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Thread: Reducing Partition size in Vista

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    Reducing Partition size in Vista

    I'm trying to reduce my C: partition size in Vista however it won't let me shrink the drive further as it's demanding to have just over 110GB of free space. Surely it doesn't need that much space, is there anyway around this?
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    Re: Reducing Partition size in Vista

    a recent linux livecd, which can ignore microsoft's petty limits and resize it fine?

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    Re: Reducing Partition size in Vista

    Will that damage the boot sector of the C: drive?
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    Re: Reducing Partition size in Vista

    Quote Originally Posted by Furton View Post
    Will that damage the boot sector of the C: drive?
    not unless you decide to install a boot loader, or run "dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1" for some reason

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    Re: Reducing Partition size in Vista

    Acronis Disk Director Suite is a good package for this (if you're looking for a commercial solution that's targeted at Vista specifically) - Acronis DDS 10 on Scan Computers Make sure you update it to the latest version if you do get it.

    Vista's disk management is pretty basic (although better than XPs) and can only shrink volumes to the point of the last bit of data on your drive (doh!).

    Here's a good guide: Working Around Windows Vista's "Shrink Volume" Inadequacy Problems :: the How-To Geek
    Well worth a read if you want to try and do it the 'hard way' There's a linky there about how to fix boot-up problems if you go the linux (gparted) route (i.e. simply boot off your vista install DVD and let it repair it for you) too.
    Last edited by dangel; 23-10-2007 at 09:28 AM.
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    Re: Reducing Partition size in Vista

    I still use Partition Magic 8 for all my needs. Some say it has issues in Vista, but its always worked fine for me.

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    Re: Reducing Partition size in Vista

    I've certainly had problems with it and there's plenty of others on the web reporting issues too. It's hardly surprising as it's been a dead product for years now Bloody symantec. PartitionMagic - Wikipedia, the free/partially accurate encyclopedia
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    Re: Reducing Partition size in Vista

    I had the same problem when I first installed Vista. The problem is that it creates its page file in the middle of all that free space. Of course that also means that any repartitioning will have to be done from outside of the operating system since you can't move the file while it's in use. I created a bootable partitioning CD (part of Acronis I think) and selected the option to move the page file to the start of the HDD as part of a defragment. After that I was able to repartition the drive from within Vista.

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