Partitioning-shrink free space not possible

I want to shrink the free space on my grandson's new Toshiba laptop in order to form a partition for data files. When I attempt to shrink the free space through Computer Management the program shows 303,743 MB free space before shrinking and the available size available as 3041 MB. That's not worth bothering with. I attempted to try this using Acronis Disk Director 10 (Vista compatible) but that program also balked at partitioning. I disabled the paging file thinking it may have been unmovable and placed near the outside of the hard disk but that didn't change anything.

What could be blocking the use of all this free space? Toshiba's web site is of no help on this. I also want to do the same thing to my granddaughter's new Toshiba (both are of the same model A305D-S6835). This is the first time I've ever encountered a problem using Acronis Disk Director -- it's always been a solid performer in past instances. Would appreciate any wisdom offered.

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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Problems with Disk Management tool
    ... I would only add that, as I recall, Partition Magic is no longer under active development or maintenance. ... The included hard drive was a 650 gig unit. ... free space on the drive was over 500 gig. ... shrink about 30 gig of that to a partition. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.vista.file_management)
  • Re: Deleting unneeded partition (D), combine with C, without loss in O
    ... My hard drive shows a C and a D partition, ... Basic NTFS 42 gb approx, 32 gb free space. ... These are my data files. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain)
  • Re: Partitioning-shrink free space not possible
    ... to form a partition for data files. ... When I attempt to shrink the free space ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.vista.general)
  • Re: Deleting unneeded partition (D), combine with C, without loss in O
    ... If you have never had to re-install XP, ... My hard drive shows a C and a D partition, ... Basic NTFS 42 gb approx, 32 gb free space. ... These are my data files. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain)
  • Re: Deleting unneeded partition (D), combine with C, without loss in O
    ... Basic NTFS 42 gb approx, 32 gb free space. ... store data files on an external drive, and then combine the D vol into the C for an unpartitioned disk. ... You should be able to move all your files from the D: drive to the external, delete the D: partition and then use PartitionMagic to resize C: to claim some or all of the unused space. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain)