boebi]

Yea I am...

I just can't get these partitions working...

I never had so much troubles with my HDD's, this is the first time I'm using RAID, first time I'm using Vista, nothing but troubles..

So, any more ideas?

[dangel]

Which intel controller is it you're using? And do you have an XP CD kicking around?

[boebi]

Intel ICH8R/ICH9R SATA RAID Controller

and yes, I have a XP cd (not interested in installing that though)