Partition or Volume - Extend

How to Extend a Partition or Volume in Windows 7​

   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.
That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• Data Partition
• How to Delete a Partition or Volume in Windows 7
• How to Shrink a Partition or Volume in Windows 7
• How to Create a New Partition or Volume in Windows 7
• How to Create and Attach a Virtual Hard Disk in Windows 7
• How to Unattach and Delete a Virtual Hard Disk in Windows 7
• How to Setup Windows 7 to Boot from a VHD (Virtual Hard Disk)
• How to Fix Missing Vista Hard Disk Partition Letter in Windows 7
• How to Convert a FAT or FAT32 Volume to NTFS in Windows 7
• How to Convert a MBR Disk to a GPT Disk
• How to Convert a GPT Disk to a MBR Disk
• How to Convert a Basic Disk to a Dynamic Disk
• How to Convert a Dynamic Disk to a Basic Disk
• How to Clean or Clean All a Disk with the Diskpart Command
• How to Quick Format a HDD or USB Drive
• How to Mark a Partition as Active in Windows 7
• How to Mark a Partition as Inactive in Windows 7 and Vista

 

[aqibsunesara]

Hey brink

I want to extend my Drive E. which is a logical drive. Suppose I shrink 50gb from drive C.

Now as you mentioned I need to delete the partition. Would that create in data-loss ??

 

[Brink]

Hello Aqibsunesara, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Please go ahead and post a screenshot of your Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) window showing the full drive layout first to see what options you may have.

 

[aqibsunesara]

I couldn't get a screenshot but do we need to format the logical or primary drive to extend it's volume through an unallocated space?


Sent from my iPhone using SevenForums app

 

[whs]

I couldn't get a screenshot but do we need to format the logical or primary drive to extend it's volume through an unallocated space?


Sent from my iPhone using SevenForums app

Impossible to tell without a screenshot of Disk Management.

 

[cliffflip]

Hello, i'm still unable to extend my partition size.
the volume i want to extend is on the right of the unallocated space, so i tried the Diskpart on cmd (Option Two).
i have tried to use both step 7 and step 8 but Virtual Disk Service always gave these error messages.

"extend" : Virtual Disk Service error, the size of the extent is less than the minimum.
"extend size=5120" : Virtual Disk Service error, There is not enough usable space for this operation.

screenshot of my disk management :

 

[Brink]

Hello Cliff,

You will not be able to use Disk Management to extend D: into the unallocated space since the unallocated space is to the left instead of the right of the partition that you want to extend. Normally with Disk Management in this case, you would have to delete D: to have Disk 1 as all unallocated space, then create a new partition from that using all of the space.

However, you can use the free program Partition Wizard Home Edition to do this. In this program, right click on your D: drive, click on Move/Resize, add (up arrow) all the unallocated space to the "Partition Size", click on OK, and click on Apply (check mark) on the toolbar at the top left.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[cliffflip]

Hi Shawn,
i've successfully extend the partition by using Partition Wizard.
there's still 8MB of unallocated space after the operation though, is it normal?

thank you

 

[Brink]

Yes, that's normal in Partition Wizard. It's for system use. Does it still show the 8 MB unallocated space in Disk Management?

 

[cliffflip]

Yes it still showing on Disk Management, and it's on the left side of my D: partition/volume.

 

[Brink]

Cliff,

Could you post back with a screenshot showing the full HDD layout in Disk Management and Partition Wizard to help see what options you may have?

Are you able to use Partition Wizard with Move/Resize again to move the 8MB to D: ?

 

[cliffflip]

Here's the screenshot :

i've tried twice to resize it again. But the 8MB of unallocated space is still there even both process reported successfully resized it.
honestly, I don't mind if the 8MB space is unusable to me. Maybe it's for system use like you said before.

 

[Brink]

Yep, it looks like if you really want to get rid of the 8MB unallocated, you would need to run the Clean command on Disk 1 to make it all unallocated, then format the whole HDD (Disk 1) as D afterwards.

You would of course need to copy anything you do not want to lose on D to a separate HDD before doing the above so that you can copy it back afterwards.

 

[cliffflip]

I feel it's unnecessary to wipe all the data and copy it again just because of this small space, so I think it's better to leave it unallocated.
Thanks for your great help, Shawn!

 

[whs]

cliffflip, of I were you, I would not worry about the 8MB. That is such a small amount of disk space that it is not worth risking to lose the partition - and that has happened to me due to a small operational errot with partition wizard.

Fortunately I had images of everything on the disk so that I could easily recover. And imaging I always recommend before manipulating a partition.

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Cliff. I'm agree, it's not worth messing with now for such a small amount.

 

[sassofalco]

I want to add Unallocated Space to another Drive Volume

Hello Shawn,

I hope that you are well.

...a long time no contact, which I suppose is a good thing since I've come to grips with Windows 7 far, far easier than I managed with Vista - an OS in which in my opinion, users were treated as Guinea Pigs for Windows 7 development...

I do now need your advice - please refer to the following snip;



I wish to add the 40 GB of unallocated space to create 100 GB of volume on my archives - Tony's Records K: Drive.

Can you please advise or redirect me to the best way in which I can do this?

Cheers Mate,
Tony

 

[Brink]

Hello Tony,

Good to hear from you mate. You may be able to use the free program Partition Wizard Home Edition to do this. In this program, right click on your K: drive, click on Move/Resize, add (up arrow) all the unallocated space to the "Partition Size", click on OK, and click on Apply (check mark) on the toolbar at the top left.

 

[sassofalco]

I want to add Unallocated Space to another Drive Volume

Hello Tony,

Good to hear from you mate. You may be able to use the free program Partition Wizard Home Edition to do this. In this program, right click on your K: drive, click on Move/Resize, add (up arrow) all the unallocated space to the "Partition Size", click on OK, and click on Apply (check mark) on the toolbar at the top left.

Shawn Mate!

That worked as a gentle breeze, and as always, your advice was absolutely spot on.

In the finish it left 47.79 MB of unallocated space, but hey, I can live with that as the K: Drive now sits at 99.95 GB!

Thanks Mate, you're one in a million...
...all the best and cheers,
Tony

PS....pity there's no way to show that advice solved my problem

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Tony.

 

[Montenegro]

Will i lose data if i extend system partition ?