Disk Management only allowing 20GB partition out of 946GB

vilecomfort

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Perhaps someone here can help me troubleshoot this problem? I did a brief search for this same issue but i could not find anything matching on these forums.

Ive long been an XP user, just purchased a new desktop with 8.1 and a 2TB HDD this week.

I was partitioning some drives to organize things, and i am stuck.
On a 2TB drive, i have so far allocated 900GB over 4 drives for files, etc. [100,200,300,300]

I have 946.42GB left on my C, and i was hoping to get at least 2-3 more 200/300GB drives before leaving the remainder to C, but when i attempt to shrink my C drive, Disk Management tells me ive only got 20835MB/20GB available space to shrink. Wtf? I have literally added nothing to the computer except uTorrent, ive used Disk Optimizer to defrag the C drive 3 times, and still all of this space is unavailable? The OS has unmovable files scattered that loosely??

Surely i am doing something wrong... anyone have any ideas??

Thanks so much in advance!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Hey vilecomfort:
Can you post a screenshot of Disk Management?
 

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Here it is...

Screenshot (2).jpg
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
I've got some theories on this but I don't want to toss them out there and have you runnin around in circles.
Maybe get your hands on a reputable disk inspection software to look deeper into whats using up space and where.
There is a wealth of knowledgeable folks here who may jump in on this, be patient and check back often.
 

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Actually, i should mention something that may help someone to explain this...
When i first started the partitioning process, i created 2-3 or so drives at roughly 1-300GB capacities like i mentioned above, only after i had created them and processed the drive as the "simple volume" or whatever... i realized i was just using for 200GB, 200000MB.. and being partially OCD, i saw that the drives were actually 196.whatever GB. So i deleted the drives using the "delete volume" process... restarted my pc a few times, and started over to the point i am at now.

Is it possible that i created a partition HD volume, deleted it, but the space that volume took up is still being reserved? I would think the defrag would assist with that?

I am hoping this issue is entirely my operator mis-use, rather than hardware or software issues...
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Well, I don't really see why your situation is occurring either. The only thing I could even guess would be the way you are adding partitions, but it might just be something in Disk Management is stuck and contains some wrong information.

Do you have media to recover your system if needed?

All I can suggest is what I would do if I encountered your situation. First I would delete the partitions you created. Then shut the system down and do a cold boot.

After that, check the drive again to see if Disk Management will allow shrinking the partition any further. If it will not, I would think about extending it a small amount and see how that goes, then check the shrink again.

If it helps, I would then shrink the drive all at once, not in pieces. Then add the partitions starting from the left in the unallocated space.

Disk Management does have a Rescan option in the menu, you could try that.

If you use Explorer to look at the C: partition's properties, under the tools and optimize button, my partition shows as being Optimized automatically and done weekly. Perhaps the third party software you are using to defrag is causing conflicts.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
@ vilecomfort:

I've gotta agree with Saltgrass, I think you have to start over.
First thing that weirds me out is that Recovery Image at the end of the Disk; I'd be tempted to export that to a thumb drive, but thats another can of worms.
I'm not positive, but I'm thinkin that you started chopping the disk by 100, 200 and 300GB portions and worked your way backwards which could have opened a huge realm of variables including creating an over sized paging file, perhaps numerous shadow copies, etc. but in your case I'm not sure.
I think you should delete all those partitions, extend the C: back to full then start chopping from left to right, meaning, pre-determine how much space you think you would ever need on C:, shrink it that much then work your way to the right.

Question:
Why all the partitions? In doing so you're making Windows place extra process "calls" when moving files around.
Why not just make one encrypted drive, for example, then just create libraries or folders for the rest?
Just wondering.

Some tips here:
Overview of Disk Management

Hope you git 'er done!!! :)
 

My Computers

System One System Two

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    Windows 7 Home Premium
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    HP Pavillion
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    Tablet - Windows 10 Home
Do you have media to recover your system if needed?

All I can suggest is what I would do if I encountered your situation. First I would delete the partitions you created. Then shut the system down and do a cold boot.

If it helps, I would then shrink the drive all at once, not in pieces. Then add the partitions starting from the left in the unallocated space.

Disk Management does have a Rescan option in the menu, you could try that.

If you use Explorer to look at the C: partition's properties, under the tools and optimize button, my partition shows as being Optimized automatically and done weekly. Perhaps the third party software you are using to defrag is causing conflicts.

Ill try the above. I dont have any physical media, just whatever is on this PC. The "defrag" is just windows disk optimizer.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
@ vilecomfort:

I'm not positive, but I'm thinkin that you started chopping the disk by 100, 200 and 300GB portions and worked your way backwards which could have opened a huge realm of variables including creating an over sized paging file, perhaps numerous shadow copies, etc. but in your case I'm not sure.
I think you should delete all those partitions, extend the C: back to full then start chopping from left to right, meaning, pre-determine how much space you think you would ever need on C:, shrink it that much then work your way to the right.

Question:
Why all the partitions? In doing so you're making Windows place extra process "calls" when moving files around.
Why not just make one encrypted drive, for example, then just create libraries or folders for the rest?
Just wondering.

Thats exactly what i did... took 300 off the C, then another 200, etc. Ill calculate how much i need and start left to right like you mentioned.

I had always been told to partition drives when they are that large, for efficiency, safety, etc. I dont NEED all those seperate drives, i could care less if i only have a 100GB C drive, and the rest split into 2 diff. drives, but i was of the understanding that partitioned drives help the HD work less and speeds it up a bit?

I dont need any encryption on my home pc, its only me that uses it... would that be done for a specific reason other than privacy?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Recovery at the end is normal for a EFI/GPT system. Mine looks like this:

DiskMan.jpg

Hard Drives:
250GB Samsung EVO SATA-3 SSD
2TB Seagate ST2000DM001 SATA-2
1.5TB Seagate ST3150041AS SATA
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro X64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo IdeaCenter K450
    CPU
    Intel Quad Core i7-4770 @ 3.4Ghz
    Motherboard
    Lenovo
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    16.0GB PC3-12800 DDR3 SDRAM 1600 MHz
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    2TB Seagate ST2000DM001 SATA-2;
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Well, I don't really see why your situation is occurring either. The only thing I could even guess would be the way you are adding partitions, but it might just be something in Disk Management is stuck and contains some wrong information.

Do you have media to recover your system if needed?

All I can suggest is what I would do if I encountered your situation. First I would delete the partitions you created. Then shut the system down and do a cold boot.

After that, check the drive again to see if Disk Management will allow shrinking the partition any further. If it will not, I would think about extending it a small amount and see how that goes, then check the shrink again.

If it helps, I would then shrink the drive all at once, not in pieces. Then add the partitions starting from the left in the unallocated space.

Disk Management does have a Rescan option in the menu, you could try that.

If you use Explorer to look at the C: partition's properties, under the tools and optimize button, my partition shows as being Optimized automatically and done weekly. Perhaps the third party software you are using to defrag is causing conflicts.

Ok, so i deleted all partitions i created and extended C drive back to its original state. Extending the drive is not available as an option when i right click on the C drive. In fact, even after deleting the first 100GB partition, C drive would not extend to absorb the unallocated space, i had to delete a 200GB volume before it would extend. I did a rescan, it changed nothing. I did check the properties of C, factory settings are set up weekly, and like i said, i used Win8.1's preloaded Disk Optimizer to defrag.
Now this is what i see... seemingly half of my HDD unavailable to use, just as i experienced while partitioning.
Screenshot (4).png
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
I have since completed a system restore to the day i purchased the PC, and still i am seeing the exact info as the image above, only the size of available shrink space is now at 941283.

Any ideas from here?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Can you download and run Defraggler from Piriform, just run 'Analyze' then show us what you got.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 7 Home Premium
    Computer type
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    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavillion
  • PC2
    Tablet - Windows 10 Home
Now click on those two blue blocks on the lower left and find out what they are, they could be your bottleneck.
(I'm bettin it's your anti-virus)
(then maybe run the defrag - see what it does.)
 

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    Tablet - Windows 10 Home
Defraggler seemed to do the trick. I love CCleaner, but ive never used any of their other programs... looks like ill have to look into their other offerings. Thanks so much for all the advice and tips everyone!!
Screenshot (4).jpgScreenshot (5).png
 

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:thumb: Great to hear! Have an awesome weekend!
 
Last edited:

My Computers

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