Unable to Format or Unmount Volume!

My 500GB hard drive is partitioned into two partitions – C:OS and Data.
I have been receiving warnings indicating that my C: drive is getting full so decided to try and reduce the size of my data partition and transfer more space to my C:OS partition! Easy or not!
So I copied the data from my D: drive to external hard disk and deleted all files on my D: drive!

Tried Disk Management
I used Disk Management and created a new volume (F:) which I would eventually use for my data.
I went back to my D: partition and tried to format that partition but no option to format!
Tried Change Drive Letter and Paths….and Remove D: only to be told….


Tried Windows Terminal
I tried to use Terminal (Admin) to unmount my volume…


....only to be told Access is denied!


This indicates to me that there may be some system files lurking in my D: drive which cannot be deleted! On checking Explorer it tells me … This folder is empty!
However when I go to Devices and Drives I get …


and see that I actually have 16 GB of data taking up space – so likely to be system files that I cannot delete!



Any help on removing this 16 GB of lurking data in my D: drive would be appreciated. I am very reluctant to have to go through a fresh Windows install!!

Many thanks to all! Disk Management picture now included!

Welcome to the forum. A screenshot of disk managment would help. Be sure to expand the fields so we can see them.

@Frelon


Yep... must-have-Disk-Management screen shot.
All stretched out so we can "read" it... especially the stuff in the RED boxes.

Click to enlarge...

To post a screenshot on this forum...​

1. Take the screenshot, (or camera pic), edit it as desired, save to your desktop as .png or .jpg (max. size = 2MB)
2. Left click in your post, where you want to place the screenshot.
3. Click the Attach Files button at lower left, browse to your image and select it.
4. Then click Insert, I usually choose the Thumbnail (smaller) option, or there is a Full Image (larger) option.

Done, as requested. See edited posting!

Yep, Post a screenshot of Windows Disk Management.

Also answer this question: Have you at anytime moved the pagefile to D:?

Oh! I see the Disk Management screenshot, You need to move the page file to C: -System Managed page file before you delete D: and then merge the unallocated space to C:

Frelon said:

Any help on removing this 16 GB of lurking data in my D: drive would be appreciated.

Click to expand...

Ok... I'll let you in on the "ancient secrets"... [music shifts to a minor key]


Get this program and install it. It is far more powerful than Disk Management...
Use it gently, use it wisely. It has powers that Disk Management only dreams of.




For example...








To answer your question...

You have the "Page File" on the D: drive. That is what is giving you problems.






1. Follow the numbered steps, above..
2. Click the "Change" button.
3. Highlight the C:\ drive and choose: "System managed size."
4. Click all the OKs and Applys, and Reboot the computer.
5. When back in Windows... open Disk Management, and delete "pagefile.sys" from your D:\ drive.

5a. If it still won't let you delete "pagefile.sys" from the D:\ drive, then using the pic above, go back to the "Change" Page File settings and highlight the D:\ drive and choose: "No paging file".

6. Now you can play around with partitions, etc.
When you're finished, you can move the Page File off of the C:\ drive again.

In the long run, you need to move some programs OFF of the C:\ drive.
You will run out of room soon.
Put the larger programs on the D: drive.

You should probably consider, getting another drive, or at minimum, a larger drive.

The laptop-type folk can help with that.
At "minimum" you need at least 20% of your Windows partition (C:), empty. That's approx. 100GB.
That way, Microsoft can fill it with "bugs", er... updates.





Lastly, I gave you ten cookies (reaction points), for filling out your computer specs.



The End

Also read this: How to Change the Size of BitLocker Partition in Windows 11/10. Basically you need to decrypt C: and then resize C: You can resize with Windows Disk Management itself without installing any third party Partitioning program.

Well done Ghot, you cracked it! It seems that the Page File has a mind of it's own and decided to jump to my D Drive when I only had a few GBs space in my C Drive! Followed your instructions to a T and all is well now! Thank you. I now have 450 GB for Windows OS and 50 GB for my local data.

I have always used MiniTool Partition Manager in the past but it seemed of no use in this scenario. Thanks for confirming it's value.

I have a NAS with 6 TB of real storage so most of my "stuff" is there.

It can be a little daunting getting my 81 year old head around this "new" stuff! Bring back DOS 3.1!

PS: That last bit was a joke, really!

My thanks to those who pointed me in the right direction.

Frelon said:

My thanks to those who pointed me in the right direction.

Click to expand...

Glad you got it worked out.