Windows 7: how to extend my C drive volume

hi peeps, how can I extend my C drive volume? i tried using disk management, but the "Extend volume" option for C drives fade off, but not other drives. any idea how to extend the drive?

I would try Partition Wizard free version. It's more versatile than disk management. From the screen shot it looks like C: is right up against D:. With disk management to expand a partition you need free space immediately to the "right" in the diagram. It's probably easier and safer to use Partition Wizard to move the other partitions and give the new free space to C:. The main consideration may be if D: is installed games you may want to check with the publishers to make sure moving the partition a bit doesn't mess up any registration/copy protection/licensing schemes the games use.

http://www.partitionwizard.com/parti...otable-cd.html

GParted (GNU Partition Editor). Awesome, free, open source. Google it.

There's a bunch of free partition manager software listing on
thefreecountry.com: Free Programmers' Resources, Free Webmasters' Resources, Free Security Resources

For those who liked Partition Magic, Partition Wizard is probably the closest look and feel. But there are a lot of good Linux based utilities for disk management and booting.

Also for neat booting tricks such as putting a Windows boot menu on a USB key see what used to be called BootLand:

http://reboot.pro/index.php?

Can you post the full diskmanagement screen shot.
It looks like you may have converted your disk to dynamic (from basic). This is generally not good.
You can only have a maximum of 4 primary partitions. If you try to extend further, disk management will warn you and convert your disk to dynamic.
To have more than 4 partitions one must be an extended partition containing as many logical partitions as you have letters.

Did you accept a message to convert to Dynamic Disk when you were creating a fifth partition?

You'll need to convert the Disk back to Basic using free Partition Wizard version 4.2 which still has that option available in the free edition: partition wizard 4.2 free.zip - Windows Live Install and try it now from the Disk tab after backing up your files.

It's likely PW will not want to convert to Basic since you would then have five Primary Partitions. In this case, convert the first partition to Logical using rightclick>Modify>Convert to Logical, click OK, Apply. Then try Disk tab>Convert Disk to Basic.

Once this is done, rightclick H, choose Resize, left click and hold, drag partition all the way to the right, OK.

Next rightclick D and repeat to open up free space next to C.

Finally, rightclick C choose Resize, drag right grey border to the right to take up as much space as you need, OK, Apply.

If you want to add any new partitions, convert D and H to Logical so that you can add as many Logical sub-partitions as desired. You can then convert the first partition back to Primary.

The OP should provide the info on the state of the partitions before we go off using assumptions is my thinking.

Also he has a working system now so why would he have to create another partition? Seems like he could just move the rightmost partition H: over in the free space, then move the next D: the result being the free space would be next to C:. Once it's contiguous and to the right, even Windows Disk Management can handle it. I never make an extended unless it's from the rightmost primary partition for maximum compatibility. Other OS sometimes assume older PC partition setups and expect the extended partition to be the last or rightmost partition. Just seems the more things change the more they remain the same.

The pea green means the Disk has been converted to Dynamic.
Basic and Dynamic Disks

I think the work suggested by gregrocker is what I would have proposed as well. In my earlier post I wanted to see why the small partition at the front suggested it was a primary. Normally the whole disk is dynamic. That's why I asked for the full disk management earlier.

Michael, the OEM will frequently protect their Recovery and (less frequently) Utility partitions from conversion, which is likely why OEM utility partition remains Basic.