[Closed] Windows partitioming help (MS Content)

Just re-size the D drive down a bit?

Are you using Partition Magic, that pretty much allows you to create any set up you want....

Is your page file on D:\ by any chance?

I'd have guessed at D being the recovery partition and it won't let you blast it from orbit....

Nah, recovery partition(s) don't typically have a drive letter assigned.

Pull up a command prompt, type d:\ to switch to the D drive then dir /ah to list hidden files. If swapfile.sys or hiberfile.sys is present, that's your problem. And on a small drive it probably is.

It might seem daunting, but I find it easier to mess about with partitions via command line rather than the windows interface.

https://www.laptopmag.com/uk/articles/erase-recovery-partition-windows

Just make damn sure your deleting the right one!

So do I, but it's also far far easier to hose your system doing it that way. It's easier to chop down a tree with a chainsaw than an axe, but that way it's also easier to earn the nickname "stumpy." I'd strongly recommend against it unless you know what you're doing.

If you can't do it through the GUI, there's probably a good reason for it.

but that way it’s also easier to earn the nickname “stumpy.”

Whatever....

😉

Thanks Guys, huge, huge thanks to Cougar who dialled into my PC and sorted it for me.

forever grateful is an understatement.

>.< I didn't realise this was the same case as it shows display name rather than username on the messages. I forgot who asked originally and did think it was a bloody coincidence! Like, "I've literally just fixed one of these..."!

And for the benefit of future readers,

The situation was as I explained above (that's how I knew, I saw it on his machine). It had a <150GB NVMe drive fitted which reasons best known to someone in China had been partitioned into two (as well as several recovery partitions). This was good practice a couple of decades ago but is bonkers on a drive that size in 2020.

The page file was sitting on the D:\ partition which means that you can't just delete it. Windows would have soiled itself big style if you'd have been able to do so. There's a bunch of other things which would prevent you from deleting it such as if it's the location of the hibernation file, the destination for crash dump logs and such like. Basically, if the system needs the partition then you cannot (and absolutely should not forcibly) delete it until you've resolved this situation first.

The solution was to disable "system managed" setting globally on the page files, disable the paging on D:\, set it to system managed just on the C:\ drive instead, then reboot because somewhat astonishingly it doesn't prompt you to. It rebooted into the boot troubleshooter screen which about gave me heart failure, but on hitting Continue it started up normally.

Then it's a simple case of cracking out DISKPART to burn the data partition and extend the system one (the GUI would probably have worked just fine here TBH, as Matty said it's just faster this way if you're familiar with it, as Mick will no doubt now attest I don't like picking up a mouse if I can help it) and resetting all the system default paths for docs, pictures etc so they're not pointing at a drive letter that doesn't exist.

Good point @cougar - I generally build my own PC's so don't need to worry about page files and backups being on random partitions, as 1 drive = 1 partition. That's not always the case with pre-built PCs/laptops as the hard drives come in all sorts of messes, so good advice there. Sorry if my post was misleading!

's cool.

I suspect that in this particular case the reason the page file was on D:\ in the first place was because W10 went into damage limitation when it ran out of space on the system partition, rather than it being any sort of intentional design decision.

You're right though that hacking up such a comparatively small drive into lumps is just weird.