Hello everybody!
From this video, you’ll learn how to extend disk C if the Extend Volume button is inactive,
and how to increase your disk size without losing data.
Most of the time, it will concern local disk C as it is usually the system partition that
runs out of free space first.
Why the Extend Volume button is inactive
Many users face this problem: the “Extend Volume” button appears to be greyed out
when they try to increase the size of a partition.
The most common reason is that the unallocated space is situated on another physical disk,
and this is when extension operations are not possible.
The unallocated disk space and the disk you want to extend should be located on the same
physical disk so that they may interact with each other.
What is more, the unallocated disk space should be located to the right of the partition that
you would like to extend.
How to extend disk C
Well, the first method of extending Disk C is without using third-party software tools
– that is, with integrated Windows features only.
The built-in Disk Management tool has rather limited functionality in comparison with other
utilities, but it will suffice if all you need is to change the volume size.
The biggest disadvantage of this method is that you’ll have to remove all the information
from disk D.
The only way you can increase the size of a partition with Windows tools is by making
use of unallocated disk space.
So, let’s start.
Right-click on the Start menu and choose “Disk Management” from the list.
We can see the partition structure.
There are two volumes: C and D.
If you want to extend disk C, you’ll have to delete disk D completely.
Yes, I mean delete, not shrink.
If you choose shrinking, the free space that appears will be located to the right of the
shrunk partition, and so it will not be adjacent to partition C.
This little but important fact prevents us from extending volume C at the expense of
volume D by way of shrinking.
Right-click on it and choose “Delete Volume” from the menu.
Click OK.
When the partition is deleted, you can see that the unallocated space appeared to the
right of the partition which you would like to extend, and it is situated on the same
physical disk.
How to remove a partition with the
Command Prompt
You can also remove partitions with the help of the Command Prompt, using the Diskpart
utility.
The most important thing is to be careful and make sure that you don’t confuse partition
numbers - otherwise, important data can be lost!
Here’s what you do: 1.
Launch the Command prompt as Administrator.
2.
Type the command “Diskpart” and press Enter.
3.
After that, type the command “List Disk.”
Now you can see the list of all disks available on this computer.
It is important to remember that the numbers start from zero, instead of one.
So your first disk is marked as disk 0.
4.
Now type the command “Select disk” and add the number of the disk you want to remove.
Be careful and select the proper disk number.
5.
Follow it by typing “List partition” command.
Now you see all the partitions available on this computer.
To understand which partition you need, open Disk Management.
You can check the disk by looking at its volume - and it appears that we should find disk
D which has this particular size.
6.
Let’s get back to Diskpart: now we can see that the partition we need has this particular
number and this particular size.
7.
Run the command “Select partition.”
8.
After you selected the partition, type the following command - “Delete partition”
9.
Now that partition is gone.
Have a look in the Disk Management window, and you'll see there is some new unallocated
space there.
Extend Volume Wizard
Then right-click on disk C and choose “Extend Volume.”
The Extend Volume Wizard opens.
Click “Next.”
Here, we add some disk space from that unallocated space.
For example, let us add about 7 Gb.
Click “Next” and “Finish.”
As you can see, now disk C has increased in size.
How to create a new disk in an unallocated disk space
To create disk D again, right-click on the remaining unallocated space and select “New
Simple Volume.”
Assign the drive letter - D.
Click “Next.”
Format it in NTFS.
Click “Finish.”
As a result, disk C has increased, and disk D has become smaller.
How to extend Disk C, but with Disk D data preserved
And here’s the second method.
It is good for situations when you have important data on disk D but you need to use some of
its free space to extend disk C.
Unfortunately, integrated Windows tools cannot help you, so you will need some additional
software.
For illustration, I’ll be using AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard.
Go to the program’s official website and download it.
As you might guess, I have already done it in advance.
There shouldn’t be any problems for you to download it as well before you actually
begin the extension process.
Open the program.
Here, we can also see two partitions, but unlike Windows Disk Management, this software
lets us increase the size of disk C at the expense of disk D without losing data stored
on disk D.
Here’s what you do:
Right-click on disk D and choose to resize partition.
Specify the required number of gigabytes that you would like to add to disk C later.
Click ОК.
Now, some unallocated space appears.
Right-click on it and select “Merge Partitions.”
In the window that opens, select the disk partition to merge to.
In our case, that is Disk C.
Click OK / Apply.
In the window that opens, click “Go” and then OK.
This process takes some time, and then the computer will restart.
Now everything is ready, and the operations were successful.
When you check it, you’ll see that disk C has become bigger, while disk D is now smaller,
and you haven’t lost any data there.
But even if some information was removed accidentally while you were extending a volume, resizing
partitions, creating new partitions or formatting them, you can still have it back with the
help of Hetman Partition Recovery.
There is a special video tutorial covering every step of the recovery process in smallest
details, so you’re welcome to check the link below.
That is all for now.
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Thank you for watching.