Hard Drive Partition Space Lost?

Question

Hard Drive Partition Space Lost?

I have a 17 inch MBP running Lion and Windows 7 with a boot camp partition. My mac side has 500GB of space, and my windows 7 partition has 250GB. Recently I shrunk my disk space on the windows 7 partition by going to Control Panel->searching "partition" and shrinking it, so now my boot camp partition has 132GB. However, I thought that space was going to be moved to my Mac OS X partition, but it didn't. Where is that memory space? It can't be flat out lost, can it? I also tried expanding it back but I can't click that option. It's greyed out. Help is greatly appreciated, I really do not want to lose those 118gigs. I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but I really need it. Thanks.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Apr 12, 2012 3:49 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Shootist007

Level 6

16,703 points

Apr 12, 2012 3:55 AM in response to WatchYourKILLCAM

You are actually very lucky the system still boots at all. Once you make a BC partition for Windows you really shouldn't fool around with either partition. If anything that unused space is only going to be available to the Windows side as it was originally created by BC for Windows. If you try to move it back to the Mac side more then likely neither OS will boot.

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Answer 2

wjosten

Level 10

95,321 points

Apr 12, 2012 3:56 AM in response to WatchYourKILLCAM

Well, you can't resize the way you did it. You can only take from one partition and add it to the other if they are the same format. Think about it: how can you add NTFS formatted space to a Mac formatted partition or vice versa? Not possible. That's why the space isn't visible to OS X. There are third-party utilities that permit this, but for you, at this point, I suspect starting over will be your only solution: I.E., using Boot Camp to remove your Windows partition, then reinstalling.

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Answer 3

wjosten

Level 10

95,321 points

Apr 12, 2012 3:58 AM in response to Shootist007

Shootist007 wrote:

You are actually very lucky the system still boots at all.

Amen.

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Answer 4

wjosten

Level 10

95,321 points

Apr 12, 2012 4:08 AM in response to WatchYourKILLCAM

Next time:

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/camptune/

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Answer 5

Apr 12, 2012 6:43 PM in response to wjosten

okay, but so are the 118 gigs completely lost? if they aren't how could I recover them?

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Answer 6

eww

Level 9

53,028 points

Apr 12, 2012 7:12 PM in response to WatchYourKILLCAM

Do as wjosten has suggested: use Boot Camp to remove your Windows partition, then create a new one of an appropriate size.

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Answer 7

Apr 13, 2012 4:54 AM in response to eww

that's what I didn't want to do in the first place.. I would have lots of things to backup. if anyone could still please answer my question above.. is the space I shrunk lost? Or is it just hidden?

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Answer 8

eww

Level 9

53,028 points

Apr 13, 2012 5:03 AM in response to WatchYourKILLCAM

It's still there; you've just made it temporarily inaccessible.

You used the wrong procedure to reduce the size of your Windows partition, and now it's going to take some time and effort to correct the resulting snafu, even if you'd rather it didn't.

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Answer 9

Shootist007

Level 6

16,703 points

Apr 13, 2012 5:34 AM in response to WatchYourKILLCAM

WatchYourKILLCAM wrote:

that's what I didn't want to do in the first place.. I would have lots of things to backup. if anyone could still please answer my question above.. is the space I shrunk lost? Or is it just hidden?

You may be able to Re-Add it back to the Windows side. In Windows if you open Disk Management it should appear as Un-Allocated space.

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Answer 10

Apr 15, 2012 4:59 AM in response to eww

eww wrote:

It's still there; you've just made it temporarily inaccessible.

You used the wrong procedure to reduce the size of your Windows partition, and now it's going to take some time and effort to correct the resulting snafu, even if you'd rather it didn't.

I don't mind that it will take some time and effort, I messed up and now I have to correct it.

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Answer 11

wjosten

Level 10

95,321 points

Apr 15, 2012 5:03 AM in response to WatchYourKILLCAM

First try what Shootist007 suggested...you may get lucky. If that doesn't work, then do as I suggested.

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Answer 12

Apr 15, 2012 5:16 AM in response to Shootist007

Shootist007 wrote:

You may be able to Re-Add it back to the Windows side. In Windows if you open Disk Management it should appear as Un-Allocated space.

Would you by any chance know how to do that? The "Extend Volume..." option just under "Shrink Volume..." is not available. And it doesn't appear as un-allocated space. It says that my Bootcamp C Drive has 232.17 GB NTFS and it's healthy, however the capacity is only 123.32 GB.

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Answer 13

wjosten

Level 10

95,321 points

Apr 15, 2012 5:16 AM in response to WatchYourKILLCAM

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc770943.aspx

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Answer 14

Apr 15, 2012 5:27 AM in response to wjosten

wjosten wrote:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc770943.aspx

It doesn't really help, I can't extend a volume. :\

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Answer 15

wjosten

Level 10

95,321 points

Apr 15, 2012 6:33 AM in response to WatchYourKILLCAM

Well, unless Shootist007 chimes in(I don't use Windows), I strongly suggest you do the following: First back up all of your data...screwing with partitions can be dangerous if not done properly...you could lose everything. So backup first. Next, re-post here:

https://discussions.apple.com/community/windows_software/boot_camp

That's where the Boot Camp experts reside. I suspect you're gonna have to use Boot Camp to erase your present Windows installation & then reinstall. But before you start screwing around anymore, re-post there to see what the Boot Camp experts suggest.

Good luck.

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