How to shrink volume beyond available shrink space, which is set to half of the disk only? swift 3

TheWitcher

I bought 2 acers swift 3 and already created 2 partitions on one of them- C: 150GB and 780GB out of 1TB. I wanted to do the same for the other laptop and weirdly under "shrink C" it only showed me around half of available shrink space: 
Total size before shrink in MB: 952718
Size of available shrink space in MB: 476308
Total size after shrink in MB: 476410.
So the smallest C I can have is roughly 475GB. No extra settings or heavy usage before attempting to do it, so really brand new laptop straight after going through basic settings. I did the shrink on my old laptop with win7 and created 200GB C without any problems..
I was digging into topic and have found some tips to switch off automated managing paging file, however it's set up correctly. I tried to switch it off (without restarting computer as only got warning about performance) but it showed same numbers. When put that back to original setting, then I was asked to restart.
The information I get when I try to do the shrink is: "You cannot shrink a volume beyond the point where any unmovable files are located. See the "defrag" event in the Application log for detailed information about the operation when it has completed." 
Obviously it looks as someone have reserved a shadow volume or virtual space for something and it doesn't let me pass it. I don't want to go into too complicated process but perhaps there is some silly explanation and solution to fix this. I wouldn't like to accidently lose shadow copy of disk either.
On top of that I have performed scan disk only to find some corrupt file which was repaired, but same thing happened on both laptops. And that didn't fix it. However it looks like edge CAN now download a photo, where straight after first use it was an error and instead of an image there was a broken icon with 0kb. At the same time it wasn't an issue with internet explorer. Not sure if I should run check disk and defrag?
Any suggestions and solutions?
Thanks in advance!
 {Thread was edited to add model name to the title}

MaClane

Good Morning TheWitcher !

There is absolutely no mistake.
Each disk drive performs differently in reduction depending on how the files are stored.
Standard HDDs use sector recording system.
If the files are in noncontiguous sectors, some blocks cannot be relocated.
Thus, there are only 2 possibilities:
Perform deep defragmentation and stop all applications before partitioning or erasing all disk and patches during installation.

TheWitcher

Hello MaClane!

Thank you for your reply! Unfortunately I still need some clarification- when you said "Each disk drive performs differently" did you mean difference in performance between HDD and SSD, or between 2 identical HDDs? Because for me 2 same laptops with the same preinstalled software, initiated same way should really behave the same way, right? They are both 1TB HDDs.

Also, "Perform deep defragmentation and stop all applications before partitioning or erasing all disk and patches during installation." - is deep defragmentation the normal one under Disk>Tools and defrag, disk check, etc? Stop all applications just by closing all windows? Or special command to stop everything? I don't think I did quite close everything when did it on the other laptop.

And could you explain the 2nd part of this sentence (2nd option), please? In bigger detail? Unless it was a warning that I will erase disk by not stopping the applications?

I'm sorry but as much as I know something about computers, I'm not a pro, hence all those questions, and I'm a complete newbie to Windows 10. I've done lots of fixes on win7 but mainly through digging on web and following advices.

Shall I perform disk check and then defrag? Is it actually healthy to do that on new computer?

Not really sure what should and should not be done on new machine.

Thank you for your time!

MaClane

The question is as follows:
2 identical HDD disks with same hardware and system.
From checking the possibility of partitioning or dimming, both came in different sizes.
This is because writing information to disks is not done sequentially, but not contiguous in block sectors and cylinders.
That is the question.
So defragmentation can allocate contiguous files to try to make possible breakdown and allocate space.
If you have 10 identical devices, each will have a different capacity of allocation space due to the HDD recording and reading system.

billsey

This is actually not too unusual in a Windows environment. There are special files on he disk that re not allowed to be touched while the OS is using them. Three most often seen are hiberfil.sys, pagefile.sys and swapfile.sys. They are normally not visible, you have to turn off "Show Hidden Files" and turn off "Hide Protected Files" in order to even see them. As long as the OS is running all three are not allowed to be moved anywhere else on the drive. There used to be utilities that would reboot your system, step in before the OS loaded, and move those files before allowing the OS to load. Some of those utilities might still be available for Windows 10, but I haven't looked. When files are first added to a new HDD the files are placed near the center of the partition to minimize the time spent in having the HDD head seek to the start of the file. If everything important is in the middle of the drive you don't have to move the head as far as when some stuff is at one side and some other stuff on the other. For SSDs it doesn't make any difference because there's no seek time.

So... You likely have one or more of those three files sitting near the middle of the disk, and that's why it's not allowed to shrink farther. If you Google 'pagedefrag windows 10' or 'defraggler windows 10' you might find one can help. If not immediately, shrink as far as you can then run the utilities so they move it to the middle of the shrunk volume.

TheWitcher

Thank you MaClane again! It explains it more!

Thank you billsey! It makes it more clear now. I was affraid that there's an issue with the other computer.

Thank you Piter! That video shows really simple sollution to it. In meantime I got an answer from acer support and he reffered me to Niubi Partition Editor what basically does similar thing to Mini-tool Particion Wizard used in the video. Can something go wrong if I do that through the wizard? Which one would you recommend?

I came accross that several shrinking process mentioned earlier, to do that so many times until you reach required capacity of C: but what happens with unalloacated space then? Do I get as many spaces as many shrinks I did and then I have to join ithem together somehow? Or will I get 1 unallocated space then?

I checked those defraggers and not sure if I want to do that this way. Either the Partition Programme (as it looked very easy!) or do shrink several times and hope that unmovable files will be moved properly for me to achieve, let's say even 200-250GB.

Already asked but still not sure- shall I perform CHKDSK and defrag under system tools anyway?

Thank you all again!

TheWitcher

Thank you MaClane again! It explains it more!

Thank you billsey! It makes it more clear now. I was affraid that there's an issue with the other computer.

Thank you Piter! That video shows really simple sollution to it. In meantime I got an answer from acer support and he reffered me to Niubi Partition Editor what basically does similar thing to Mini-tool Particion Wizard used in the video. Can something go wrong if I do that through the wizard? Which one would you recommend?

I came accross that several shrinking process mentioned earlier, to do that so many times until you reach required capacity of C: but what happens with unalloacated space then? Do I get as many spaces as many shrinks I did and then I have to join ithem together somehow? Or will I get 1 unallocated space then?

I checked those defraggers and not sure if I want to do that this way. Either the Partition Programme (as it looked very easy!) or do shrink several times and hope that unmovable files will be moved properly for me to achieve, let's say even 200-250GB.

Already asked but still not sure- shall I perform CHKDSK and defrag under system tools anyway?

Thank you all again!

billsey

Chkdsk and defrag under system tools can't hurt, but likely won't help. Niubi Partition Editor should work fine as well, I was just trying to stay with Microsoft tools as much as possible.

MartinBUY

I had a similar problem with my ACER Aspire 1TB Laptop Win 10. I wanted to reduce the 'C' Partition after adding a 'E' Partition (for my Data) using Windows Disk Management.

I couldn't shrink the 'C' partion because of data stuck in the middle of the drive so had to accept a size of about 480 GB. I tried the defrag tool but it was taking forever so I gave up. I wanted to do an image back up of the Windows OS which I did successfully using Macrium Reflect Free edition, before letting an external Co have remote access to my PC for work reasons.

I reset the PC back after using Macrium Reflect with the same partition sizes, but thought I wondered if the Image back up moved the data onto a single area of the disk?

Surprise, surprise - it had - I was now able to shrink the 'C' partition to 250GB using Disk Management. This same WIN 10 tool would not let me transfer the Unallocated space to my 'E' data partition. (Can you believe how poor Windows 10 is?)

I was able to download and install Mini Partition Wizard which let me transfer the unallocated space to the 'E' Data partition.

There is still only one physical DRIVE but I am able to do an image backup of Windows to a more reasonable size, not including the data. I did not have to use any defrag tool to get 250 GB for the 'C'.