Trying to Partition Vista Hard Drive

mactovista

Help!

Trying to shrink or partition hard drive on Vista HP to load XP to run
some programs. Computer only 2 mos. old has 500 gig hard drive but will
only allow me 10 gig partition. Message says "Size of available shrink
space can be restricted if snapshots or page files are enabled on the
volume"

Been on chat with hp all morning no help. Tried defragmenting, chkdsk,
etc still limited to 10 gig.

Any answers?


--
mactovista
------------------------------------------------------------------------
mactovista's Profile:
View this thread:

Richard Urban

The built-in shrink utility will be able to decrease the partition size till
it bumps against the first unmovable/locked system file.

If you want to decrease the partition further you will need a 3rd party Disk
Management tool. I use Acronis Disk Director suite (ver 11.0 build 8027).
It is 100% Vista compatible.

After installing the above program, create the emergency CD. Reboot the
computer and boot up with this CD. Do your partition work from there.

You will not be hampered with locked files.


--

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience


"mactovista" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> Help!
>
> Trying to shrink or partition hard drive on Vista HP to load XP to run
> some programs. Computer only 2 mos. old has 500 gig hard drive but will
> only allow me 10 gig partition. Message says "Size of available shrink
> space can be restricted if snapshots or page files are enabled on the
> volume"
>
> Been on chat with hp all morning no help. Tried defragmenting, chkdsk,
> etc still limited to 10 gig.
>
> Any answers?
>
>
> --
> mactovista
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> mactovista's Profile:
> View this thread:
>
>
>
>

spamme0

mactovista wrote:
> Help!
>
> Trying to shrink or partition hard drive on Vista HP to load XP to run
> some programs. Computer only 2 mos. old has 500 gig hard drive but will
> only allow me 10 gig partition. Message says "Size of available shrink
> space can be restricted if snapshots or page files are enabled on the
> volume"
>
> Been on chat with hp all morning no help. Tried defragmenting, chkdsk,
> etc still limited to 10 gig.
>
> Any answers?
>
>

Consider why you need to run XP.
If you don't need extreme performance or non-disk USB stuff like
a webcam, VirtualBox or an equivalent emulator will let you run
any os you want simultaneously with Vista.
If you can use win2K instead of XP, it has a smaller footprint
and no nagging activation issues.
Newer versions of the emulators have USB support, but I had problems
with the operating systems fighting over ports and locking up.
If you have a USB device that is used ONLY in the guest OS, it might
work better.

Rebooting every time you want to run the xp host gets very annoying.
And you still have to maintain the XP system. With an emulator,
you can archive the disk image. Just copy it back if you trash
the main one. And the disk image will run on ANY other computer
that has the emulator with NO changes. Just copy the disk image file
and press GO.
You simply MUST have ALL the necessary valid licenses for everything you
do...but that's a given...I even keep extra licenses on hand just in
case one gets a corner bent.
Otherwise, the "lawyers" here will give you endless grief.

My experience repartitioning an active drive is that it is SLOOOOOOW!!!
I could have imaged my system, wiped the disk, repartitioned it
and reloaded the image in way less time than it took for a partition
resizer.

And if you do it that way, you have a backup that you can use if things
go horribly wrong. I once had the misfortune to accidentally delete
a hidden partition put there by the vendor during a resizing event.
Caused the partitions to be renumbered, confusing the hell out of the
operating system. Managed to work around the M$ roadblocks and didn't
have to use my backup.

Now that I think of it, there's another annoying issue. There's often
a tiny bit of space that gets left unused. Something to do with
track numbers and rounding...
Anyway, My repartitioning software insisted on putting that space
between the partitions instead at the end. Don't know if this was
the cause, but the partitions got renumbered.
When I went to format the new partition, I looked at the partition
number and reformatted my main partition #2. If I'd been more observant,
I could have known the problem from the partition sizes...but I didn't.
Did have to use the backup that time.

Even if you use a resizer, back up your entire system...things have been
known to go horribly wrong. It's just not worth the risk.