How to Shrink Vista Partition with Ease?

Vista built-in Disk Management to shrink Partition

The Window Vista users often use multiple partitions on their hard drive, they may want to shrink or extend one of them to meet with installing multi-systems, such as Fedora 9 on his computer that already has Windows Vista, and also there'd be plenty of space at the end of the C: partition for Windows Vista. They have to shrink Windows partition down to a separate partition and use the new volume to install Fedora 9, and keep the standard windows boot loader.

Many people may prefer to use the built-in-Disk Management to shrink Vista partition. Following is the basic steps for shrinking Vista partition:

Right-clicking the partition in Disk Management built-in the Windows Vista and clicking the "shrink volume" option presents the option box as shown below.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that plenty of space is free (and in fact is also free contiguously, the shrink command fails to release the adequate space when shrinking Windows Vista partition. I perform defragmentation analysis and find that there's an unmovable file at the end of the C:\ drive, indicated by the red areas. Disk defrag doesn't identify what specific file is, although I know it is likely to be the page/swap file, the hidden file or other control areas for NTFS. Then I performed an offline defrag to tidy the NTFS areas however this didn't resolve the problem. I then removed completely the swap file and this turned out to be the file holding this space. I could then run shrink and reclaim my space, which I've allocated to a swap volume and a data volume.

As an IT administrator, I know this is normal windows behavior. It keeps so called MFT zone and meta-data files where it chooses to place them. Windows does not allow moving them easily. (Even the windows defrag utility is not capable to move them.) Isn't there a way to shrink Windows partition under Windows Vista?

Shrink Vista Partition with EASEUS Partition Master

I searched in Google and found the EASEUS Partition Master Server Editionoffered by third-party manufacturers. It announces partition management software to shrink or extend Vista partitions without data loss. It is addressing the needs of corporate IT administrators to maximize computer performances. Data is totally untouched when shrinking or extending Windows Vista partition, which is in great need of IT administrators to shrink system partition. No data loss in all operations ensures the server data safety. Besides, EASEUS Partition Master offers some attractive features, like: extend system partition without reboot, Copy dynamic disk, Create, Delete, Resize/Move, Copy or Format partition, etc. Unallocated space is needed to extend the rest partition. Shrink a volume nearby and redistribute the unallocated space to extend the system partition. Let's see what it happens! But still it's a good idea to make a full backup before doing such operations.

Firstly, select the partition needed to be shrunk. In this case, you select C:. Then click Partitions > Resize/ Move.

You can also resize the partition by specifying new values in the Unallocated Space Before Partition Size, and Unallocated Space After text boxes. The values you type may change slightly to values supported by your drive's geometry. To make a partition smaller, the partition must contain unused space. To enlarge a partition, there must be free space adjacent to it. If desired, click the Cluster Size drop-down list and select a new size or use the recommended cluster size that is already selected. This option is only active in FAT, FAT32, but inactive in NTFS.

Apply all the pending operation and reboot your Windows Vista. You would have a shrunk C: drive. With the unallocated space you can create or extend other partition as you wish.

Please check the following tutorial to see how to resize partitions under Windows Vista

• Partition Manager Used in Windows Vista
• Shrinking a Partition in Windows Vista/2008

From above, we makes it easy to shrink vista partition with EASEUS Partition Master Server Edition, Besides that, it can also extend system partition, create partition, and do more in Windows 2000/2003/2008 (32/64 bit) and XP, Vista, and Windows 7, and it also works in DOS. The copy feature makes shrinking and extending Windows partition become more security and stability.

For better data security, our free backup software - EASEUS Todo Backup will help you a lot. It provides easy-to-use interface to backup and restore your system, disk and partition in a few minutes.

Try this Vista Partition software Now

In the meanwhile, there is also EASEUS Partition Master Unlimited Edition available to fulfill the needs of large enterprises. By using the bootable CD you needn't to install any software on the machine and accomplish server partition without interfering with the operation system.

If you want to resize Vista partition, this Vista partition software is the right product for you. So why not have a try?

Now, download it!

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• Shrink a Partition on Windows Server 2008 is Similar to Vista
• How to Redistribute Free Disk Space?