Not allowing shrink volume over 6GB, but have 94GB free

[shalpert]

Hi,

Technical specs: I have a Lenovo Yoga 2 with Windows 8.1. Intel Core i7 Processor, 8GB RAM, 256GB hard drive, and 64-bit OS.

I am in the Disk Management system attempting to shrink my C drive by about 20GB to allow room for an Ubuntu install. I want to be able to dual boot my system. The Disk Management says that I have 94.07GB free in my C drive (43% free), yet when I click to shrink the volume of C drive, it says that the "size of available shrink space in in MB" is 6359. This is not enough room for an Ubuntu install, much less for the program I want to run on it after.

If anyone can shed light on what is going on and a possible way around it, help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[David Bailey]

Sounds like you need a bigger HD.
What does your Properties window look like ?

 

[shalpert]

Seems to be enough space.

 

[LMiller7]

Shrinking a volume can be a very complex process internally. If the space that is to be removed from a volume contains data it must be moved elsewhere, and that is often not a simple process. The message in the "Shrink C:" dialog explains the problem. The Disk Management facility in Windows has only limited abilities in this regard. Microsoft could have created a facility that rivaled the best products on the market but that would have left competing products without a market. That would have meant expensive legal problems.

Doing a defrag on the volume may allow the shrink to work. Otherwise you will need to use a third party utility.

 

[David Bailey]

you will need to use a third party utility

Try-

Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Free

There are people here that can help you use it if they choose to do so.

edit- You still have a small HD. Mine is 500 GBs. $400 at Walmart.

 

[shalpert]

I defragged many times, but to no avail. I just downloaded EaseUS to help with the partitioning, but I'm unsure how much disk space I can safely allocate (and use for Ubuntu) without crashing my system.

 

[Mark Phelps]

Look through the advice in the link: Working Around Windows Vista

I know it's for Vista -- but the same problems apply in every Windows OS since then.

 

[topgundcp]

Defrag won't work, your data is still scatter all over the disk. What you need is to consolidate all free space ie. moving all data to the beginning of the disk leaving one big chunk of free space at the end then you can shrink further.

Having said that, the easiest way is to download: Bootable Partition Manger | MiniTool Partition Wizard Bootable Edition and using Rufus - Create bootable USB then boot up from the USB. You'll see a screen similar as shown below. Right click on the on the partition that you want to shrink, then move the slider back until you see: 20480MB in the Unallocated Space. This will give you exactly 20GB. Click OK then Apply to commit the change.

 

[topgundcp]

you will need to use a third party utility

Try-

Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Free

There are people here that can help you use it if they choose to do so.

edit- You still have a small HD. Mine is 500 GBs. $400 at Walmart.

@David,
His SSD is fine, he still got 90GB left which is plenty. You don't need a large HD for Windows, mine is only 120GB and have installed bunch of applications and still have 85GB left.



BTW, you mean $40 for 500GB, not $400. With $400, you can get a good 1TB SSD.

 

[David Bailey]

you will need to use a third party utility

Try-

Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Free

There are people here that can help you use it if they choose to do so.

edit- You still have a small HD. Mine is 500 GBs. $400 at Walmart.

@David,
His SSD is fine, he still got 90GB left which is plenty. You don't need a large HD for Windows, mine is only 120GB and have installed bunch of applications and still have 85GB left.

View attachment 64717

BTW, you mean $40 for 500GB, not $400. With $400, you can get a good 1TB SSD.

I bought mine 5 years ago.
The price has most likely gone down.

As to space, I like to keep my free space to around 90%.
The human brain is supposed to use only 10% of its' space.
I think there is a good reason for that.
I may be totally misguided or crazy.
I always thought the free space was used to run applications.
Not enough free space or RAM would cause freeze-ups.

You know more than I do.
I still like to have lots of free space.