Shrink volume - space but unmovable files at end of disk

[Dazzer]

Hello.

I have a 400Gb drive which I would like to shrink. It has around 140Gb free space. Unfortunately there are some unmovable files at the end of the disk.

It's the Vista boot disk so how can I move the unmovable?

Can I back up the drive using Acronis and reinstate it smaller.

I have a Win7 partition which is too small which I want to expand.

The problem is the Vaio came with Vista installed and raided across two 250Gb drives - and I'm worried about wiping and rebuilding it as it came without discs.

Auslogic helped defrag but Shrink complained it had no access to do Shrink.
Perfect Disk was what put the unmovable files to the end of the disk while it was defrag/optimising. And it's Prep to Shrink didn't help at all.

Any suggestions on how to Shrink the seeming unshrinkable would be most helpful.

DazzerT

[glc]

Have you looked for an installed utility to CREATE restore disks?

[Dazzer]

It was a mixture of system files (that could be temporarily switched off) writing to the end of the disk, permissions and attempting to shrink too much.

Very helpful page - How to Delete a System File in Windows 7 or Vista - How-To Geek

as was this

Working Around Windows Vista’s "Shrink Volume" Inadequacy Problems - How-To Geek

If it says 128,000Mb available to shrink. And you choose that. That's when it says ACCESS DENIED. Iteratively I got 120,000Mb shrink allowed.

Cheers,

Dazzer