Description

Consider the following before shrinking a dynamic volume.

• Before performing the volume shrink operation, you must install the KB 2615327 hotfix from Microsoft.

• If the combined length of the volume name and disk group name is more than 9 characters, then you must install the KB 2619083 hotfix from Microsoft before shrinking the volume.

• You can shrink a volume only if the dynamic volume is either on a raw partition (that is, without a file system) or using the NTFS file system.

• The volume must be online.

• If a volume or degraded volume has any snapshots or detached mirrors, then the volume shrink operation is rejected. To shrink a volume that has been snapshotted, you must first snapback the volume and then shrink the volume. After shrinking a volume, you can snapshot the volume again.

• You can neither shrink a volume of less than 1 MB in size nor shrink a volume by less than 1 MB.

• You cannot shrink a volume beyond the point where any unmovable files, such as the page file or the shadow copy storage area, are located. Unmovable files are not automatically relocated when you shrink a volume.

• If you need to shrink the volume further, move the page file to another disk and delete the stored shadow copies, shrink the volume, and then move the page file back to the disk.

• If dynamic bad-cluster remapping detects several bad clusters, then you cannot shrink the volume. If this occurs, then you should move the data and replace the disk.

• Shrink Volume does not support read-only volumes.

• Volumes of more than 10 GB in size can be shrunk up to 3 GB approximately. In other words, the new size of the volume must be at least 3 GB approximately.

• Shrink Volume is not allowed during a mirror resynchronization, sub disk move, or thin reclamation.

• If a volume shrink fails after a successful file system shrink, it leaves the file system in a shrunk state. However, the volume remains of the original size.

• The time taken by the volume shrink operation depends on the size of the volume and the time required to relocate the files.

• During the volume shrink operation, if the deport disk group operation is performed, either by the user or because of a failover, then the volume shrink operation is canceled.