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Background: I have a test machine with Windows Server 2012 R2 installed on a single 500GB partition. I want to shrink this system partition and create another one. I followed Technet's Shrink a Basic Volume, but I only got ~150GB of available shrink space (see screenshot below). The article points me to eventlog 259 by defrag, which says: The last unmovable file appears to be: \System Volume Information\FVE2.{e40ad34d-dae9-4bc7-95bd-b16218c10f72}.3::$DATA. This file appears to be a System Restore file (ref), so I want to turn off System Restore.

My Questions:

  1. How do I turn off System Restore in Windows Server 2012R2?
  2. Failing that, how do I shrink partitions without being blocked by unmovable files in System Volume Information?

To disable System Restore, I tried:

  • Many articles (example) tell me to go to system properties => System Protection, but I don't have that (see screenshot below).
  • One article suggests adding a DisableSR registry value using Reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore" /v DisableSR /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f. I did that and restarted the machine - no difference.
  • Same article suggests stopping and disabling the service srservice. I tried, but this service doesn't exist on my machine.
  • The article links to Another article which suggests running %systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe, but that restore folder doesn't exist either.

To defrag, I tried:

  • SysInternal's PageDefrag - failed to load driver
  • UltimateDefrag - its boot-time defragger says "failed to detect keyboard"
  • Boot from Windows installation USB, hit F10 and run E:\Windows\System32\defrag.exe E: /U /V - worked, but didn't move those files.

Shrink volume System Properties

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    the reason you don't have option to disable it is because there isn't an option to enable it....
    – Ramhound
    Jul 21, 2015 at 14:13
  • Hmmm... Then how do I get rid of the unmovable files in System Volume Information? I'll try to run vssadmin and update in the OP
    – Jonathan
    Jul 21, 2015 at 14:23
  • If you defrag the HDD that will increase the amount of space you can shrink it by. You can do this by dong a boot-time defrag.
    – Ramhound
    Jul 21, 2015 at 14:28
  • How do I do a boot-time defrag? Use UltimateDefrag as suggested in this question?
    – Jonathan
    Jul 21, 2015 at 14:35
  • That is entirely up to you. There are numerous products that can get the job done. Use the one you want to use. If you disable your page file, hibernate, ect. before you do the defrag you will be able to shrink your partition farther. Just enable them afterwords.
    – Ramhound
    Jul 21, 2015 at 14:37

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