Dual Booting an Acer laptop with Kali Linux and Windows 10, unable to shrink Volume

-1

I'm having some problems while trying to install a dual boot on my Acer Aspire 1 A114-32-C1YA laptop.

It has 64GB eMMC storage, and 4GB of DDR4 memory, currently running Windows 10 Home.

In preparation, I also backed up all important data to a external HD, and reset the laptop fully. I've been running into quite a few problems so far. I have a usb with the latest 2019.1 Kali Linux on it.

When I first tried following youtube tutorials on how to achieve a dual boot system, I first encountered the problem where I could not shrink the C: Volume through Windows, as it limited me to something like 9837MB available to shrink. I need a minimum of 20GB. And since it's a clean reset laptop, it has about 41.99GB free space on it. How do I get pass this?

TL;DR Questions:

  1. How do I shrink C: Volume in Disk Management in Windows, when it won't allow it, even when there is free space for it?

Here's what Disk Management looks like to me:

Disk Management not-allowed

Disk Management allowed

my7h

Posted 2019-03-04T20:06:55.200

Reputation: 11

1i see multiple questions here. – Moab – 2019-03-04T20:10:16.737

The main question is how do I shrink the C: Volume through Disk Management. I'll change the question to be more specific. – my7h – 2019-03-04T20:17:46.013

I've tried this tutorial link. It didn't work either though. Still looking for help!

– my7h – 2019-03-04T21:32:31.817

Post a screenshot of Disk Management please – Moab – 2019-03-04T21:48:33.490

Just edited and added the screenshots! – my7h – 2019-03-04T22:43:16.763

You will need to do an offline defrag (boot defrag) to condense files to create contiguous free space to shrink the C partition.....https://superuser.com/questions/1222344/running-windows-disk-defragmentation-on-boot-in-windows-10

– Moab – 2019-03-04T22:49:59.757

I'd suggest shrinking to a smaller size for starters. Say 8000 MB. I think the error you're getting is due to the size you want to shrink to being to close to overlapping with potentially vital data. – xpkiro – 2019-03-04T22:50:52.693

I've done the boot defrag, but the numbers didn't change. I then also now tried shrinking to a 8000MB size first, but I got an error message saying "There is not enough space available on the disk(s) to complete this operation" – my7h – 2019-03-05T00:15:10.497

I fixed the error message, all you have to do is go to "Action > Rescan Disks". I now have a 7.81GB unallocated space, but I need a minimum of 20GB still. – my7h – 2019-03-05T00:21:36.980

I MADE IT WORK! – my7h – 2019-03-05T06:09:38.897

Answers

1

This took a while for me to figure out. The problem I was facing was easy to find, just by looking in Event viewer. First, you want to try to defrag. It comes with importance soon enough.

If you go into Event Viewer, do "Windows Logs > Application". Next, go to the right, and click on "Filter current log", and where there is text saying "All Event IDs", click on it, and search for the Event ID "259". Hit Enter or Ok.

Find the latest Event, and click on it. You're looking for the details, where it should state what the last unmovable file was. For me, it was pagefile. So, here's how to get rid of pagefile.

  1. Search for "advanced system settings", and click on the one saying "View advanced system settings".

  2. Click on "Advanced" and under "Performance" click on "Settings..."

  3. Tab over to "Advanced", and under Virtual Memory, click on "Change..."
  4. Uncheck "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives", and click on "No paging file", then Set, click on "Yes", then Ok.
  5. IMPORTANT: Make sure to restart. It won't be gotten rid of immediately, you need to restart your laptop.

Pagefile should now be gone. You could also defrag once more for good measure, and reopen Disk Management. For good measure, also do "Action > Refresh" and "Action > Rescan Disks". There should no longer be a small limit on shrinking the C: volume. If you try to shrink, and it gives an error message, try in smaller amounts, rescanning the disk, and/or more defragging. Baby steps seemed to work, in small amounts, rather than trying one large shrink.

I am now left with 25.39GB of Unallocated space, that I can now use as a partition for dual booting.

my7h

Posted 2019-03-04T20:06:55.200

Reputation: 11

Asked: 2019-03-04T20:06:55.200

Viewed: 267 times

Active: 2019-03-05T06:25:18.010