How to Extend System Partition in Windows 11/10?

Updated by

Linda 

Written by

Linda 

Updated on April 22, 2024

By extending your system volume or C: partition, you can make full use of free or unallocated space that is not being used by other partitions. The key advantage of expanding the C drive is that your computer will experience improved and optimized performance with increased speed.

Can I **extend system partition** in Windows 11/10? Yes, absolutely. This page offers four methods to assist you with the issue of the C drive being full on your Windows 11/10/8/7/XP computers. Review the provided solutions and follow the respective guide to extend your system C drive yourself.

3 Ways to Extend System Partition in Windows 10 With/Without Unallocated Space If you're looking to expand your system partition in Windows 10, whether you have unallocated space or not, there are several methods you can use. Here are three ways to achieve this: 1. Using the built-in Disk Management tool: - Step 1: Press `Win + X` and choose "Disk Management" from the menu. - Step 2: Right-click on the system partition (usually labeled "C:") and select "Extend Volume." - Step 3: Follow the prompts in the Extend Volume wizard to allocate available space. **Note:** This method only works if there's unallocated space adjacent to the system partition. 2. Using a third-party disk management tool (e.g., tools Partition Master, MiniTool Partition Wizard): - Step 1: Download and install a reliable disk management tool. - Step 2: Launch the tool and identify the system partition you want to extend. - Step 3: Resize the neighboring partition to create unallocated space. - Step 4: Move the unallocated space next to the system partition. - Step 5: Extend the system partition by allocating the unallocated space. 3. Using the Command Prompt (适用于有无未分配空间的情况): - Step 1: Open the Command Prompt as an administrator by pressing `Win + X` and selecting "Command Prompt (Admin)." - Step 2: Check the current partition layout with the command `diskpart` followed by `list disk`, then `select disk X` (replace X with the correct disk number). - Step 3: Identify the system partition with `list partition`. If there is unallocated space, proceed to the next step; otherwise, create it by shrinking another partition with `shrink desired=XXX` (where XXX is the amount of space to shrink in MB). - Step 4: Extend the system partition with `extend [size=YYY]` (where YYY is the amount of space to add in MB). Remember to back up your important data before attempting any partition modifications, as errors can lead to data loss.

Before beginning, it's crucial to check Disk Management to determine if there is unallocated space behind your target C drive. After that, you can follow and try the methods provided here for assistance:

Here are the translations in English:
1. #1. Tools Partition Master - works with or without unallocated space ⌛
2. #2. Disk Management - requires adjacent unallocated space
3. #3. DiskPart - requires adjacent unallocated space

Powerful partition manager software - tools Partition Master Professional, along with Windows Disk Management and DiskPart, offers 4 methods to increase your system volume. Check and follow the easiest way to effortlessly extend your system partition.

Windows 11 users can refer to this page for more efficient ways to effectively extend the C drive in Windows 11.

#1. Using Partition Master Tool

Don't worry if the unallocated space is not behind your C drive, or if your disk doesn't have any unallocated space at all. Partition Master is a comprehensive hard disk partition management software that supports extending system partitions on Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista/XP 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems. Your data is completely protected throughout the entire process.

You may follow the respective guide here to extend your system drive in Windows 10 successfully and efficiently.

Tutorial 1. Extend Windows 10 System Partition with Unallocated Space

If your disk has unallocated space, follow the guidelines here and jump to Step 2 here to directly extend the C drive:

Step 1: Free up unallocated space for the C drive.

If there is no unallocated space on the system disk, go to Partition Manager and right-click on a partition adjacent to the C: drive, then select "Resize/Move". Drag the left side of the partition towards the left to shrink it, creating unallocated space behind the system C: drive. Then, click "OK".

Step 2: Increase C drive space.

1. Right-click on the C: drive and select "Resize/Move".

2. Drag the end of the system partition into the unallocated space to add space to the C: drive, then click “OK”.

Step 3: Keep all the changes to extend C: drive.

Click “Execute Task” and then “Apply” to keep all changes and extend the system C: drive.

If this method works, share this tutorial to help more of your friends online:

If you receive a low disk space error on your C drive, follow Tutorial 2.

Tutorial 2: How to Extend System C Drive with Low Disk Error in Just One Click

If your C drive is running out of space and your computer is displaying a low disk space error, follow these steps to easily extend the C drive:

Step 1. Click "Adjust with 1-Click" to extend C drive.

When your C drive is out of space, hover your mouse over the C drive, and you'll see the Low Disk Space alert in the Partition Master tool. Click "Adjust with 1-Click" to extend it.

Step 2. Click "OK" to extend C drive automatically.

By clicking “OK”, Partition Master will automatically allocate space to your C drive to solve the low space issue.

Optional: You can also click "Manual Adjustment" to extend the C drive manually.

When switching to Manual Adjustment, select the C drive and drag the dots to the right to add more space to the C drive. Click “OK” to confirm.

Step 3. Confirm to fix low disk space on the C drive

Click the "Execute Task" button in the top corner and start all pending operations by clicking "Apply".

Tutorial 3: Extend Windows 11/10 System Drive Without Unallocated Space

When there's no unallocated space on your system disk, what will you do? If you have free and unused space in other partitions on your system disk, you can use the tool Partition Master with its Allocate Space feature to directly expand your system drive.

The Allocate Space feature lets you allocate free space from other large volumes and add it to the C drive without compromising your data. We'll use allocating space from Drive D to Drive C as an example to illustrate the process. Here's how to do it:

Step 1. Right-click on the D: partition with sufficient free space and choose "Allocate Space".

Step 2. Select the target partition - C: drive and drag the partition panel rightward to add the free space from D: drive to C: drive. Then click "OK" to confirm.

Step 3. Click the "Execute Task" button and hit "Apply" to commence the process of moving free space from Drive D: to Drive C:.

If your friends are also experiencing this issue, share this guide to help them right away:

#2. Using Disk Management

The other tool you can use is Disk Management, which can extend the system drive with the free unallocated space behind Drive C.

Here's how to extend your Windows 11/10 system partition in Disk Management:

Step 1. Open Disk Management by right-clicking the Windows icon and selecting "Disk Management".

Step 2. Right-click on the system partition that you want to extend, and select "Extend Volume" from the menu.

Resize/Collapse Volume in Windows 10/8/7 When there is unallocated space beside C drive, you can extend system partition C drive with the unallocated space in Disk Management. Here are the steps: Step 1: Right click "My Computer" or "This PC" and choose "Manage" to open Computer Management. Step 2: Click "Disk Management" in the left pane. Step 3: Right click C drive and select "Extend Volume". Step 4: Follow the Extend Volume Wizard to finish the process. However, you may receive an error message "There is not enough space available on the disk(s) to complete this operation" when trying to extend C drive in Disk Management, which means the unallocated space is not contiguous to C drive. In this case, you need to move the partition next to C drive to make room for extending C drive. But Windows built-in Disk Management cannot move partition, so you have to turn to third-party partition manager software. ## How to Extend C Drive with Third-Party Partition Manager AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard is a free yet reliable partition manager that can help you easily extend C drive with unallocated space without data loss. It also has many other useful features like migrating OS to SSD, creating bootable media, etc. Now let's see how to extend system partition with it. Step 1: Download AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard and install it on your computer. Step 2: Launch it and you will see the main interface as below. Step 3: Right click the partition next to C drive and choose "Move/Resize Partition". Step 4: Drag the partition handle leftwards or rightwards to make unallocated space contiguous to C drive. Step 5: Click "OK" and then click "Apply" to execute the operation. Note: If there is no unallocated space, you can shrink a large partition to create unallocated space, or delete a partition to get unallocated space. With these steps, you can easily extend C drive in Windows 10/8/7 with unallocated space.

Step 3. Click "Next" and specify the size of the unallocated space that you wish to add to the C drive. Click "Next" to proceed.

单击“完成”以结束。

Click "OK" to confirm extending C drive with Disk Management.

#3. Using DiskPart

Aside from Disk Management, another built-in Windows tool called DiskPart also offers robust partition management capabilities to assist you in extending the system C drive in Windows 11/10.

请注意，DiskPart 只在未分配的空间位于计算机系统 C 盘后面时才有效。以下是详细的步骤：

Step 1. Right-click on the Windows icon, select "Search," type: cmd, and press Enter.

Step 2. Type: diskpart and press Enter. Click "Yes" to open DiskPart.

Step 3. Type the following command and press Enter each time:

• list volume
• select volume 1 (Replace 1 with the volume number of your system C drive.)
• extend

or the following command:

Translate the following commands into English: 1. list disk 2. select disk N (Replace N with the disk number of your system disk.) 3. list partition 4. select partition 2 (Replace 2 with the number of your system partition.) 5. extend size=X disk=N (Replace X with the specific size of the unallocated space, where X is in MB units, and replace N with the disk number of your system disk.)

Step 4. Type: exit to close the DiskPart window when you're done expanding the C drive.

Did these solutions to extend system partition help you? If so, share them with your friends who are facing the same issue!

Conclusion

This page features three partition management tools - Partition Master, Disk Management, and DiskPart - to assist you in efficiently extending the C drive on Windows 11/10, 8, or even older systems, with or without unallocated space.

For the easiest and beginner's choice, Partition Master is the one you shouldn't miss.

If you have more questions about extending partitions, you can check the frequently asked questions below to find direct answers:

1. Can I extend the C drive partition in Windows 11/10?

The answer to "Can I extend my C drive partition in Windows 11/10?" is yes. With the help of tools like Partition Master, along with Windows Disk Management and DiskPart, you can expand your system volume in four methods. Refer to the detailed steps on this page to easily extend your system partition.

2. How do I expand my Windows partition?

1. Open Disk Management and right-click on a partition adjacent to your target drive. Choose "Shrink Volume." 2. Specify the amount of space you want to shrink and allocate to the target partition, then click "Next" and "Finish." 3. Right-click on the target drive and select "Extend Volume." 4. Choose to add all the unallocated space, then click "Next" to confirm. 5. Finally, click "Next" and "Finish" to conclude the process.

3. Why is Extend Volume greyed out in Windows 11/10?

There could be three reasons that cause the Extend Volume option grayed out:

Here are the translations for the provided languages: 1. There is no unallocated space on your hard drive. 2. The target partition is FAT or other file systems, not NTFS. Only NTFS is a configured file system supported on Windows partitions. 3. There is no contiguous unallocated space next to or behind the target partition.

To address this issue, you'll need to free up unallocated space and ensure it's adjacent to your target partition. Additionally, you'll need to convert the FAT partition to NTFS.

For more specific inquiries, you can utilize the search function located in the top right corner of the tools software homepage to search for and find solutions.