Ideas on how to shrink Win10TP’s partition

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I’ve just installed the latest-available 64-bit build 9879 on a 983 GB hard disk, and managed to shrink the C: drive to about 450 GB.

But I can’t get it down to the size I wanted, which is 200 GB, because one or more ‘unmovable system file(s)’ is/are at the far end of the partition. DEFRAG C: has been tried, reducing fragmentation from 4% to 0%, but of course not moving this/these system file(s).

Has anyone any idea:
a) how to identify which file or files is causing the problem?
b) how to move it/them closer to the front of the partition?

Thanks!

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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Look at this:
http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd
There’s a couple of sections in particular, Hard Disk Tools and Optimizers, that contain tools that should help.
Download site: http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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Acronis Disk Director 12 can help with the re-sizing of the partition. Moving system files, that would take a first-rate disk defragger, I use Auslogics DiskDefrag, however, there are several real good alternatives, both free and fee.

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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…one or more ‘unmovable system file(s)’ is/are at the far end of the partition…

Has anyone any idea:
a) how to identify which file or files is causing the problem?
b) how to move it/them closer to the front of the partition?…

If you are trying to resize the partition from within Windows then certain files are likely to be unmovable because they are in use.

Ideally you should boot from a “partition manager” CD, so Windows is not running and such files can be used. Other lounge members have mentioned Macrium Reflect Free which includes a “Linux Rescue CD”, but haven’t tried that one myself so can’t comment on its usefulness.

I have used BootIt Bare Metal since about 2008. After I boot from a BootItBM CD I can resize/move/copy/image etc partitions without any “unmovable system file” problems. BootItBM is not free, but there is a “30-day free trial”.

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In fact I have got round the problem simply by deleting all the Restore Points, and now have shrunk the partition down to 200 GB.

Wouldn’t it be nice if Disk Management’s Shrink Volume function could
a) work in GB, not in MB
b) work with the size of the partition you want, not with how much free space you will be leaving

Another interesting point to note is that DEFRAG leaves information in the System Event Log about the name of the file at the top end of the partition – which proved to be a System Volume Information = Restore Point file.

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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In fact I have got round the problem simply by deleting all the Restore Points, and now have shrunk the partition down to 200 GB.

I was going to recommend Sysinternals Diskview which allows you to click on any part of the disk ‘area’ to see which file occupies the space, but it seems you don’t need to any more! BTW, my W10 installation runs to only 20GB with Visual Studio 13 installed (it was ~10GB until that was loaded).

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Thanks for reminding me of DiskView!

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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Auslogics DiskDefrag will also show what’s on the disk by clicking on any area that shows files.
I also use Partition Wizard Home Edition (free) and if I remember correctly align partition moves all files to the beginning of the partition.

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EaseUS Partition master is also a good partition/disk management tool. It can supplement the features which disk management can’t support.

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