Cannot make a new partition in my Hard Drive

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Cannot make a new partition in my Hard Drive

(4 posts)

Started 4 months ago by Dehast
Latest reply from Dehast
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Dehast

Member

Posts: 2

Alright, that's not exactly it. I'm probably able to make a new partition (I haven't tried yet) but what I am not being allowed to do is to shrink my HD by the amount I want to.

I have a Sony VAIO (I know, bad idea, but it's enough for my necessities) with 230GB of space and 129GB are free. I want to make a partition with 80GB but Disk Management and DiskPart.exe won't let me. When I try to shrink my main partition, Disk Management in Windows Vista just lets me shrink 1.1GB and DiskPart.exe simply says it's too big of a value to shrink.

I would like to know if anyone has/had the same problem I do and if they got to a solution.
What I would also like to know, but just out of curiosity, is if the 7.44GB partition in my hard drive, that has the "EISA Configuration" is where my recovery files are, and if I can get rid of it to use the space with my stuff, and in case I want the data in this recovery disk, if I can download it to a couple DVDs before I delete it (I haven't been able to access it, there is probably a more complex way but I'm not that good with this stuff).

I guess that's all I'd like to know, and I hope someone is willing to help.
Thank you!

Posted 4 months ago #

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ispalten

Member

Posts: 410

DiskPart will NOT move some system files. Hence, they stay where they are, and this means you can't shrink the space all the way down, only up to the point of where the system file is.

There are 3rd party Disk Management programs that will do what you want. They don't operate under the OS usually as they get booted and then moved and 're-connect' the system files. Some cost money, some are tricky to use, some don't work with Vista.

If you have the 64 bit version of Vista, you will probably need to try one of the more difficult programs or pay for a version that will do what you want.

However, before you try any of those, if you DEFRAG your disk first, it may move some data that is behind the system file (usually $MFT) and that alone might allow you to get close to the size you want. Repeated defrag's and shrinking of the volume might work for you.

For some free tools, checkout these :

Freee Partition PartedMagic
EASEUS Free if you are running the 32 bit of Vista

There are others too, just search the web.

Irv S.

Posted 4 months ago #

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ScottW

MS-MVP

Posts: 6609

Dehast, hello. The trouble with shrinking a partition with Window's Disk Management has been addressed before. See this article.

The 7.44 GB EISA partition is almost certainly the recovery data provided by Sony for you to restore your OS and software to the way it was when it came from the factory. There should be a utility that allows you to burn recovery discs to blank DVD-R media in case the recovery partition is inaccessible. You should burn these recovery discs for certain, if you haven't already. As for saving off an image of the recovery partition, that might work or it might not. Each manufacturer has a different method for storing data on these recovery partitions and for using them to restore. Without knowing exactly how Sony uses the recovery partition to perform a factory restore, you might not be able access it in the future by restoring it back to the hard drive.

Posted 4 months ago #

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Dehast

Member

Posts: 2

@ispalten, I do use Windows 32-bit, so hopefully it will be easier to get to shrink my HD. Thank you very much for all the information and tips, and I hope one of these two programs works well on my needs. Regarding defragging, I already did once, but I didn't know the results get better if I shrink slowly and keep defragging. I'll try that too.

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Cannot make a new partition in my Hard Drive

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