Win8.1 OS (C:) partition refuses to shrink!

[gold_finger]

In the good fully functioning copy that I have of the UEFI dual boot (fast boot & secure boot enabled), that I didn't attempt to install binding on, it works amazingly: the grub screen comes up almost immediately and both LL and win8.1 load from the grub menu in less than 6 seconds!  It's the binding problem that's driving me absolutely crazy...  I am still going to work on this but await further feedback from you on next steps...  I wondered if you could reply on that thread for the binding, so that everything is kept together in one place.

I already did reply on that thread.  Guess you just didn't see that yet.

I'm going to add an edit to that last post of mine and ask further questions about the "good fully functioning copy" to appear to still have.

Win7 was installed from a virgin OEM DVD, laptop booted from DVD in 'UEFI mode' though the firmware was set with fast boot and secure boot both disabled. In booted fine in legacy mode. However when I put the firmware settings back to fast boot & secure boot enabled, when it rebooted it got stuck at a red screen with the message. Yes the disk was GPT etc... 
"Invalid signature detected. Check Secure boot Policy in setup".

Just a few quick thoughts on this although I know you're not experimenting with it anymore.  If it was an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) DVD meant specifically for that laptop, OK.  (Where did you get the disk?  Did you order it from your laptop's manufacturer?)  If not, then it won't work.  The error message sounds like it came from Secure Boot checking to see if it's an approved OS to load on the laptop.  That will reject any OS (Windows or Linux) that does not have a valid certificate to allow installation in UEFI mode.  It's my understanding that retail versions of Win 7 bought at a store will have a valid certificate for that (on 64-bit versions).  But, I'm only going from memory of what I've read and could be wrong.