Reduction of Samsung hard drive Secretzone
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Hello, as my title suggests, I have a Samsung 2TB hard drive, and I've been using it for 3 years now. I was using the SecretZone feature, which works very well. https://prnt.sc/l29ffx
The problem is that I've increased its size a bit too much, and I would like to reduce it. I've searched, but no one talks about that, only issues where it wasn't working at all. When I want to configure it, only "increase the size" or format SecretZone appears, which I definitely do not want to do. Considering that there isn't enough space to move everything to the regular drive and then format it afterwards. https://prnt.sc/l29fp2
Does anyone know how to reduce it without formatting everything? Or am I forced to completely delete SecretZone and create a smaller one? Thank you in advance for your help.
Configuration: Windows / Chrome 69.0.3497.100
The problem is that I've increased its size a bit too much, and I would like to reduce it. I've searched, but no one talks about that, only issues where it wasn't working at all. When I want to configure it, only "increase the size" or format SecretZone appears, which I definitely do not want to do. Considering that there isn't enough space to move everything to the regular drive and then format it afterwards. https://prnt.sc/l29fp2
Does anyone know how to reduce it without formatting everything? Or am I forced to completely delete SecretZone and create a smaller one? Thank you in advance for your help.
Configuration: Windows / Chrome 69.0.3497.100
4 réponses
jeannets
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Hello,
if I'm guessing correctly, it's an external drive (probably USB..?)..??
I also believe it is formatted in FAT32, it cannot be larger than 2TB... and in your case, it is almost full...
so you are at the limits of the impossible, you cannot enlarge it... and to reduce it, you need to remove quite a few files to make space...
You should provide a screenshot of all your drives, using the command
Normally, if you right-click on this drive, you should be offered to "shrink the volume" if there is sufficient free space.
I find it strange that you are not taking more precautions with this type of drive which is still risky... You should have a backup... Imagine if this drive crashes, you lose all the content, and with your system, it is definitely unrecoverable...
In my opinion, for this kind of operation, there is a significant risk involved... it would be wise to acquire a second drive of the same size to have a duplicate or a clone...
That way, in any case, you could move your files twice and recreate the SecretZone...
And to be quicker, it would be best to do this on a desktop... with a cloning program on a CD live that is used to boot this desktop... the drives thus becoming free from any operation outside the system.
if I'm guessing correctly, it's an external drive (probably USB..?)..??
I also believe it is formatted in FAT32, it cannot be larger than 2TB... and in your case, it is almost full...
so you are at the limits of the impossible, you cannot enlarge it... and to reduce it, you need to remove quite a few files to make space...
You should provide a screenshot of all your drives, using the command
diskmgmt.mscand paste it here.
Normally, if you right-click on this drive, you should be offered to "shrink the volume" if there is sufficient free space.
I find it strange that you are not taking more precautions with this type of drive which is still risky... You should have a backup... Imagine if this drive crashes, you lose all the content, and with your system, it is definitely unrecoverable...
In my opinion, for this kind of operation, there is a significant risk involved... it would be wise to acquire a second drive of the same size to have a duplicate or a clone...
That way, in any case, you could move your files twice and recreate the SecretZone...
And to be quicker, it would be best to do this on a desktop... with a cloning program on a CD live that is used to boot this desktop... the drives thus becoming free from any operation outside the system.
So yes, it's an external hard drive, I forgot to mention it, but in my screenshots, we can see that the secret zone is 1.2TB while the entire hard drive is exactly 1.8TB knowing that I'm using 60% of the latter. So in terms of space, I can shrink it.
But then, I suppose that shrinking the secret zone is impossible? Because I would have liked it to be 900GB, that would have left me 900GB on the public space of the external hard drive.
PS: By the way, I found this https://prnt.sc/l2ahoc (I don't know anything about this by the way) as you were talking about FAT32, here I can change NTFS (by default) or FAT32.
But then, I suppose that shrinking the secret zone is impossible? Because I would have liked it to be 900GB, that would have left me 900GB on the public space of the external hard drive.
PS: By the way, I found this https://prnt.sc/l2ahoc (I don't know anything about this by the way) as you were talking about FAT32, here I can change NTFS (by default) or FAT32.
No, it's not necessary, you calculate the free disk space as if everything were neatly arranged side by side...
Unfortunately, all too often, it's scattered across the surface of the disk according to the whims of the manager...
Before doing that, at the very least, you need to defragment to improve organization...
You could also have created partitions on this disk and used one for that...
You didn't provide the screenshot...
Unfortunately, all too often, it's scattered across the surface of the disk according to the whims of the manager...
Before doing that, at the very least, you need to defragment to improve organization...
You could also have created partitions on this disk and used one for that...
You didn't provide the screenshot...
Hello Gohino,
We recommend that you back up your SecretZone and then format the partition to create a new SecretZone with your preferred size.
This way, you won't risk losing any data.
Best regards,
--
Seagate Technology │Official Forum Team
IronWolf Drives for all NAS Applications - SkyHawk Drives for Surveillance Applications - Barracuda Drives for PCs and gaming
We recommend that you back up your SecretZone and then format the partition to create a new SecretZone with your preferred size.
This way, you won't risk losing any data.
Best regards,
--
Seagate Technology │Official Forum Team
IronWolf Drives for all NAS Applications - SkyHawk Drives for Surveillance Applications - Barracuda Drives for PCs and gaming
But how can I format only the Secretzone, as it only offers me the option to format the entire hard drive? https://prnt.sc/l2qttb
Should I click on "delete the secure drive"? https://prnt.sc/l2qu5s
Should I click on "delete the secure drive"? https://prnt.sc/l2qu5s
Hello,
We apologize for the late response.
Ideally, the SecretZone should be on a different partition than the rest of the data. If this is not the case, you will need to format the entire disk, create the partitions, and set up a new SecretZone in the dedicated partition.
Don't forget to back up all your files.
See you later,
We apologize for the late response.
Ideally, the SecretZone should be on a different partition than the rest of the data. If this is not the case, you will need to format the entire disk, create the partitions, and set up a new SecretZone in the dedicated partition.
Don't forget to back up all your files.
See you later,
To format only a specific area of the disk, partitions must have been created beforehand...
If your disk is all in one piece (that's an error), you won't have a choice... you must first back up to another drive and then perform your formatting..
But wait a bit, you might have a better solution with segate_surfer.
If your disk is all in one piece (that's an error), you won't have a choice... you must first back up to another drive and then perform your formatting..
But wait a bit, you might have a better solution with segate_surfer.