Cannot defrag C: before resizing - problem?

I'm attempting to upsize my C: partition (contains OS & programs, data files are on E: partition) to provide more space. I currently only have around 5-10% free space on C:.

I've read that a partition should be degragged prior to resizing, but I'm not able to defrag since I have <15% free space. Assuming that I do not defrag C: prior to resizing, what potential problems might I run into?

 

I need to verify this (I'm not at my home computer now) but I'm asuming my paging file is located on C:. If so, would I be able to disable paging (which I assume would delete the paging file) to free up enough space to defrag, then enable paging again?

 

The reason for defragmenting a partition is to consolidate all of the files near the beginning of the partition and leave as much free space as possible. Then you can shrink the partition by taking away free space at the end of the partition.

You shouldn't need to worry about that if you are going to expand a partition. If you are going to take space from your E: partition, then that's the one that you should defragment.

But to answer your question, if disabling the paging file (and disabling hibernation to remove the hiberfile) will free up enough space to give you at least 15% free space on C: then yes, you can do that.

 

Mark, thanks for your reply! I have a related follow-up question.

I've already attempted to upsize C: by stealing space from my E: partition. I was able to grab the 6GB I wanted from E:, but the resize of C: failed due to having bad blocks (I'm presuming on C. I now have an unallocated space of 6GB that I will add to C:.

My question: is it possible that the bad blocks I'm encountering are because of fragmentation on C:? Or, is that indicating a physical disk error of some kind?

I've had no issues whatsoever until the error showed up when resizing C:. I'ved tried one CHKDSK operation (via Disk Director) but that didn't seem to correct the problem. I'm going to try again by initiating a CHKDSK /R thru XP and see what happens.

 

It is supposed to be an error message about physical disk problems. However, other people have seen the same error message produced when there were no problems with their disks.

I would definitely try running chkdsk /r to see if that corrects the problem. Also, take a look at the following two threads and perhaps search this forum for "bad blocks" for more advice:

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=153546
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=143062

If you have a copy of Acronis True Image, then the advice given in the second thread by Acronis Support is probably your best course of action.

 

I had the same problem and checked with chkdsk (no bad sectors found). So I used the "analyse" feature of the defragmentor in "system tools" and saw my files were wildly scattered. After defragmentation DD10 created a new partition that worked fine. DD10 confused scattered files as "bad sectors" (in my case). After you increase the size of C: try defragmenting it (might work).

 

I'm happy to report that my issues are resolved.

I ran a CHKDSK /R and it reported no hard disk errors. I then downloaded Maxtor PowerMax to diagnose my Maxtor drive and the advanced test found bad sectors, and was able to fix them. At that point, I was able to resize C: using DD10 without issues, and was then able to defrag C:.

It's possible that if I had been able to defrag C: initially (I couldn't due to lack of free space) this may have resolved the bad blocks situation similar to what was described in the above post.

In any event, everything seems to be running smoothly. Whew!