Windows hangs when creating partiion.

[K0D1User1138]

Trying to create a partition on a hard drive that contains data. I've done this before. Now, for some reason, Windows Disk Manager just seems to hang. I can access the drive, right-click and select shrink. It scans for available size to shrink, I enter a smaller number for the new partition size and click OK. That's when things break. DM greys out the drive in question but doesn't give a thinking wheel. I can still scroll up and down through the installed drives when previously all actions in DM would be frozen as DM figures out how to defrag the existing data to one 'side' of the drive in order to create the partition. I can't right-click to access any options but I can select other drives - again not a previous option. And it just stays that way and never finishes up any task. The only way to stop the ation is to reboot (which I'm sure is making thing seven worse). If the drive is empty and freshly formatted then I can create a new partition. But this drive has existing data that can't be easily moved off even temporarily. I've never seen this action before and it's pretty confusing, to say the least. 

[FilipposTechGR]

Disable hibernation and pagefile temporarily, then retry shrinking.

Turn off system restore temporarily on that drive.

Run a full defrag with something like Defraggler, sometimes that helps consolidate free space better than Windows’ built-in tool.

If DM still refuses, use a third-party tool like MiniTool Partition Wizard or EaseUS Partition Master they usually handle this better than Disk Management.

And of course, make sure you have a backup before you mess with partitions, just in case.

[y0ur5h4d0w]

39 minutes ago, K0D1User1138 said:

Trying to create a partition on a hard drive that contains data. I've done this before. Now, for some reason, Windows Disk Manager just seems to hang. I can access the drive, right-click and select shrink. It scans for available size to shrink, I enter a smaller number for the new partition size and click OK. That's when things break. DM greys out the drive in question but doesn't give a thinking wheel. I can still scroll up and down through the installed drives when previously all actions in DM would be frozen as DM figures out how to defrag the existing data to one 'side' of the drive in order to create the partition. I can't right-click to access any options but I can select other drives - again not a previous option. And it just stays that way and never finishes up any task. The only way to stop the ation is to reboot (which I'm sure is making thing seven worse). If the drive is empty and freshly formatted then I can create a new partition. But this drive has existing data that can't be easily moved off even temporarily. I've never seen this action before and it's pretty confusing, to say the least. 

restart multiple times your PC and it will work at some point, i had issues today on one of my work PC when i tried to create a new partition after formatting a drive, i had to try multiple times and with multiple restarts, after 2 or 3 restarts it works, also press start and type "create or delete disk partitions" and don't use the "computer management" tab that allows you to create and edit disks partitions, for some reasons it's bugged, it's probably one of the latest AMAZING updates of windows 11 24h2 that broke something

[kokosnh]

Is it SSD or HDD? 

shrinking partition is not always available, Windows somtimes won't / can’t move all the data from the end of partition  (not sure how Windows 10/11 does it now), so it has to check the location off all the data on the partition befor shrinking (if it do move the data, then it’s literally doing it when it „hangs” from your perspective) that is why it’s possible to do it easy on freshly formatted partition.  

 

42 minutes ago, K0D1User1138 said:

The only way to stop the ation is to reboot (which I'm sure is making thing seven worse).

If it’s moving the data in the background, then it sure is bad ( at least check the drive activity before doing reboot).

 

I usually try to avoid that function, and just copy the data on different drive, format the first drive, and move the data back.

[K0D1User1138]

This is for a HDD, was trying to create a second drive to move some other data to temporarily while I sort out my media server reconfig. But Windows just wouldn't partition the drive. Did the weird sorta-hang thing. No matter how many times I rebooted and tried again. Just nothing. 

[Pusbucket]

18 minutes ago, K0D1User1138 said:

This is for a HDD, was trying to create a second drive to move some other data to temporarily while I sort out my media server reconfig. But Windows just wouldn't partition the drive. Did the weird sorta-hang thing. No matter how many times I rebooted and tried again. Just nothing. 

If you only need to move files temporarily, why not just create folder and move the stuff into it, then back when your done.

If you have the free space on the drive, why are you bothering trying to making a new partition?

[K0D1User1138]

1 minute ago, jmwhite33 said:

If you only need to move files temporarily, why not just create folder and move the stuff into it, then back when your done.

If you have the free space on the drive, why are you bothering trying to making a new partition?

Because it's a long slow transfer process and I don't want files intermingling with my existing media server files, hence a separate partition drive. 

[Pusbucket]

7 minutes ago, K0D1User1138 said:

Because it's a long slow transfer process and I don't want files intermingling with my existing media server files, hence a separate partition drive. 

won't the transfer speed be the same going to a new partition on the same HDD, I think so. You've already spent well over an hour trying to make a new partition.

if you create a folder and dump the folders/files in question into that new folder, how are they getting intermingled with other files?

not trying to be difficult, just think you're doing more work than needed for what you want to do.

 

[K0D1User1138]

I have a problem I'd like to identify and find a resolution for. The transfer is over 3 hours. And may not be transfered to the final destination for some time after which will cause issues with my media server. If I had a faster option that could be complete by now I'd have done that. First and foremost I'd like to know why Disk Manager just isn't functioning when it had been previously just fine. And on multiple drives now. Juggling multiple TB of data takes a long time.

[Pusbucket]

23 minutes ago, K0D1User1138 said:

I have a problem I'd like to identify and find a resolution for. The transfer is over 3 hours. And may not be transfered to the final destination for some time after which will cause issues with my media server. If I had a faster option that could be complete by now I'd have done that. First and foremost I'd like to know why Disk Manager just isn't functioning when it had been previously just fine. And on multiple drives now. Juggling multiple TB of data takes a long time.

 

if you posted a pic of what disk manager is showing as the partition layout, it would probably help people troubleshoot.

Is this the boot drive or just storage?

How long did you wait for it to rearrange the data?

just for the hell of it I'm shrinking a 1 terabyte HDD by about 100 gigs. I'm almost 25 minutes into it and at face value it appears nothing is happening, BUT my drive activity light has been pretty much solid with an occasional flicker, exactly as I would expect for this type of operation.

 

people often overlook the drive activity light for troubleshooting.

[K0D1User1138]

It's just a storage drive. DM shows the usual shrink options. When I confirm the size to shrink (within the available limit) then DM just does nothing. It would previously, and does on another drive that's empty and freshly formated, greys out the drive, freezes all actions within BM and shows the spinning wheel indicating it's doing something. Of course it's fast since there's no data to move over but in previous attempts at this it has taken minutes to well over an hour, the whole time not being able to do anything else in DM and it shows it's clearly doing something. Now, as noted, it still alllows you to scroll through drives, just no right-click, and there's no spinning wheel. Let it sit for 2 hours and still nothing. Or DM completey greys out and crashes. 

[Pusbucket]

6 minutes ago, K0D1User1138 said:

It's just a storage drive. DM shows the usual shrink options. When I confirm the size to shrink (within the available limit) then DM just does nothing. It would previously, and does on another drive that's empty and freshly formated, greys out the drive, freezes all actions within BM and shows the spinning wheel indicating it's doing something. Of course it's fast since there's no data to move over but in previous attempts at this it has taken minutes to well over an hour, the whole time not being able to do anything else in DM and it shows it's clearly doing something. Now, as noted, it still alllows you to scroll through drives, just no right-click, and there's no spinning wheel. Let it sit for 2 hours and still nothing. Or DM completey greys out and crashes. 

that sucks

sorry, I got nothin' else to offer 

[kokosnh]

Is that HDD SMR by any chance?

 

Shrinking partition is not a function you want to use, if you can avoid it ( as you already noticed, you don’t see what it is doing, or progress bar )
As I mention before, to shrinking the partition, Windows has to check all the LBA on the end of partition, and move data to erlier LBA. As shrinking partition can be only done to the "left”.  If your hdd is defragmanted befor this, it would surly help.
I don't remember ever doing it on HDD ( only SSD ) so don’t know how bad it is.
 

some windows update bricking it is also a possibility, or your HDD can have problems on it's own ( did you check its smart recently ).

[K0D1User1138]

Appreciate all the ideas. Was hoping it wa sjust something easy enough I don't know about in Windows. I'm highly doubtful it a SMR issue as I've tried 3 different drives sice this began and all had the same issu and they aren't all the same model drive. And if there's any confusion I am not trying to shrink an existing partition, only take what is a full drive and split it into 2. I've done it hundreds of times in the past, even just yesterday, but now.... nothing. Accept the empty formatted drive which worked as expected. I'll keep plugging away. Now my Jellyfin server migration is giving me network share issues! Joy!

[Pusbucket]

5 hours ago, jmwhite33 said:

 

just for the hell of it I'm shrinking a 1 terabyte HDD by about 100 gigs. I'm almost 25 minutes into it and at face value it appears nothing is happening, BUT my drive activity light has been pretty much solid with an occasional flicker, exactly as I would expect for this type of operation.

 

and 4.5 hours later it's done!

[K0D1User1138]

Well with absolutely zero idea why, 2 of the drives I was trying this on and failing, repeatedly, have workd. The first took it's time, as expected, but the spinning wheel did come up and the volume was shrunk. Trying it on the second drive and it's begun with the spinning wheel. So WTF happened I dont know but that seems to have resolved one of my issues. And after I'd shifted the media off that first drive to a second. Hilarious.

 

Thanks for those who tried to offer help and solutions.