Quick Links:
1. Why do we need to extend system partition?
2. Expand system partition by using Extend Partition WizardWindows partition manager.(NEW)
3. Extend/Shrink (Resize) Partition in Aomei Partition Assistant Main Window
4. Extend Partition by using Windows disk management.
    - Launch windows disk management to extend C: drive.
    - Extend Volume greyed out in disk management, what can we do?
    - Generate a contiguous unallocated disk space to extend system partition.
    - Extending system boot partition.
    - Extending partition volume by using the command line.
    - Expanding system partition from my experience.

Why do we need to extend system partition?

As applications continue to be installed into the Windows system, one day, suddenly you will find that the system partition do not have enough free disk space, and when every time the system starts, Windows always prompts the following information:

You are running out of disk space on SYSTEM (C:), To free space on this drive by deleting old or unnecessary files, click here…

In this case, we have to delete the unwanted file to get more free space in order to ensure Windows normal operation. However, deleting files is not the best way, if my system disk has a total of 250GB, the system boot partition C: is only 20GB, and 230GB was divided to data partition D:. It is clear that D: space is large enough, and now the best approach is to distribute 60GB (even more)from the D: to C: to extend system partition. You can permanently solve the problem by using the Extend Partition Wizard of Aomei Partition Assistant, the helpful Windows partiiton manager. Here is the layout of my system disk before extend system volume as shown below:

Expand system partition by using Extend Partition Wizard of Aomei Partition Assistant.

Aomei Partition Assistant Pro Edition is specially designed for extending system boot partition and other partitions on a disk for Windows 7/XP/Vista 32 & 64 bit. It can fully utilize the free/unallocated space on the disk to meet your needs. The program will automatically shrink large partitions to release more space and then increase the size for your appointed partition. It's easy and safe without losing data, without reformatting partition. Besides, this Windows partition manager also could assist you to realize more advanced partition operations.

Step 1: Download Aomei Partition Assistant and run it as administrator privilege, you will see the following Main Window, click the "Wizard" option on menu bar and select "Extend Partition Wizard". (Or directly click the option in the blue region)

Step 2: Get the following "Extend Partition Wizard" dialog. Please select the partition that you wish to extend (eg. "Extend system partition") shown below:

Step 3: Click "Next" button, skip a welcome screen, and select partitions which will need to be shrunk to take the free space from them. The screenshot is as follows.

Step 4: Specify a new size of the C: partition that you are extending by moving slider or by entering proper value into "Partition New Size" box, and you could preview the changes in time.

Step 5: Preview and confirm these operations by clicking "Proceed" and then choose "Yes" to start.

Step 6: Show the operation is being processed. You will receive a report when completing. Then view C: drive in Explorer, you found it has been extended.

Then, extending system partition is complete successfully!

As a top Windows partition manager, Aomei Partition Assistant is more flexible for you to choose which partition for resizing, just operate these functions such as extend, shrink, move, delete, copy partition, etc in griphic interface. Right click the target partition, you will see the functions listed: Resize, Move, Delete, Label, Format, in the "Advanced" menu option, you can Change letter, Hide/Unhide Partition, Set Active Partition, Convert File System, Check errors, Wipe data. Please see below:.

Free Download Aomei Partition Manager to try
Buy Aomei Partition Assistant Professional Edition (Only US$ 36.00)

Tips: For Windows 7/Vista/XP/2000 32-bit computers, Aomei Partition Assistant Home Edition is an ALL-IN-ONE free partition manager software and reliable disk management utility. Download partition magic free

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Other Ways to Extend/Shrink (Resize) Partition in Aomei Partition Assistant Main Window

Case Study - Extend Partition: When you need to increase system partition and there is a partition next to it, please do as the following steps: (Note: Suppose you need to extend drive C: and drive D: is next to C: drive)

1. Launch Aomei Partition Assistant and the following main window will be presented in front of you.

2. Select D: to be shrunk. Right-click D: and choose the "Resize" menu option.


3. You can shrink the D: partition in a popped-up dialog box. Position the mouse pointer on the left circle. Drag the circle to right in order to shrink D: partition size when the mouse pointer changes to a double-headed arrow.


4. Click "OK" to return to Aomei Partition Assistant Main Window. Then there is an unallocated space on the left side of C: partition.


5. In the Main Window, click the C: partition, and position the mouse pointer on the right circle of C: partition. Drag the circle to right to increase the size of C: dirve when the pointer changes to a double-headed arrow.


6. This two operations will be added to "Pending Operations", you need to click the "Apply" on toolbar to execute the tasks. (Please refer to the following screenshot marked by the blue region.)


7. After click "Apply", this will pop up the following dialog box. You can click "Proceed" button to confirm these operations. (Note: If some applications are running on the partitions operated, when click "Proceed", Aomei Partition Assistant will prompt you that the computer needs to be restarted to realize these operations.)


8. After click "Procced", all operations will be processed immediately. Below is a progress bar. You will receive a finish message when the tasks are completed.


Free Download Windows partition manager to try.
Buy Aomei Partition Assistant Professional Edition (Only US$ 36.00)

Tips: For Windows 7/Vista/XP/2000 32-bit computers, Aomei Partition Assistant Home Edition is an ALL-IN-ONE free partition manager software and reliable disk management utility. Download partition magic free

Extend Partition by using Windows built-in Disk Management Snap-in.

To expand/extend system boot partition and increase its free space in Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows 2003 is very difficult in the past time, because their built-in Disk Management did not provide the functions of extending partition or shrinking partition, this would have to use third-party tools such as Partition Magic, Disk Director, and other partition management software to accomplish.

However, in Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7 times, Expanding Volume is no longer a difficult task, because their Disk Management have been built in the functions such as expanding volume and shrinking volume, and also include extending system partition, which is easy to use without relying on 3rd party partition utilities. It's able to extend primary partition and logical partition

1. Launch windows disk management to extend C: drive

Click Start Menu -> Control Panel -> System and Maintenance -> Administrative Tools -> Double Click Computer Management -> Storage -> Disk Management. Or directly type "diskmgmt.msc" to Start Menu -> Run. It showed below.

2. Extend Volume greyed out in disk management, what can we do?

Then right-click the system boot volume (C:) you want to expand, but you will find "Extend Volume ..." is a grayed out and unusable state, how is this going on, can not be extended? The screenshot is as follows:

In fact, it is not impossible to extend system partition (C:), but to activate "Extend Volume" option have an rule. Rule is: Disk Management tool is only able to extend the volume with focus into "next contiguous unallocated space", in other words, there must be unallocated disk space after the partition that you want to extend. As there is no "contiguous unallocated space" after the (C:) partition drive, so "Extend Volume" option is grayed out.

3. Generate a contiguous unallocated disk space to extend system partition

How to generate a next contiguous unallocated space here? The method is to shrink D: drive at first, then in the extra unallocated space to create a new partition. Here copy all data of D: drive to the newly created partition and delete D: drive, so that the system partition can be enlarged to the "contiguous unallocated space", follow these steps:

• Shrink volume DATA (D:) from 230GB to 120GB as follows:
  
  
  
• After clicking "Shrink Volume…" option, the following screenshot is opened:
  
  
  
• Click the Shrink button to confirm, then the disk will generate an unallocated space of 110GB as follows:
  
  
  
• Now you can create a new partition in the unallocated of 110GB, then copy the files of (D:) to the (E:) partition, the following is newly partition (E:)
  
  
  And then, delete (D:) to release 120GB of unallocated space to extend system boot partition (C:).

Note: Please try Windows Partition manager, Aomei Partition Assistant Professioanl Edition to directly extend your system partition if congiguous unallocated space can not be generated.

4. Extending system boot partition

After deleting (D:) partition, it is recommended to change drive letter from E: to D:, thus maintaining the drive letter is the same as before. Now you can extend system partition from 20GB to140GB. In following screenshot, Windows Disk Management is certainly able to extend or resize system partition by using the contiguous unallocated disk space:

After clicking "Extend Volume" option, it will pop out "Extend Volume Wizard" to help you finish the operation, the following screenshot is the new condition after expanding system partition:

Now you will see the changes, the system boot partition (C: drive) has expanded from 20GB to 140GB.

5. Extending partition volume by using the command line

Extending a partition or volume can be done via DiskPart.exe, or command line interface. This work can be done in both Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7. Start with the following steps:

• Click Start and type CMD, then press Enter.
  
  
• In the command prompt type
  DISKPART.exe
  
  
• Select the right hard disk and partition to work on. Typically this should be disk 0 and partition 1.
  SELECT disk 0
  SELECT partition 1
  
  Note: You may want to execute a "LIST" command to view your existing disks and partitions before attempting to expand volume. Needless to say, if you don't have any space you can use on the same disk, you will not be able to extend the partition any further. So no real harm can be done here.
  LIST disk
  LIST partition
  
  
• When the right disk and partition were selected, execute the "EXTEND" command. If you don't specify the size to extend by, then the command will extend the partition by using all of the contiguous space available on that disk.
  EXTEND
  The above command will enlarge the partition by using all of the contiguous space available on that disk.
  
  
  EXTEND size=2048
  The above command will enlarge the partition by 2048MB (increase 2GB free space to the partition that you were selected).

6. Expanding system partition from my experience

1). There must be some contiguous unallocated disk space after the partition that you want to extend by using Windows built-in Disk Manangement. If there is no contiguous unallocated space you can directly use the outstandingWindows partition manager to realize the expansion.

2). When no contiguous unallocated space, there are two ways of releasing a contiguous space to extend system boot partition.

• A. The easier way: Copy all data and files in D: drive to an USB hard disk (or other external disks), right-click D: drive and click "Delete Volume…" to generate a contiguous unallocated space.
  
  
• B. Troublesome way: Shrink the D: drive partition to create new partition (e.g. E: drive), move D: drive data and files to E: drive, and apply "Delete Volume…" in D: drive.

3). Windows Disk Management can not move partitions from one location to another location, which is one of its disadvantages.

4). Windows 2000/XP/2003 Disk Management does not support for extending partition and shrinking partition, only the Vista/2008 and Win7 are able to extend volume and shrink volume in the basic disk.

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