Trying to shrink a volume; using defraggler to move files

Can anyone tell me how to get this done? what switches to throw. i have cleaned off a harddrive in VISTA and have 240GB free of 300GB, but the Vista SHRINK function will only see 8GB. defraggler is leaving behind remnants (little light blue blocks)causing the SHRINK function to only see the last 8GB free. am i missing anything?

I am having a hard time searching these forums for an answer.

thanks!

Pete

Can anyone tell me how to get this done? what switches to throw. i have cleaned off a harddrive in VISTA and have 240GB free of 300GB, but the Vista SHRINK function will only see 8GB. defraggler is leaving behind remnants (little light blue blocks)causing the SHRINK function to only see the last 8GB free. am i missing anything?

I am having a hard time searching these forums for an answer.

thanks!

Pete

Your question is very confusing.

Defraggler doesn't leave blue blocks behind. Blue blocks are blocks that are defragged. They turn blue when they are no longer fragmented.

Shrink? What did you shrink, what did you clean? We need more details here!

I think i can clarify the question, as I am in a similar situation. The goal we both have in mind is to shrink a partition. however, partitions can only be shrunk to the largest CONTINUOUS free data block at the END of the partition. of you have a 250 GB hard drive with 200 GB free but you have a 1 MB file located at the end of the data block, the partation cannot be shrunk because it will destroy your 1 MB file. if all the files were to be relocated to the beginning of the partition, and the 200GB that was available was continuous from the end, back to where your data leaves off, then the partition could be shrunk 200GB. Ive included a screen shot of my actual map from defraggler. you can see the data blocks restricting the shrink. The solution to our problem's would be relocation all files to the beginning of the partition. How can this be accomplished?

post-38612-127843022482_thumb.jpg

Some information here regarding the problem of achieving what you want:

The only viable option is to run a hard drive defragmentation software that will move the files at the end of the partition to an earlier position. This is only possible before the operating system is loaded.

Taken from ...

Windows Vista Shrink Volume Problems:

Which I think would mean carrying out a defrag in Safe Mode.

Of course there's freeware Partition Managing Software out there which would do all the file moving for you.

Paragon Partition Manager 11 Free Edition.

EASEUS Partition Master 6.0.1.

Partition Wizard Home Edition.

I don't use Vista, but I have used Paragon partitioning software on a number of occasions to make and resize partitions with XP.

Hope that helps.