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Windows 11/10 Free Space vs Unallocated Space
Before you learn how to allocate hard drive space, you must know about unallocated and free space. You often come across both when managing disk space on your computer. They both take up a part of your computer's storage.
Unallocated space refers to the area on a hard drive that may contain whole files, remnants of data, or temporary files that were created and then deleted. It is an area on a hard disk or other device that has not been partitioned. If you have unallocated space on a disk, you can use a partition tool to extend a partition.
Read also: How to Use Unallocated Space in Windows 10
Free space refers to the empty vacuum within an existing partition. For example, your D drive has 300 GB of space and you've used 100 GB. That leaves 200 GB as the free space on the D drive. Sometimes, free space may refer to the unallocated space displayed in Disk Management or the unused available space on an existing partition.
When you create partitions, extend C drive, or increase the drive space with Disk Management or any third-party partition tool, you must ensure that there is unallocated space on your hard drive. The catch is that the unallocated space must be right next to the partition you want to resize. You cannot move free space from one drive to another directly. Besides, you can only get unallocated space in the following ways:
- •Delete partition to get unallocated space
• Shrink the drive, and Windows will mark the unused space as unallocated
• After initializing the disk, you'll see the entire disk shows as Unallocated in Disk Management
Any of these options increases the risk of data loss. Is there any way to add space directly from one disk to another? Yes, and all you need is a hard drive partition manager to allocate the space.
How to Allocate Disk Space on Windows 11/10/8/7
AOMEI Partition Assistant features a function called "Allocate Space". With this, you can directly allocate unused space from the selected partition to another partition on the same disk. Additionally, it boasts several notable highlights:
- Combine partitions without losing data
- Migrate OS to SSD
- Create/Format/Delete partition
- Convert MBR to GPT or GPT to MBR
Download a disk management tool and allocate free space on the hard drive according to the instructions. In this example, we'll use Disk D and Disk C.
Step 1: Right-click on Drive D with sufficient space and select "Allocate Space".
Step 2. Select the target partition - C drive, and then drag the partition panel to the right to add the free space of D drive to C drive. Then click “OK” to confirm.
Click the “Perform Task” button and then “Apply” to start the process of moving free space from Drive D to Drive C.
Common Ways to Free Up More Space on Your Hard Drive
You've learned how to partition a hard drive. How do you free up space on one? Try these methods.
Method 1: Clean Large Files
If you use a reliable junk file cleaner, you can quickly free up space. I recommend using CleanGenius for this purpose. Here's how to clean up large files:
Step 1. Download and install the Partition Master tool for free, and then launch it on your Windows PC.
On the assembly, hover over “PC Cleaner” and click the download icon to install and launch the CleanGenius tool.
Step 2: On CleanGenius, tap “Clean” on the main screen and then tap “Scan” to begin scanning.
Step 3: After the scan, select the unnecessary large files and click "Clean" to delete the large files.
Step 4: When CleanGenius has finished cleaning the files you selected, click “Finish” to close the program.
Method 2: Empty the Recycling Bin to Free Up Space
The Recycle Bin can also take up a lot of space on your hard drive. Deleted files remain in the Recycle Bin until you empty it or restore the files from it.
Step 1: Right-click the Recycle Bin.
< strong > Step 2. Select Empty Trash, and click Yes.
That will free up space on your hard drive or SSD.
Method 3: Uninstall Unused Apps
Apps can take up a lot of space on your hard disk. You can check which ones you don't use often and uninstall them to free up space.
Step 1: Go to Settings > Apps > Apps & features.
Step 2. Select the app or game you want to get rid of, and then tap Uninstall.
Method 4: Delete temporary files with Disk Cleanup
Windows comes with a tool that lets users delete temporary files, system files, and other unnecessary data. Using Disk Cleanup is a great way to get rid of various temporary files that are no longer needed.
Step 1: Click the Start button, search for “Disk Cleanup,” and choose the top result to launch the experience.
Step 2: Select the files that you want to delete from the C drive or any other disk and click on “OK”.
Conclusions
It makes allocating space easier and simpler to add free space to another partition on Windows 10/8/7 and Windows XP/Vista without creating unallocated space. Apart from resizing partitions flexibly, this tool can also clone hard drive, migrate system to SSD/HDD, convert MBR to GPT during installation without deleting partitions, etc.
How to Allocate Disk Space in Windows 11/10? – FAQ
Here are some extra tips for allocating disk space on your Windows 10 device. If you're still having issues, read on:
How to Partition a Hard Drive in Windows 11/10?
Steps to partition a hard drive:
Step 1. Install and launch Partition Master.
Step 2: Shrink the partition.
Step 3: Create the new partition.
Step 4: Resize the new partition, set the file system, label, etc.
Step 5: Apply the changes.
What does it mean when a hard drive is labeled “Unallocated”?
Computers refer to physical space on a hard drive that isn't part of any partition as "unallocated." This means that no programs can write to this area. To make use of unallocated space, you'll need to either create a new partition in the area or expand an existing partition into the area.
Should I leave unallocated space on my hard drive?
There is nothing you need to do; use the whole disk (or at least what Windows thinks is the whole disk).