How to increase the size of the C drive with programs using the size of the D drive? How to resize or increase the capacity of the system disk (C:) Resizing the disk without losing data

Hello.

Quite often, when installing Windows, especially novice users, they make one small mistake - they indicate the “wrong” sizes of hard drive partitions. As a result, after a certain time, the system drive C becomes small, or the local drive D becomes small. To change the size of the hard drive partition you need to:

Or reinstall the Windows OS again (of course, with formatting and loss of all settings and information, but the method is simple and fast);

Or install a special program for working with a hard drive and perform a series of simple operations (with this option you do not lose information*, but it will take a longer time).

In this article, I would like to focus on the second option and show how to change the size of the system partition C of a hard drive without formatting and reinstalling Windows (by the way, Windows 7/8 has a built-in function for resizing the disk, and by the way, it’s not bad. True, There are not enough functions in it compared to third-party programs...).

1. What do you need for work?

In general, it is better and safer to carry out such an operation as changing partitions not from under Windows, but by booting from a boot disk or flash drive. For this we need: the flash drive itself + a program for editing the HDD. More on this below...

1) Program for working with hard drive

In general, there are dozens (if not hundreds) of programs for working with hard drives on the Internet today. But some of the best, in my humble opinion, are:

In today's post I would like to focus on one of these programs - EaseUS Partition Master (one of the leaders in its segment).

EaseUS Partition Master

Its main advantages:

Supports all Windows OS (XP, Vista, 7, 8);

Supports most disk types (including disks larger than 2 TB, MBR, GPT support);

Russian language support;

Quick creation of bootable flash drives (which is what we need);

Fairly fast and reliable operation.

2) Flash drive or disk

In my example, I chose a flash drive (firstly, it is more convenient to work with; USB ports are on all computers/laptops/netbooks, unlike the same CD-Rom; and, thirdly, a computer with a flash drive works faster than with a disk).

Any flash drive will do, preferably at least 2-4 GB.

2. Creating a bootable USB flash drive + BIOS settings

1) Bootable USB flash drive in 3 steps

When using the EaseUS Partition Master program, creating a bootable USB flash drive is as easy as shelling pears. To do this, you just need to insert the flash drive into the USB port and run the program.

Attention! Copy all important data from the flash drive; it will be formatted during operation!

Then pay attention to the choice of disk for recording (if you are not careful, you can easily format another flash drive or disk if you have them connected to USB ports. In general, it is advisable to disconnect “foreign” flash drives before work, so as not to accidentally mix them up).

After 10-15 minutes. The program will write the flash drive, by the way, and a special window will notify you that everything was successful. After this, you can go to the BIOS settings.

2) Setting up the BIOS to boot from a flash drive (using the example of AWARD BIOS)

A typical picture: we burned a bootable USB flash drive, inserted it into the USB port (by the way, you need to select USB 2.0, 3.0 is marked in blue), turned on the computer (or rebooted it) - but nothing happens except loading the OS.

What to do?

When you turn on the computer, press the Delete or F2 button until a blue screen with various inscriptions appears (this is the BIOS). Actually, we only need to change 1-2 parameters here (depending on the BIOS version. Most versions are very similar to each other, so don’t be alarmed if you see slightly different inscriptions).

We will be interested in the BOOT section. In my version of Bios, this option is located in the "Advanced BIOS Features" section (second on the list).

In this section we are interested in the loading priority: i.e. what will the computer boot from first, what will it boot from second, etc. By default, usually, the first thing that is checked is the CD Rom (if it exists), Floppy (if it exists, by the way, where it does not exist, the BIOS may still have this option), etc.

Our task is to prioritize checking for USB-HDD boot records (that’s what a bootable flash drive is called in BIOS). In my version of Bios, to do this, you just need to select from the list what to boot from first, then press Enter.

What should the download queue look like after the changes have been made?

After this, exit the BIOS and save the settings (Save & Exit setup tab). In many versions of Bios this feature is available, for example, by pressing the F10 button.

After restarting the computer, if the settings were made correctly, it should start booting from our flash drive... For what to do next, see the next section of the article.

3. Resizing partition C of your hard drive

In my case it's:

Drive C: and F: (one real hard drive divided into two partitions);

Drive D: (external hard drive);

Disk E: (bootable USB flash drive from which the boot was made).

The task before us is to change the size of the system drive C:, namely to increase it (without formatting and loss of information). In this case, first select drive F: (the drive from which we want to take free space) and click the “change/move partition” button.

This is what we got. In my example, I freed up about 50 GB of space on the F: drive (we will then add them to the C: system drive).

Section settings:

Logical partition;

File system NTFS;

Drive letter: any, in this example L:;

Cluster size: default.

We now have three partitions on our hard drive. Two of them can be combined. To do this, click on the drive to which we want to add free space (in our example, drive C:) and select the option to merge the partition.

In the pop-up window, check the boxes which partitions will be merged (in our example, drive C: and drive L:).

The program will automatically check this operation for errors and the possibility of merging.

After about 2-5 minutes, if everything goes well, you will see the following picture: we again have two partitions C: and F: on the hard drive (only the size of the C: drive has increased by 50 GB, and the size of the F: partition has decreased accordingly , 50 GB).

All you have to do is click the change button and wait. By the way, it will take quite a long time to wait (about an hour or two). During this time, it is better not to touch the computer, and it is advisable that the lights do not turn off. On a laptop, in this regard, the operation is much safer (if anything, the battery charge is quite enough to complete the repartition).

By the way, using this flash drive you can do a lot of things with the HDD:

Format various partitions (including 4 TB disks);

Conduct a breakdown of the unmarked area;

Search for deleted files;

Copy partitions (backup);

Migrate to SSD;

Defragment your hard drive, etc.

Whatever option you choose to resize hard drive partitions, remember, you should always make a backup copy of your data when working with the HDD! Always!

Even the safest of safe utilities, under certain circumstances, can cause mischief.

That's all, good luck everyone!

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pcpro100.info

How to change disk size in windows 2000/XP/Vista/7/8. Free program EaseUS Partition Master Free

Hello to all readers of the MyFirstComp.ru blog. Recently I came across a situation where I needed to resize logical drive C, on which the operating system was already installed. The disk size was only 20 GB, ten of which were occupied by the system. I needed to install a rather resource-intensive program on the system drive C, which was simply not realistic to do under existing conditions (if the external hard drive is not recognized, then look here). I didn’t want to reinstall the operating system in order to redistribute the hard disk space, so I resorted to the help of one wonderful free program, EaseUS Partition Master Free. It allows you to change the size of a logical drive without reinstalling the system! There is, of course, a paid version, but we won’t need its capabilities.

Where to download

So, first of all, download the program. The free version is available at the following link www.easeus.com/download/epmf-download.html. Click on the big green Download button and wait for the download to finish.

How to install

After the download is complete, run the installer. We agree that we will use this program only at home and click OK.

In the next window, I would uncheck the Join in the Customer Experience Improvement Program item - this is of no use to us. Leave the rest unchanged and click Next.

In the next window you need to uncheck the box. Then click Next again.

Here you need to select Reject and click Next again.

That's all, we are waiting for the installation to complete. When finished, click Finish.

A window will open in which you need to select our program - Partition Manager.

How to work here

After launch, the main program window will open. I will say right away that I have already corrected the situation with my hard drive, so both of my drives have approximately the same volume - about 115 GB. Using my example, I will show the principle of increasing or decreasing the disk size.

In short, we need to transfer space from drive D to drive C. To do this, I recommend strictly following the instructions. So, first of all, select drive D and click Resize/Move Partition.

Now attention. In the window that appears, left-click the circle on the left.

And drag it to the right as much as we are going to enlarge drive C.

I would like to draw your attention - the unallocated space should be located on the LEFT. Click OK. We ended up with 20 GB of unallocated space. Important - it should look like the screenshot: the unallocated space is located between drive C and D. Now select drive C and click Resize/Move Partition again.

Here we press the left mouse button on the now right round piece and pull it to the right all the way, thereby increasing the size of drive C by the 20 GB that we took from drive D.

Click OK.

For the changes to take effect, click Apply.

The program will require a reboot. We agree with her and click Yes.

That's it, now you can lean back in your chair - nothing further depends on you. During the reboot, the program will first take space from drive D and then attach it to drive C. All this will happen automatically, so after the reboot you can go about your business.

Tags: easeus partition master, windows 7, disk size

myfirstcomp.ru

Review of free programs for working with hard drive partitions

The hard drive in the computer and the hard drive in the “My Computer” window are different concepts. For example, a computer may have one hard drive installed, while there may be several of them in “My Computer”. The reason for this strange discrepancy is that the hard drive can be divided into so-called partitions. This is called logical disk layout.

I will talk about why such markup is needed, how to do it correctly (and whether it should be done at all), and also tell you about free programs for such a delicate procedure.

1. Why do you need to partition your hard drive?

There are several reasons to partition a hard drive:

Partitions on a hard drive are primarily needed for proper storage of information. For example, some users prefer the following division: the operating system and programs on one disk (usually C), documents on the second (D), a photo archive on the third (E), and so on. In this case, there may well be only one hard drive.
If you have one hard drive, but want to have two or more operating systems, you will have to divide the hard drive into partitions, since Windows and other operating systems can only be installed on different partitions or hard drives.
Manufacturers of laptops (and some computers from famous manufacturers, such as Acer) have their own reason for dividing hard drive partitions: on the partition that is visible as drive C, windows is installed, the second (D) is completely empty, and the third (which is not visible in any way in the window " My Computer" stores a compressed copy of partition C. This hidden partition of the hard drive is called the recovery partition. If something happened to the operating system (“Windows crashed” - as some users like to say), then when you turn on the laptop, just press a key combination (see which one - see the instructions for the laptop) and a special program will clear the C drive, then unpack the contents of the hidden section. As a result, the user will receive a laptop with the programs that were originally on it at the time of purchase in the store. Disk D will not be changed. The conclusion suggests itself: if on a laptop with such a recovery system all documents are stored not on drive C, but only on D, you can restore damaged Windows with a new one at any time, without losing important data. By the way, any advanced user can make such a recovery system for themselves, but I’ll tell you about it some other time.
The Windows 7 and Windows 8 operating systems, when installed on a blank, “unpartitioned” hard drive, create a hidden partition of 100–350 megabytes in size. This small partition stores a bootloader intended, oddly enough, for loading windows. This partition will not exist or its contents will be damaged - and the computer will not start the operating system, displaying on a black screen the message “Boot fail”, “Cannot find boot device”, “Boot error” or similar, the meaning of which is the same - the boot disk with operating system. In fact, the bootloader can be stored on the C: drive, and/or in hidden sectors of the hard drive (outside partitions), but the developers decided in Windows 7/8 to use a separate hidden partition in order to somehow protect the bootloader from damage by other programs, viruses or the user.
There are other reasons for partitioning a hard drive. For example, for the GNU/Linux operating systems to work correctly, several sections must be created, but this is the topic of a separate article; we will not consider them here.

So, the main reasons for dividing the hard drive into partitions: for the convenience of storing information, for installing several operating systems, for the recovery system, for storing the Windows 7/8 boot loader.

2. A little theory: file systems, partition types

Information about partitions (i.e. logical drives) is stored in a "partition table". Each logical drive can have its own file system. You can read more about all this in the Wikipedia articles: Disk partition, Logical disk, File system. A novice user only needs to know the bare minimum:

If you divide a hard drive into logical drives (partitions), the disk capacity will not increase - there is simply nowhere to get free space! You can make partitions of any size, but in total they cannot be larger than the capacity of the real hard drive. Less, please. Then you will have unallocated free space, not visible in My Computer, from which you can get one or more new partitions. This is a question I often get from newbies, so I put it first.
There are primary (main) and extended (additional) partitions. One hard drive cannot have more than four main partitions (see the links above for why this is so), so they came up with an extended partition - this is a primary partition that can include as many partitions as you like. As a result, thanks to the extended partition, the hard drive can have any number of partitions - tens, hundreds.
Each partition can have its own file system. At the moment, only NTFS can be used to install Windows Vista, 7 and 8, and the outdated Windows XP can be installed on disks with the FAT32 file system. However, I do not recommend doing this, as it imposes too many restrictions. Make all partitions in NTFS - everything will work as it should.
Any hard drive must be partitioned one way or another. In one or more logical drives - it's up to you. When purchased, the hard drive is usually already partitioned into one partition - this is what the manufacturer decided. If you are satisfied with this way of organizing information, leave it alone.
It is very undesirable to partition the disk in laptops - most of them have hidden recovery partitions that can be damaged (see point 3 of the previous chapter).
If you bought a 2 terabyte hard drive, but in “My Computer” it is “only” 1.86 terabytes (1860 gigabytes), then do not rush back to the store. It's all about how manufacturers and windows calculate the volume. Read more about this in the Wikipedia article Hard Drive. The larger the size of the hard drive, the more clearly it is clear that there are fewer real gigabytes.
Partitions can be deleted, created, moved (change their physical location on the disk), changed their size, formatted, and converted file systems on partitions from one to another. Moreover, many programs can do this while saving all the data. There are other operations, but novice users most often need the above.
If there is an error during the process of changing partitions (see point 7), information is almost always lost. Yes, it can be restored (or part of it) using special programs with the participation of specialists, but it is best to save all important information in advance on other drives (not logical drives, but real drives) or flash drives, so as not to pay money for data recovery.

3. Disk Management snap-in in windows

Windows has a standard partition changing tool - Disk Management. Depending on the version of Windows, the capabilities of this program change slightly, but in general over the past years (if we talk about Windows Vista, 7, 8) there have been no major changes. Windows XP looks more modest in this regard - apart from formatting and changing the drive letter, there is little that can be done there.

As an example, I’ll take Windows 7 “Disk Management”. You can open this program in several ways:

The simplest one is to right-click on the Computer line in the Start menu - select Management - in the new window select Disk Management.
Open Control Panel – Administrative Tools – Computer Management – Disk Management.
Click Start - Run (or the Win + R key combination) - enter diskmgmt.msc in the window that opens - click OK.

Disk management looks like this:

Disk management in windows 7

Here you can see both physical disks (including DVD drives, flash drives and other devices for storing information) and logical ones, i.e. virtual - hidden partition of the Windows 7 boot loader, drives C and D. The number of disks on your computer may be different.

Basic actions are available by right-clicking on the desired section:

Disk Management - Context Menu

The list of actions is quite meager:

The Open, Explorer items allow you to view the contents of disks
Make partition active – indicate on which disk (partition) the bootloader is located. In Windows 7 and 8, this is a system-reserved partition. You cannot make another partition active - the operating system will stop loading.
Change drive letter or drive path—You can change the drive letter that appears in the Computer window or display it as a folder. Yes, partitions can be displayed not only as disks, but also as folders on any disk.
Format – you can read about this in the Wikipedia Formatting article. The item opens a window with which you can start high-level formatting.
Extend Volume – If there is space on your hard drive that is not marked as a partition, you can expand the size of the partition using this free space.
Shrink volume – this item allows you to reduce the size of the partition. The result will be the formation of unallocated space, which can be used to expand the volume of another section (see the previous paragraph).
Delete volume – deletes a partition. Don't click on an item without thoroughly considering the consequences. If you delete a partition, the information on it can only be saved with the help of special programs, and even then not always.
Properties – a properties window will open with information about the selected disk (partition).

Of course, this is not a complete list of Disk Management capabilities. You can create dynamic disks, for example. However, this is of no use to novice users; this article is intended specifically for them.

So, to create, delete, resize partitions through Disk Management, you only need three menu items: Expand Volume, Shrink Volume, Delete Volume.

All operations take place in real time, i.e. after clicking the desired item and answering affirmatively to the question - do we want to do this - the actual action occurs.

Do not forget that there is a risk of failure, due to which we could lose either one partition or all of them. This applies primarily to computers with a large number of unnecessary programs - each of them may be the culprit in deleting all data. Moreover, the scenario when you need to change the partition from which Windows is launched (usually drive C) is the worst - most often, problems arise for users when they try to change the system partition.

To minimize the risk of failure, there are three methods:

Insert the hard drive into another computer and change partitions from it by running Disk Management or any other program for changing partitions. Due to the fact that Windows will be launched from another drive, no programs will go onto the foreign drive, interfering with a critical operation.
Boot from a Live CD - the operating system and programs will be launched not from the hard drive, but from a CD or DVD, flash drive - again, nothing will interfere with changing partitions.
To change partitions, use a program that can work in Native mode. For example, checking drive C always works in this mode - a black window with white text before loading the Desktop. In this mode, a minimum number of programs are launched and the risk of failure is minimal.

The third option is the simplest, because the user essentially does not need to do anything - just restart the computer and wait a few minutes. The following two review programs can do this.

4. EaseUS Partition Master Home Edition

A free hard drive partitioning program for home use.

You can download from the download page (click the green Download button, on the next page - Download now).

It can do everything a novice user needs: delete, create, resize partitions, copy both partitions and entire hard drives. Has a tool for recovering deleted partitions - useful for those who accidentally deleted a partition and want to bring it back from oblivion. The program has only one drawback - it is in English, there is no Russian language available.

When you start, a window appears asking you to read the help. If you know English, I recommend reading it. No - well, uncheck the Show at startup item so that it no longer appears, then click on Go to main screen. The main program window will open:

By clicking on a section (it doesn’t matter - in the list at the top, on the picture below), you can see a menu (both a pop-up and in the left panel) with all the required actions:

Resize/Move partition – change the partition size and/or move its physical position on the disk. By the way, the official website says that EaseUS Partition Master version Home (free) does not support changing partitions. This is not true - everything works great.

Copy partition – copy a partition to another disk with all the information on it.

Merge partitions - merging two or more partitions. Convenient if you need to save information on your hard drive, but reduce the number of partitions. Convert to logical/primary – conversion to a logical (extended)/primary (primary) partition.

Change label – change the disc label.

Change drive letter – change the drive letter.

Defragment – launch a standard Windows program to defragment the disk.

Check partition - checking the disk for errors using, again, a standard Windows program.

Hide partition – make the partition not visible in the “Computer” window.

Delete partition – delete a partition.

Format partition – partition formatting.

Wipe partition – cleaning the contents of a partition. All folders and files will be deleted, the partition will remain. Information deleted in this way cannot be restored.

Explore partition – view the contents of the partition.

View properties - see how much space is occupied on the partition, what file system it has and find out other technical information.

The list of actions changes depending on where you click. In the screenshot above, I clicked on the non-system section. By clicking on the system partition (from where Windows is running), there will be no delete, hide, or cleanup options. If you click on the physical disk icon, the list of actions will be completely different:

I will list the points:

Copy disk – the contents of the entire disk are copied: partitions, information in them. To do this, you need a second disk of the same or larger capacity.

Upgrade disk – this function is primarily needed to transfer Windows to a new, larger hard drive. The partition is copied and increased in size in proportion to the size of the new hard drive.

Delete all partitions – delete all partitions.

Wipe disk is the same as the previous point, only with special deletion algorithms, making it impossible to recover information.

Rebild MBR – re-creation of MBR.

Surface test – checking the surface of the disk (physical). Allows you to detect bad sectors (so-called “bads”, “bad blocks”).

View properties – display information about the disk.

Yes, knowledge of English is clearly required here, especially considering that almost every item opens a window with settings for the action being performed. After you have made the necessary manipulations, you need to apply the changes by clicking the Apply button:

Only then will the partition changes begin. This process may take some time - from a couple of minutes to several hours.

Depending on whether the system partition is affected or not, operations are carried out either immediately in the window, or you will need to restart the computer and start changing the partition in Native mode:

Changing a non-system partition occurs immediately in the program window

The system partition is changed after rebooting the computer in a special mode

The program has so many functions that it is impossible to list them all. I recommend that you read the help for EaseUS Partition Master. It is in English, unfortunately, but you can use Google translator. The translation is quite understandable.

Pros of EaseUS Partition Master Home Edition:

Lots of functions.
All actions are “virtual” until you click the Apply button. This means that you can cancel operations before this “point of no return” and try to do something else with the partitions. Or don’t do it at all if you change your mind.
Works stably and predictably. For example, during testing, while changing partitions, I started copying files to the partition that was to be changed. Result - a window appeared stating that the partition could not be locked, all operations were interrupted, the data did not disappear anywhere.
The program is free for home use.

Cons of EaseUS Partition Master Home Edition:

The interface is in English only.
There are perhaps even too many possibilities - this can confuse beginners.
A serious failure during the operation will lead to serious consequences.
For example, if you turn off the computer while changing a partition, the data on the partition will disappear. However, this is a minus of absolutely all programs for changing partitions.

Conclusion: the program is good. You can and should use it; there is no alternative among free programs.

5. Paragon Partition Manager 11 Free

Free program for changing partitions from a company based in Russia. Unfortunately, the program is in English. What made the developers take such a step is unclear. Moreover, the paid version of the program is Russian.

You can download it from this page.

The main window of the program is no different from the window of the hero of the previous review, except that the buttons have changed their order:

Main window of Partition Manager 11 Free

Express Mode deserves special mention. By clicking on this button, we will get a window with a list of the most common actions:

Express Mode

One could say that this is an ideal mode for beginners, if not for one “but”: everything here is in English. Moreover, I had a suspicion that the English here was somehow incorrect, as if it was not a person who was translating, but a machine.

Pros of Paragon Partition Manager 11 Free:

Many windows are clear enough to understand the functions.
Some operations are carried out immediately in the program window, some (if required) in Native mode. That is, the program does everything to reduce the chance of data loss.
The program is free to use at home.

Cons of Paragon Partition Manager 11 Free:

English-language, and due to the strange construction of phrases it is quite difficult to perceive.
The simplified Express Mode works exactly the opposite: firstly, the descriptions of operations and the operations themselves have more technical subtleties than is required; secondly, this mode is very capricious and does not really work, producing meaningless errors.
The program is too slow. For example, deleting a 38 GB hard drive partition took me about 5 minutes - quite long for such a simple operation.

Conclusion: the program works, but somehow unpredictably. I do not recommend using this program, fortunately there is an alternative in the form of EaseUS Partition Master Home.

6. Changing partitions during installation of windows Vista, 7, 8

This tool also deserves a mention.

Take any installation disk with Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8, set up booting in the BIOS, start installing the disk, go to the partition selection and click Disk Setup:

Changing partitions when installing Windows 8 RP

It seems that everything is simple: you need to click on a section in the list, then the action button. Unfortunately, there are few actions here: deleting, formatting, creating a partition and expanding.

You can, for example, delete a partition and, using the freed up space, increase the size of another partition or partitions (when selecting the desired partitions, you must press the Delete and Expand buttons in turn).

Alas, a very popular operation - reducing the size of partitions - is not here. You can delete the partition, then re-create a new one with a smaller partition, but, unfortunately, we will lose the data.

All operations take place in real time, i.e. after pressing the button the action occurs.

Bottom line: editing partitions during Windows installation is an extremely primitive tool. It works, but performs only a limited list of actions, among which the only one that saves data is increasing (expanding) the size of the partition. If you need to install Windows and do not need to save data on partitions, then the tool will come in handy.

If you suddenly accidentally deleted a partition during the installation of Windows or through some program, do not despair - the partition recovery function is available in EaseUS Partition Master Home Edition.

In order to recover a deleted hard drive partition, do not touch the partitions, immediately boot into Windows (or insert the hard drive into another computer if you deleted the system partition and booting Windows is impossible), then run the above-mentioned program, click on the line with the word Unallocated in the list (“Unallocated”), then click the Partition recovery button.

The rest, as they say, is a matter of technique - the action wizard will tell you where to click, where to check the boxes, and then restore your deleted disk.

8. Tip #2: Installing two or more Windows operating systems on one hard drive

All you need is a few sections. If there is already a second partition on your hard drive, which is visible in the “Computer” window, make sure that there is at least 20 GB of free space there (more is better), then during the installation of windows, simply indicate this second (third, fourth, etc.) .) disk. After installation, you will be able to select windows using the menu that will appear when you turn on the computer.

Just don’t try to install Windows XP after Windows Vista, 7 or 8 - this ancient OS spoils the bootloader. Read more about this here: Installing Windows XP on a computer with Windows 7.

If you have only one disk (C), I suggest the simplest option: Using Disk Management, first give the C partition the Compress command, reducing it by at least 20 gigabytes (or better yet, more, because in addition to Windows you will also be installing programs):

Right click on drive C...

We indicate 20 thousand megabytes (this is about 20 gigabytes). And better - more.

After clicking the Shrink button, the disk size is reduced and unallocated (free) space appears in the partition map:

19 and a half gigabytes is enough to install an operating system

Then, having configured the BIOS to boot from disk, we start the Windows installation. We install it correctly, during installation we indicate what needs to be installed in the free space:

We indicate unallocated space. The installer will create the partition itself.

After installation, you will have two operating systems. You can create unallocated spaces or empty disks and indicate them for installation.

Thanks to reader Vladimir for raising this topic.

You may have noticed that in the screenshots of the Disk Management window, all partitions are marked with a blue stripe. You may have sections with green stripes. What is the difference between blue and green sections?

A green bar in Disk Management is a sign of an extended (additional) partition. As I wrote above, there may be “nested” sections inside, which from the user’s point of view are no different from the main (primary) ones. Nested partitions have one peculiarity - if you reduce their size, then due to the free space that appears, you will not be able to simply expand the main partition. You must first shrink the extended partition itself (which stores free space and the reduced partition) so that free space is created outside of any partitions, only then can you expand the disks.

Standard Disk Management does not work well with extended disks, so if you see green marks instead of blue ones, it is better to use the free programs above - they will reduce the extended partitions, move the free space where necessary and expand the main disk.

glashkoff.com

Increasing and decreasing disk size in Windows 10

Most users are accustomed to using two partitions on one hard drive, usually a drive called C and D. Many have become interested in the question of how to change the disk size in Windows 10 using the built-in system tools (when installing Windows or after) and third-party free programs.

Use the Disk Management utility

Open the utility by right-clicking on the Start menu and selecting Disk Management.

In the search bar of the Start menu, type “Control Panel” and open it.

Select "System and Security". In the window that opens, in the “Administration” item, click on the “Create and format a hard drive” sub-item.

To create a new volume in the Disk Management utility, you first need to get free space somewhere for this; it can be obtained by compressing space on an existing volume. In the Windows operating system, no more than 4 partitions can exist on one physical HDD, including system ones (for example, the Recovery Partition). Typically there are two local drives C and D.

To create a third volume, you need to right-click on the partition that has more free space, in our case it is drive D. An explorer window will appear, click on the “Shrink volume” item to free up free space, change it to unallocated.

Partition D to create a new volume.

After this, the message “The volume is being polled to determine the available space for compression” will appear. Wait…". The process can last from several seconds to several tens of minutes. When the system finishes polling the volume, a window will appear in the “Size of volume to be compressed” column, you need to indicate how much space needs to be separated from the donor disk to create free space for now. It will not be possible to allocate more space for a new partition than specified. In the example in the screenshot, the limit is 78880 MB, a little more than 77 GB.

You can specify any other number less than the one specified above, for example, by setting the value to 51200 MB, allocate exactly 50 gigabytes for the new volume. After selecting the “Compress” option, no result will be noticeable for some time. To check whether the compression process is in progress, you need to hover the cursor over the utility window; a spinning blue circle should appear. When a black strip with unallocated space appears at the bottom of the window, this will indicate that compression has occurred.

This frees up space to create a new volume on the HDD in Windows 10. Now the unallocated space needs to be turned into a full-fledged hard drive partition.

Creating a hard disk partition from unallocated space

You need to right-click on the area labeled “Unallocated” and select “Create a simple volume.”

The “Create a Simple Volume Wizard” will open, click “Next”, in the next window you will need to specify the size of the new volume. You can leave the value unchanged, or, if you want to create two or more sections, specify a smaller value. Click "Next".

After this, select the Latin letter that will denote the disk, for example, F. Select the letter and click “Next”.

You will then be able to format the new partition if necessary.

Continue by clicking “Done”.

After a few seconds or minutes, the partition is formatted and a new Windows 10 hard drive partition will be created. When choosing the amount of memory you want to allocate for creating a new one, you must take into account that a small amount of compressed space will be taken by Windows for system needs. So, when choosing 50 GB of memory, we got a volume of 49.9 GB in size.

When installing Windows 10 on a computer from a flash drive or disk, you can divide the disks into volumes. For those who reinstall the operating system, please note that this will lead to the deletion of data from the system partition. During the installation of Windows, after entering (or skipping input) the activation key, select “Custom installation”, after which you will be able to select a partition for installation; tools for setting up partitions are available.

In our case, drive C is partition 4. To make two partitions from one HDD, you need to use the “Delete” button to create a partition; as a result, it will be converted into “Unallocated space on the disk” (point 4).

Then select an unallocated space, click the “Create” button, set the size of the future “Disk C”. After its creation, there will be free unallocated space that will need to be converted into a second disk partition in the same way.

After creating the second partition, it is recommended to select it and click “Format” (otherwise it may not appear in Explorer after installing Windows 10 and will have to be formatted and assigned a letter through “Disk Management”). Then select the volume that was created first, click “Next” to continue installing the operating system on drive C.

In addition to the built-in Windows tools, there are many programs for working with disk partitions. Some of the best free programs are Aomei Partition Assistant Free and Minitool Partition Wizard Free. First, you will need to download the Aomei Partition Assistant program from the official website, install it on your PC and run it. The application has a Russian language; we select a non-system drive, in our case it is “E”.

Right-click on it and click “Resize partition”.

The selected amount of memory will appear, in our case – 15 GB. Right-click on the system local drive C and select “Resize partition” from the context menu.

Again, drag the slider to the right to the desired size, or set the required space for expansion in the “Unallocated space after” field. A warning will appear to make a Windows 10 system recovery image or a backup copy using third-party tools, click “Ok”. To save changes, click “Apply” in the upper left corner.

A message will appear that there will be several reboots, during which drive C will be merged with unallocated space, select “Go”. A message will appear that the program will work in PreOs mode, click “Yes”. Windows 10 will begin to reboot. On first boot, AOMEI Partition Assistant PreOS Mode will launch.

The process of completing the task will begin.

secretwindows.ru

Changing hard drive partitions in Windows 7

Hello readers of the ComService company blog (Naberezhnye Chelny).

Shrinking the main partition

Existing primary partitions and logical drives can be reduced in size by using adjacent free space on the same drive. For example, if there is a need for an additional partition but no additional disks are available, you can shrink the existing partition from the end of the volume to create unallocated space that can be used for the new partition. The compression operation may be blocked by the presence of certain file types (see "What to Consider Also" for more information).

When you shrink a partition, all simple files are automatically moved to another area of the disk to free up additional space. There is no need to format the disk to shrink the partition.

Note: If the partition is an unformatted partition (that is, without any file system) containing data (such as a database file), then shrinking the partition may destroy the data

Open the Disk Management Environment: Start - right-click Computer - select Management. Select Disk Management, right-click on the main partition and Shrink Volume

Follow the instructions. It is advisable to leave the size of the main partition at least 40 GB. After compression, a new unallocated partition will appear that will need to be formatted.

Note: Only basic volumes that do not have any file system or have an NTFS file system can be compressed

What should also be considered

When shrinking a partition, some files (such as the page file or shadow copy storage area) cannot be moved automatically, limiting the partition shrinkage to the point where the non-movable files are located. If the compact operation fails, check the Application log for event 259, which indicates an unmovable file. If you know the clusters or cluster associated with the file that is interfering with the compression operation, you can also enter the Fsutil command at a command prompt (type Fsutil volume querycluster /? to see the syntax). When you specify the Querycluster parameter, the command output points to a non-movable file that is interfering with the compression operation. In some cases, you can temporarily move the file. For example, if the file you're moving is a page file, you can use Control Panel to move it to another drive, shrink the volume, and then move the page file back.
It is not possible to shrink a partition if too many bad clusters are detected during dynamic reassignment of bad clusters. If this happens, you should move the data and replace the drive. Do not use block-level copying to migrate data. This will cause the bad sector table to be copied and the new disk will treat the sectors as bad even though they are healthy.
You can shrink primary partitions and logical drives on partitions that do not have any file system or on partitions with the NTFS file system.

Enlarging the main partition

A logical disk is expanded by contiguous free space on the same secondary partition that contains it. If there is not enough free space on a partition to expand the logical drive, the partition is increased in size to accommodate the logical drive.

For logical disks, boot volumes, or system volumes, you can only expand a volume into contiguous disk space and only if the disk can be converted to Dynamic. For other volumes, it is possible to expand using non-contiguous disk space, but with the condition that the disk will be converted to Dynamic.

Open the Disk Management Environment: Start - right-click Computer - select Management. Select Disk Management, right-click on the main partition and Expand Volume. Follow the instructions.

comservice-chelny.ru

Probably, every user has encountered such a paradox that no matter how huge the volume of the C drive is, the day comes when there is a catastrophic lack of space on it.

And then the question arises: is it possible to increase the volume of drive C painlessly for the system and for all stored data and how to do it correctly?

How to increase the size of drive C is a pressing problem for many users

This article is intended to answer this question. But first, let’s look at why space on drive C is starting to run out.

Why is there not enough space on drive C?

The fact is that the Windows operating system has such an unpleasant feature as an increase in the size of its logical volume after a certain time.

In this case, all files, both temporary and system, are subject to growth. And this happens with all versions of the OS - Windows 7, 8 and 10.

Of course, at first we try to free up space by deleting unnecessary files or cleaning the disk, but still there comes a time when there is nothing left to delete, and the volume continues to be sorely lacking.

Disk C is completely full - an unpleasant but fixable situation

This situation has a very negative impact on our computer.

There is little disk space left - urgent action needs to be taken

– it often begins to crash and glitch, bringing us a lot of inconvenience, such as a decrease in PC performance and a slowdown in its speed.

The fullness of the disk also affects the security of the system; the risk increases that at the most inopportune moment during hard work at the computer, the program we need will crash.

3 ways to increase the capacity of drive C

Method 1. Free up space on drive C using a system utility

The Windows 7, 8 or 10 operating systems have a standard Disk Management utility that allows you to view and change hard drive partitions at our discretion.

Finding it is quite simple by following the instructions below:

Right-click on the “Computer” icon and select “Manage” in the dialog box that opens.

On the "Computer" icon, right-click and select "Manage"

In the menu that appears, find the “Disk Management” utility and click on it.

Find and launch the Disk Management utility

This program gives us the opportunity, at our discretion, to manage all devices designed to save data - logical drives, flash memory, CD-ROM.

Using this utility, we can easily transfer the amount of free space from local drive D to drive C, that is, increase the size of the system disk on which we have installed the Windows 7 (8 or 10) operating system.

Before transferring free space, let's determine how much free space we have on drive D, how much we need for our local drive C, and how much we can transfer.

Now, in order to transfer this freed space to the system volume, right-click on it and select the “Extend volume” function in the menu that opens.

To transfer the freed space to our disk, select "Extend volume"

Now we press the “Compress” command, after which the system provides us with information about the freed up free space, which we redirect to drive C.

We now have information about the freed up space, which we can now transfer to the system drive C

In the field that opens, indicate the size in MB of the space that we intend to transfer. After this action, the system will poll the volume and provide you with the result in the following form:

We determine the size of the space required for compression and indicate this value in the appropriate field

In order to free up the volume of our disk, right-click on it and click on the “Shrink volume” option.

Right-click on drive D and select the “Shrink volume” function

Thus, we launch a special program “Volume Extension Wizard”. Click “Next” and in the proposed window we determine the amount of space that we are going to add.

Launch the "Volume Expansion Wizard" and decide on the size that we are going to add

After all the manipulations done, we reboot our computer.

Method 2. Increase the capacity of the system disk using the Aomei Partition Assistant program

One of the most universal and well-proven programs for reliable and simple management of partitions of our disks is the free program Aomei Partition Assistant.

Aomei Partition Assistant - a universal program for working with hard drive partitions

This application allows the user to do the following:

Aomei Partition Assistant program is a universal and useful program for every user

Create and delete hard disk partitions.
Change the amount of free space.
Format hard disk partitions.
Merge, split and move or copy partitions, including to another hard drive or SSD.

Step 2: Install Aomei Partition Assistant

After launching the installation file, select the language (Russian) and follow the prompts of the installation wizard.

We install the Aomei Partition Assistant program, following the Wizard’s prompts

It should be noted that the program is distributed free of charge for private and commercial use.

Step 3. Launch Aomei Partition Assistant

After the installation is complete, a very convenient interface opens in Russian, where all the disks of our computer with all partitions are displayed.

The simple and convenient interface of the Aomei Partition Assistant program allows you to effectively work with all computer disks

Step 4. Increase the size of drive C at the expense of drive D

Let's take a closer look at how you can increase the space of volume C at the expense of volume D without losing data.

So, we carry out actions according to the instructions:

Right-click on drive D and select the “Resize partition” function;

Right-click on partition D and click the option “Resize partition”

In the console that opens, we can easily change the disk volume just using the mouse by hovering the cursor over the control points, as shown in the photo;

Partition size can be easily changed using breakpoints

Click “Ok” and open system volume C in the same way and increase its volume using free space;

By analogy with D, we work with drive C, changing its volume at our discretion

After completing all manipulations with the disks, in the top panel of the main menu, click the “Apply” option;

After all the actions have been completed, click on the “Apply” function in the top toolbar.

Next, you may need to perform, as a rule, two reboots, after which we get the desired result - an increased size of the system C drive by reducing the D drive without losing any data.

Method 3. Resizing the disk with MiniTool Partition Wizard Free

Partition Wizard is a convenient and easy-to-use application

The program, like the previous application, is shareware and does not require any additional knowledge other than the skills of an ordinary PC user.

However, it has one small drawback - the lack of a Russian-language interface. Which, however, is compensated by its simplicity and accessibility. In addition, work in MiniTool Partition Wizard Free

is very similar to working with the Aomei Partition Assistant program discussed above.

After installing Partition Wizard, we see the same simple interface, which makes using the program easy even without Russian-language settings.

A simple interface makes it easy to work in the program even without a Russian interface

Resizing disks also occurs in a similar way to the program described above. In the same way, using checkpoints we can easily change the size of the volume, due to the available free space.

Regulating the added disk space occurs in the same simple way

After we have completed all the operations to increase the volume of system drive C at the expense of volume D, the result will be immediately available to us in Explorer.

I hope these simple methods will help you easily and quickly solve the problem of increasing the size of one disk at the expense of another without losing data.

Video on the topic

Here is a fairly simple way to resize a hard drive running the Windows 7 operating system from Microsoft. The operating system itself will not be able to “bite off” a piece of one partition and add it to another just like that, so for this operation we will need the Acronis Disk Director program. You can, of course, through disk management: RMB By Computer - Management - Disk Management and then apply the necessary operations (see figure), but this is a topic for another article.

For clarity, I will increase the size of drive “C” by 10 Mb, cutting off a piece from the adjacent drive “D” in my system.

1. In order to change the size of a hard drive partition, first free up space on adjacent partitions by deleting unnecessary large files, due to which you are going to expand drive C (for example, delete movies from an adjacent drive, or unnecessary games);
2. Download and install
3. By launching the “Acronis Disk Director” desktop shortcut, you will see the following dialog box:

The article was written using an example Acronis Disk Director 2011, but there is a new version on our website - the principle of operation is the same.

It contains all the detailed information about your hard drive installed on your PC (partition sizes, format, content, etc.);
4. Right-click on drive “D” and select “Resize volume” from the pop-up menu;

5. In the next dialog box you will see the details of your partition, in my case it is drive “D”. In order to change the size of the hard drive, we need to set the required volume in Mb in the line “Unallocated space in front of the volume” (this can be done in two ways: 1st method - on the left side of the “D” section, pull the orange dot to the right, 2nd method - set the value in the empty field opposite “Unallocated space in front of the volume”). I will expand my “C” drive by 10 Mb, which means I put 10 Mb in the empty field.

6. Click the “Ok” button;
7. Now in the list of sections below we have an unallocated area of 10 Mb in size (in expanded form the size is displayed slightly smaller, so there is no need to be scared);

8. The next step will be to add these “gnawed off” 10 Mb from drive “C” to drive “D”. To do this, you now need to select drive “C” with the right button and select “Change volume size” from the pop-up menu. In the window that appears, you will see detailed information about the drive you are about to expand, in my case it is drive “C”. On the right you will see that in the line “Unallocated space after volume” we have the same 10 Mb that we just bit off from drive “D”.

10. Click the “circle with an arrow” to the right of the “Volume Size” text, thereby increasing your “C” drive by the maximum possible size and agree to this by clicking the “Ok” button.

11. In the next menu, you will see a checkbox at the top of the dialog box that says “Apply pending (scheduled) operations 2” - click it.

12. The “scheduled tasks” dialog box will show detailed information about the scheduled tasks, agree with what is described by clicking the “continue” button if everything is correct, and you did not make a mistake anywhere when entering numbers and selecting sections.

14. After the reboot, you will see a black screen with a list of actions that Acronis will perform in order to change the size of the hard drive, wait until the procedure is completed and after loading the OS you will see the new size of the partitions of your hard drive. Congratulations, you have successfully solved the problematic question “How to change the size of the hard drive in Windows 7”, although this method is also quite suitable for other operating systems from Microsoft.

Download or on our website completely free, without SMS and passwords

Additional materials:

In this article I will tell you how to change the disk size on your computer. To implement this method, I will use one simple and free program, which can be downloaded here, and I will show you how to use it and what capabilities it has.

The method we will discuss is suitable for all versions of Windows and all types of hard drives. Immediately, I'll get to the point.

How to change disk size

First of all, download AOMEI Partition Assistant from the link below. It is in Russian and free.

Install the program and open. You will see an interface in which you can perform various operations with the hard drive.

On the left side of the program are the hard drives that are detected on your computer, as well as their graphical representation. On the right are the operations that can be done with them. At the top are the control buttons.

AOMEI Partition Assistant works simply: select the disk, select the operation, and click "Apply" at the top of the program.

The program has the following features:

Can change the size of the disk - increase or decrease, and also move content from one part of the hard disk to another. This is perhaps the most important function of this tool.
Copying the contents of the hard drive. Useful for backup archiving.
Can rename local disk.
Change drive letter.
Hide hard drive partition.
Checking the hard drive for errors and fixing them. Occurs by means

To make it clearer how to use this, I will show you an example. Let's say you need to change the disk size.

Select with your mouse the disk whose size you want to resize.

Click on the "Resize" option.

A window will appear with a scale on which you can change the disk size with the mouse or write the desired value in the appropriate field. Select the size you need and click "OK".

Please note that if you want to increase the size of the disk rather than decrease it, then on the right side of the scale there should be free space that is not occupied by another adjacent partition. If this space does not exist, then you first need to perform a procedure to reduce the size of the adjacent partition.

When all operations have been created, click the "Apply" button.

A window will appear where you need to click the “Go” button to continue. If you are working on a local drive where Windows is installed, a reboot may be required. All specified operations will be performed during system boot.

Hello.

Or reinstall Windows OS again (of course, with formatting and loss of all settings and information, but the method is simple and fast);

Or install a special program for working with a hard drive and perform a series of simple operations (with this option you do not lose information*, but it will take a longer time).

In this article, I would like to focus on the second option and show how to change the size of the system partition C of a hard drive without formatting and reinstalling Windows (by the way, Windows 7/8 has a built-in function for resizing the disk, and by the way, it’s not bad at all. True, There are not enough functions in it compared to third-party programs...).

1. What do you need for work?

In general, it is better and safer to carry out such an operation as changing partitions not from Windows, but by booting from a boot disk or flash drive. For this we need: the flash drive itself + a program for editing the HDD. More on this below...

1) Program for working with hard drive

In general, there are dozens (if not hundreds) of programs for working with hard drives on the Internet today. But some of the best, in my humble opinion, are:

Acronis Disk Director (link to official website)
Paragon Partition Manager (link to official website)
Paragon Hard Disk Manager (link to official website)
EaseUS Partition Master (link to official website)

In today's post I would like to focus on one of these programs - EaseUS Partition Master (one of the leaders in its segment).

EaseUS Partition Master

Its main advantages:

Supports all Windows OS (XP, Vista, 7, 8);

Supports most disk types (including disks larger than 2 TB, MBR, GPT support);

Russian language support;

Quickly create bootable flash drives ( what we need);

Fairly fast and reliable operation.

2) Flash drive or disk

Any flash drive will do, preferably at least 2-4 GB.

2. Creating a bootable USB flash drive + BIOS settings

1) Bootable USB flash drive in 3 steps

Attention! Copy all important data from the flash drive; it will be formatted during operation!

After 10-15 minutes. The program will write the flash drive, by the way, and a special window will notify you that everything was successful. After this, you can go to the BIOS settings.

2) Setting up the BIOS to boot from a flash drive (using the example of AWARD BIOS)

What to do?

When you turn on the computer, press the button Delete or F2 until a blue screen with various inscriptions appears (this is the BIOS). Actually, we only need to change 1-2 parameters here (depending on the BIOS version. Most versions are very similar to each other, so don’t be alarmed if you see slightly different inscriptions).

" (second on the list).

Our task: prioritize checks for boot records USB-HDD(this is what a bootable flash drive is called in BIOS). In my version of Bios, to do this, you just need to select from the list what to boot from first, then press Enter.

What should the download queue look like after the changes have been made?

After this, exit the BIOS and save the settings (Save & Exit setup tab). In many versions of Bios this feature is available, for example, by clicking F10.

After restarting the computer, if the settings were made correctly, it should start booting from our flash drive... For what to do next, see the next section of the article.

3. Resizing partition C of your hard drive

In my case it's:

Drive C: and F: (one real hard drive divided into two partitions);

Drive D: (external hard drive);

The task before us: change the size of the system drive C:, namely increase it (without formatting and loss of information). In this case, first select drive F: (the drive from which we want to take free space) and press the button " change/move section".

This is what we got. In my example, I freed up about 50 GB of space on the F: drive (we will then add them to the C: system drive).

Section settings:

Logical partition;

File system NTFS;

Drive letter: any, in this example L:;

Cluster size: default.

In the pop-up window, check the boxes which partitions will be merged (in our example, drive C: and drive L:).

The program will automatically check this operation for errors and the possibility of merging.

By the way, using this flash drive you can do a lot of things with the HDD:

Format various partitions (including 4 TB disks);

Conduct a breakdown of the unmarked area;

Search for deleted files;

Copy partitions (backup);

Migrate to SSD;

Defragment your hard drive, etc.

Whatever option you choose to resize hard drive partitions, remember, you should always make a backup copy of your data when working with the HDD! Always!

Even the safest of safe utilities, under certain circumstances, can cause mischief.

How to increase the size of the C drive with programs using the size of the D drive? How to resize or increase the capacity of the system disk (C:) Resizing the disk without losing data

1. What do you need for work?

2. Creating a bootable USB flash drive + BIOS settings

3. Resizing partition C of your hard drive

How to change disk size in windows 2000/XP/Vista/7/8. Free program EaseUS Partition Master Free

Where to download

How to install

How to work here

Review of free programs for working with hard drive partitions

1. Why do you need to partition your hard drive?

2. A little theory: file systems, partition types

3. Disk Management snap-in in windows

4. EaseUS Partition Master Home Edition

5. Paragon Partition Manager 11 Free

6. Changing partitions during installation of windows Vista, 7, 8

8. Tip #2: Installing two or more Windows operating systems on one hard drive

Increasing and decreasing disk size in Windows 10

Use the Disk Management utility

Partition D to create a new volume.

Changing hard drive partitions in Windows 7

Why is there not enough space on drive C?

3 ways to increase the capacity of drive C

Method 1. Free up space on drive C using a system utility

Method 2. Increase the capacity of the system disk using the Aomei Partition Assistant program

Step 2: Install Aomei Partition Assistant

Step 3. Launch Aomei Partition Assistant

Step 4. Increase the size of drive C at the expense of drive D

Method 3. Resizing the disk with MiniTool Partition Wizard Free

Video on the topic

How to change disk size

1. What do you need for work?

2. Creating a bootable USB flash drive + BIOS settings

3. Resizing partition C of your hard drive

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