Windows 7: Partition or Volume - Extend

   Information

This will show you how to extend a hard disk partition or volume into a empty unallocated space on the same hard disk to make it larger using Disk Management or Diskpart in Windows 7.

   Warning

You must be logged on in an administrator account to do this tutorial.

If you disable the Disk Defragmenter service, then you will get the error below when you try to do anything in Disk Management. If you get this error, then make sure that the Disk Defragmenter service is set to only Manual.

OPTION ONE

Using Disk Management

1. If you have not already, you will first need to delete the partition or volume that you want to extend into to make it unallocated space.

2. Open the Control Panel (icons view), and click on the Administrative Tools icon. then close the Control Panel window.

3. Click on Computer Management in Administrative Tools, then close the Administrative Tools window.

4. In the left pane under Storage, click on Disk Management. (See screenshot below)

5. In the middle pane, right click on the partition or volume directly adjacent (left) of the unallocated space that you want to extend into, and click on Extend Volume. (See screenshot above)

6. Click on the Next button. (See screenshot below)

7. Type in how many MB (1 GB = 1024 MB) you want to use from the unallocated space to extend the selected partition (step 5) into, then click on the Next button. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: If you want to use all of the unallocated space to extend into, then type in the maximum available space shown for the unallocated space.

8. Click on the Finish button. (See screenshot below)

9. The partition or volume has now been extended into the assigned unallocted space (step 7). (See screenshot below)

10. Close the Computer Management window. (See screenshot above)

OPTION TWO

Using Diskpart in a Elevated Command Prompt

1. If you have not already, you will first need to delete the partition or volume that you want to extend into to make it unallocated space.

2. Open a elevated command prompt, or a command prompt at boot.

3. In the elevated command prompt, type diskpart and press Enter. (See screenshot below)

4. In the elevated command prompt, type list disk and press Enter. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: This is to help you ID the disk that has Free space that you want to extend into, and to see the disk size to make it easier to ID it's volume number in step 5. For example, Disk 1.

5. In the elevated command prompt, type list volume and press Enter. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: Look for the volume number that has the same Size as from the size in step 4 minus the Free space. For example, Volume 2.

6. In the elevated command prompt, type select volume # and press Enter. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: You would substitute # for the volume number listed that you want to extend. For example, I want to extend the listed volume 2 since, so I would type select volume 2 and press Enter.

7. To Extend into All of the Unallocated Space

A) In the elevated command prompt, type extend and press Enter. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: The unallocated space will be removed and added completely to the selected partiton or volume (step 6).

B) Go to step 9.

8. To Extend into the Unallocated Space by a Specified Size

A) In the elevated command prompt, type extend size=(# in MB) and press Enter.
NOTE: You would substitute (# in MB) for how many MB (1 GB = 1024 MB) you want to use of the unallocated space (free space shown in step 4) to be extended into. For example, if I only wanted to extend into 5 GB of the unallocated space, then I would type extend size=5120 and press Enter.

9. In the elevated command prompt, type exit and press Enter. (See screenshot below)

10. Close the elevated command prompt.

11. The selected partition or volume (step 6) has now been extended into the unallocated space to make it larger.
NOTE: If you did step 8 instead of 7, then you can use the rest of the unallocated space to create a new partition with if you like.