This article answers the question: "How to increase disk space on drive C?" It provides both instructions for working in third-party utilities and in the firmware. It should be noted that increasing the size of the system partition is performed by reducing the volume of one of the neighboring ones. Moreover, it is necessary that they are located on the same physical drive. Of course, the joinable space of a neighboring partition should not be occupied by files. The instruction is suitable for any version of Windows.
Aomei Partition Assistant
Aomei is a free utility that allows you to perform any manipulations with hard drives. During the installation, she does not install advertising applications with her. The interface is fully translated into Russian. The utility supports any version of Windows, starting with 7.
Be careful! Any actions in programs of this type can lead to data loss. Back up important documents in case of an unexpected failure or unexpected outage.
Step-by-step instruction
After installing the program, run it.
The main window will show the hard drives and their partitions. How to increase the space on drive C due to drive D using the Aomei application?
Right-click on section D. A menu opens in which you need to select “Resize”.
In the window that appears, you can edit the disk size by dragging the borders on the right and left or by specifying the numerical values in the input lines. It is necessary to move the borders so that the unallocated space is located after section C. When you finish the setup, click OK.
Increase the size of partition C due to the new unallocated volume. Click on OK.
Now click on the "Apply" button in the main window of the Aomei utility.
Before you increase the space on drive C , the program will restart the computer several times. Between reboots and basic operations will be performed. Therefore, if the OS does not start for a long time, be patient.
In the same utility, you can create a bootable USB flash drive. With its help, editing partitions is performed outside the OS. Rebooting the PC with this approach during operations is not required.
Downloading the utility is available on the official resource of the developer.
MiniTool Partition Wizard Free
Partition Wizard is a free application that will help you perform any actions with hard disk partitions. Its only drawback is the lack of a Russian translation.
After loading, the utility will display a window with almost the same interface as Aomei. The steps to be taken before you increase space on drive C are also completely similar.
So:
- expand the context menu by right-clicking on the image of section D;
- click on the Resize Partition label and edit the space so that the unallocated area is to the right of the system disk;
- now do the same actions with section C, but do not reduce its volume, but increase it;
- click OK, and then click Apply;
- after the program has completed all operations, open the "Explorer" to make sure the correct allocation of space.
To download the Partition Wizard, go to the official website of the utility.
OS Tools
There is a way that will help to increase the space on the system drive, even if the installation of third-party software is not possible. I must say that the built-in utilities do not allow you to perform the necessary operation without losing the data recorded on the partition adjacent to the system. Therefore, all important information should be stored on a separate drive.
So:
- Open the Run dialog. Type diskmgmt.msc in the string. Click on OK.
- The display will show the main window of the Disk Management application. It will show all the drives installed in the system unit, and the scheme of their partitions. Do not perform any actions with hidden drives if you do not understand why they are needed.
- Open the dialog box for drive D by clicking on its rectangle in the diagram. Click on the "Delete" label. After this operation, free space appears to the right of section C.
- How to increase disk space on C drive? Expand the context menu of section C. Click on the "Expand" inscription.
- In the window that appears, enter the amount (in MB) by which the disk should be increased. If you do not make any changes here, the system will automatically take all available space.
When you need to slightly increase the system partition, and then again create an additional one, click on the rectangle pointing to the remaining unallocated space. Click on the text Create Volume and set its size.
Conclusion
In addition to the described tools, there are many utilities that can help increase disk space C. Windows 7 and older versions can boast of a built-in tool, but its functionality does not reach the level of third-party products.
Always remember that performing low-level operations with any drive is risky. Before each action, it is advisable to backup at least important data, and if possible, then full copies of hard drives.