I've got a Sony VGN-SZ4XWN/C laptop with Vista Ultimate. I want to
upgrade the laptop to Solaris 10, but wish to keep an area for Vista on
the disk. Currently Vista has 100% of the disk - there is no recovery
partition on the disk, as I deleted that long ago.

My plan was to shrink the 120 GB NTFS partition down to about half that,
then install Solaris 10 on the other 60 GB and dual boot the laptop.

When I try to resize the partition in Vista, it will allow me to shrink
it by 17 GB. Considering there is over 70 GB of free space, I can't see
why it will only let me shrink it by a mere 17 GB. What about the other
53 GB? Why will Vista not give up most of that? I know there is a page
file there (2 GB), but that is not a lot.

Any suggestions as to why Vista will not give up more of the remaining
space. Solaris will fit in 17 GB, but Solaris will be my main OS, so I
don't want it to have such a small part of the disk.

Dave wrote:

PS,
I'm not using a 3rd party tool to shirk the partition, but the computer
manager:

Control Panel->System and Maintentance->Administrative tasks->Computer
Management, then I select Storage and Disk Management in the Computer
manager, and right-click and select "Shrink volume"

Dave wrote:
During the two or three days I was force to use Vista on my new machine
before getting rid of it back to XP, I think I found the same using a
third party Partioning Tool. I am curious to know the explanation ...
One more reason, if I needed one, to throw Vista int the Trash bin.

--
John Doue

Dave wrote:
Vista's reserved space for System Recovery is extremely large. Try
disabling System Recovery, reboot, and see if you can make a smaller
Vista partition.

Q

Quaoar wrote:

Thank you, that has helped a lot, but I still have a problem. Previously
I had 70 GB free, but could reduce it by 17 GB.

I cleaned up the disk, reduced the paging file to 300 MB, disabled the
system restore, and now I have 91 GB free, so the free space has
increased by 20 GB.

I am able to shrink it by 35 GB. But there is now 91 GB free, which
still leaves 56 GB I can't seem to do anything with.

So what can Vista be doing with the 56 GB it will not give up? I have a
small page file, system restore disabled.

Any suggestions?

Dave wrote:
Short answer: bloat

Longer response: 1) Over the years Microsoft has compressed more of
their executables (counting on faster CPUs and more RAM to handle
on-the-fly decompression). They've now reached a point where the stuff
isn't very compressible.

2) Also, Microsoft insiders say that both XP and Vista have goodly
chunks of unused, stub and test code that hasn't yet been cleaned out.
Things might get a bit better when we see the second Service Pack -- say
2009.

I don't feel that XP is a stable OS and am still waiting for XP, SP-3. (:-|

--
pj


I know there is a page

"pj" <pj4380@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:Lbn%i.1$xP4.0@newsfe18.lga...
If you don't feel that XP is a stable OS, what OS are you using?

Dave wrote:
OK, there is the additional for Shadow Copies, Google: 'delete vista
shadow copy' for info on how to do this.

I don't know how Vista decides how much of available HD space it can
give to a new partition. For example, does Vista have the capability of
moving files from the physical end of the Vista partition to other free
space inside the Vista partition to maximize free space for the new
partition? Does Vista defragment files during repartitioning? Does it
move the Master File Table? From what you are finding, it seems that
Vista does a very simple repartitioning that does not include any of
these steps. You might need a third-party partition manager to do more
than Vista does.

Q

pj wrote:

Why not consider switching to Solaris then, and forget M$ and their
service packs?

I've used Solaris on SPARC hardware for a very long time and find it far
more stable and reliable than XP. I can't say I have much experience
with Solaris on commodity PC hardware though. I think lack of drivers
can be more an issue on commodity PCs, but when I booted the Solaris
install DVD, it seemed to be OK on my Sony laptop. It has the drivers
for my Nvida GeForce Go 7400 graphics chipset, it found my hard drive
OK, the touchpad worked. But I would be a fool to think the drives will
be there every bit of hardware.

Solaris 10 is a free download, or Sun will for now at least even send
you a free DVD of Solaris Express - no need to even pay the postage!!!
(The Express version is more cutting edge, but potentially a bit less
stable than main Solaris distribution.) Both are a free download, but
only the Express can you get a free DVD sent to your house).

http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/get.jsp
(main stable release)

http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/...xpress/get.jsp
(Solaris express, potentially less stable, but will have better driver
support).

Make sure you download the x86 and not SPARC if you want to use on any
laptop.

BTW, the downloads for Solaris include both the 32 and 64-bit versions
of the OS

Someone had the guts to write:

It's because Windows (XP and Vista) place some unmovable files in the
middle and near the end of its partition. Try a google search or MTF
files. Ordinary defrag progs can't move those files and the shrinker
won't let you resize the partition below the last file.

Solution:
1.) Temporarily disable and delete those files and the mechanism that
create them
2.) Use a third party defragger to move the other MTF files. The
defragger should be capacble of running 'at boot', that is before
windows starts to make those files unmovable. One such defragger is
Perfect Disk 8: it has a 30 days free trial and I used to shrink my
Vista partition.

As for point 1) I solved by disabling the pagefile, the hibernation
file, the shadow copy mechanism, and the boot error log. Most of these
cna be disabled via the control panel/system manger tabs. Hibernation
needs an admin prompt to issue the command powercfg -h off. (use on to
turn it on again); there must be a similar command to reduce to zero
the space for shadow copies. Google around and you'll find the
solution.

Don't forget to delete the hibernation and paging files under C:\ if
they're still there.

Once you've done this, run the defrag program with proper settings
(defrag system files, and defrag free space so that you'll have every
thing stuffed at the beginning of the disk).

Then you'll be able to shrink all the free space you'd like.

cheers,
Peltio

--
Su www.efunda.com trovi informazioni concise sugli aspetti essenziali
dell'ingegneria (specialmente meccanica). Brevi tutorials, formule per
il dimensionamento, proprietà dei materiali. Annuncio sponsorizzato
dalla LIPSISC. Aut. Min. rich.

In <473e24ad$0$16506$4c368faf@roadrunner.com>, "Jerry" <Hello@spam.com> writes:
workplace is big on Active-X and Exchange -- golden rule: when in
doubt, examine the signature on the paycheck!

(However that may be changing. The outfit is having some globalization
issues with Windows and MS-Office and they are introducing some
crossplatform applications.)

Or, just for the fun of it, this OS -- pretty stable -- fairly secure!

--
pj

Peltio wrote:

How do you run it at boot - from a CD ??



how do you get that admin prompt to issue powercfg -h off? When I try to
run it, it gives an error about permission denined. I read somewhere
that if one presses control, shift and enter to get an admin promt, but
that does not work for me.


Will do. I'd shrunk pagefile to 300 MB, but I will disable that completely.

Il giorno 17-11-07 alle ore 20.48.45, l'imputato Dave rilascio', di
fronte ai testimoni di comp.sys.laptops, le seguenti compromettenti
dichiarazioni prontamente archiviate con numero di protocollo:
<473f459e@212.67.96.135>

Nope, you run it from windows and then it'll ask to reboot the system.
It will defrag the disk before actually entering in Vista (or in
vista's GUI - I do not know what part of the OS - if any - it uses).

I have a link to the command prompt on my desktop. I right click on it
and choose "run as administrator".
I guess it can be done on the link in the start menu too.


You can turn it off after you've shrinked your partition.
Actually, that worked for me since I have enough ram (2GB) not to make
Vista crash without a pagefile. Perfect disk should be able to defrag
and move the pagefile, it will just take longer to defrag if you leave
it there. My other defragger (auslogic) IIRC was not able to move the
pagefile and that's why I disabled it before defragging.

cheers,
Peltio

--
Ma cosa studieranno mai al MIT? Scopri e scarica il materiale di
centinaia di corsi universitari dal sito Opencourseware del
Massachussets Institute of Technology:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/index.htm (annuncio sponsorizzato dalla
LIPSISC).

Il giorno 18-11-07 alle ore 02.29.35, l'imputato Peltio rilascio', di
fronte ai testimoni di comp.sys.laptops, le seguenti compromettenti
dichiarazioni prontamente archiviate con numero di protocollo:
<mn.90957d7bdbd33cf0.41957@twilight.zone>

ok, that would be "shrunk"...
:-)

--
Su www.efunda.com trovi informazioni concise sugli aspetti essenziali
dell'ingegneria (specialmente meccanica). Brevi tutorials, formule per
il dimensionamento, proprietà dei materiali. Annuncio sponsorizzato
dalla LIPSISC. Aut. Min. rich.

If you
start orb
all programs
accessories
right click on command prompt

you get the highest priviledge


--
Neill Currie
Hillsborough
Nh 03244
USA
------------
Website:
http://www.geocities.com/neill1234/i...?1011568933040

Blog:
http://blogericious.blogspot.com/
-------------

"" how do you get that admin prompt to issue powercfg -h off? When I try to


"Dave" <nowhere@nowhere.com> wrote in message news:473f459e@212.67.96.135...