How to Extend System Partition in Windows 11/10 🎯

Brithny updated on Apr 18, 2024 to Partition Master | How-to Articles

How to extend the system partition in Windows 11/10? Professional partition manager - EaseUS Partition Master, Disk Management with DiskPart will help you resize, shrink, and extend partitions in Windows 11/10 efficiently.

By extending your system volume or C: partition, you can make full use of free or unallocated space that is not being used by other partitions. And the significant benefit of extending C drive is that your computer will gain better, optimized performance with faster speed. 

Can I extend system partition in Windows 11/10? Yes, sure. This page provided four methods to help you address the c drive is full issue on your Windows 11/10/8/7/XP PCs. Check the provided solutions here and follow the respective guide for extending system C drive on your own.

3 Ways to Extend System Partition in Windows 10 With/Without Unallocated Space

Before you start, it's vital that you go to the Disk Management to figure out the if there is unallocated space behind your target C drive or not. Then, you can follow and try the provided methods here for help:

  1. #1. EaseUS Partition Master - works with or without unallocated space ⌛
  2. #2. Disk Management - requires adjacent unallocated space
  3. #3. DiskPart - requires adjacent unallocated space

Powerful partition manager software - EaseUS Partition Master Professional, with Windows Disk Management and DiskPart, will increase your system volume in 4 ways. Check and follow the easiest way to extend your system partition with ease.

Windows 11 users could refer to this page for more efficient methods to effectively extend C drive in Windows 11

Tip
1. When there is unallocated space next to your system C drive, you may apply reliable partition manager software - EaseUS Partition Master, Disk Management or Diskpart to extend Windows 11/10 system volume.
2. When your disk doesn't have unallocated space on your drive, take EaseUS Partition Master for help.

#1. Using EaseUS Partition Master

Don't worry when the unallocated space is not behind your C drive, or your disk doesn't even have unallocated space. EaseUS Partition Master is a comprehensive hard disk partition management software that supports extending system partitions on Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista/XP 32-bit and 64-bit Operating Systems. Your data is completely protected during the whole process. 

You may follow the respective guide here to extend your system drive in Windows 10 successfully and efficiently.

Tutorial 1. Extend Windows10 System Partition with Unallocated Space

If your disk has unallocated space, follow the guidelines here and jump to Step 2 here to directly extend the C drive:

Step 1: Free up unallocated space for C drive.

If there is no unallocated space on the system disk, go to Partition Manager and right-click on a partition next to the C: drive and select "Resize/Move".
Drag left panel of the partition to shrink and leave unallocated space behind the system C: drive and click "OK".

Step 2: Increase C drive space.

1. Right-click on C: drive and select "Resize/Move".

2. Drag the system partition end into unallocated space so to add space to C: drive and click "OK".

Step 3: Keep all changes to extend C: drive.

Click the "Execute Task" and click "Apply" to keep all changes so to extend the system C: drive.

If this method works, share this tutorial to help more of your friends online:

 

If your C drive has a low disk space error, follow Tutorial 2.

Tutorial 2. 1-Click to Extend System C Drive with Low Disk Error

If your C drive is out of space and the computer warns you of a low disk space error. Follow the steps here to extend C drive with ease:

Step 1. Click "Adjust with 1-Click" to extend C drive.

When your C drive is out of space, hover your mouse over the C drive, you will see the Low Disk Space alert on EaseUS Partition Master. Click "Adjust with 1-Click" to extend it.

Step 2. Click "OK" to extend C drive automatically.

By clicking "OK", EaseUS Partition Master will automatically allocate space to your C drive to solve the low space issue.

Extra Option: You can also click "Manual Adjustment" to extend the C drive manually.

When turning to Manual Adjustment, select the C drive, and drag dots rightward to add more space to C drive. Click "OK" to confirm.

Step 3. Confirm to resolve low disk space in C drive

Click the "Execute Task" button at the top corner and start all pending operations by clicking "Apply".

Tutorial 3. Extend Windows 11/10 System Drive without Unallocated Space

When there is no unallocated space on your system disk, what will you do? If you have free and unused space in other partitions on your system disk, you may apply EaseUS Partition Master with its Allocate Space feature to extend your system drive directly.

The Allocate Space feature enables you to allocate free space from other large volumes and add to C drive without hurting your data. We'll take allocating D drive space to C drive as an example to show you the procedure. Here is how to do so:

Step 1. Right-click on the D: partition with enough free space and select "Allocate Space".

Step 2. Select the target partition - C: drive and drag the partition panel rightward to add the free space from D: drive to C: drive. Then click "OK" to confirm.

Step 3. Click the "Execute Task" button and click "Apply" to start the process of moving free space from D: drive to C: drive.

If your friends are with the same issue here, share this guide to help them immediately:

 

#2. Using Disk Management

Disk Management is the other tool that you can apply to extend the system drive with free unallocated space behind the C drive. 

Warning
Using Disk Management to extend Windows 11/10 system partition, there must be contiguous space behind Windows 11/10 system partition. Otherwise, you cannot extend the system partition.
In this situation, you need third-party partition manager software like EaseUS Partition Master for help.

Let's see how to extend your Windows 11/10 system partition in Disk Management:

Step 1. Open Disk Management by right-clicking the Windows icon and selecting "Disk Management".

Step 2. Right-click on the system partition that you want to extend, and select "Extend Volume" from the menu.

Step 3. Click "Next" and specify the size of the unallocated space that you want to add to the C drive, click "Next" to continue.

Click "Finish" to complete.

#3. Using DiskPart

Apart from Disk Management, another Windows built-in tool, DiskPart, also provides a powerful partition management feature to help you extend the system C drive in Windows 11/10.

Note that DiskPart only works when the unallocated space is behind the system C drive on your PC. Here are the detailed steps:

Step 1. Right-click on the Windows icon and select "Search", type: cmd and hit Enter.

Step 2. Type: diskpart and hit Enter. Click "Yes" to open DiskPart.

Step 3. Type the following command and hit Enter each time:

  • list volume
  • select volume 1 (Replace 1 with the volume number of your system C drive.)
  • extend

or the following command:

  • list disk
  • select disk N (Replace N with the disk number of your system disk.)
  • list partition
  • select partition 2 (Replace 2 with the number of your system partition.)
  • extend size=X disk=N (Replace X with the specific size of the unallocated space and X is MB unit. Replace N with the disk number of your system disk.)

Step 4. Type: exit to close the DiskPart window when you finish extending the C drive.

Are these solutions to extend system partition helpful to you? If yes, you can share them with your friends who are facing the same problem!

 

Conclusion

This page includes three partition management tools - EaseUS Partition Master, Disk Management, and DiskPart, to help you effectively extend C drive on Windows 11/10, 8, or even older systems with or without unallocated space. 

For the easiest and beginner's choice, EaseUS Partition Master is the one you shouldn't miss. 

If you have more questions about extending the partition, you may check the top concerned FAQs below to find direct answers:

1. Can I extend my C drive partition in Windows 11/10?

The answer to "Can I extend my C drive partition in Windows 11/10?"  is yes. EaseUS Partition Master, with Windows Disk Management and DiskPart, will increase your system volume in 4 ways. Check the detailed steps on this page to extend your system partition with ease.

2. How do I extend my Windows partition?

  • Open Disk Management and right-click a partition next to your target drive, select Shrink Volume.
  • Then, adjust the size you would like to shrink and add to the target partition, click Next, and Finish.
  • Then, right-click on the target drive and select Extend Volume.
  • Select to add all the unallocated space, and click Next to confirm.
  • Click Next and Finish to complete the process.

3. Why is Extend Volume disabled in Windows 11/10?

Three reasons may cause the Extend Volume option greyed out:

  1. 1. There is no unallocated space on your hard drive.
  2. 2. The target partition is FAT or other file systems, not NTFS. Only NTFS is a configured file system supported on Windows partitions.
  3. 3. There is no contiguous unallocated space next to or behind the target partition.

To resolve this issue, you will need to free up unallocated space and leave it next to your target partition. And convert the FAT partition to NTFS.

For more concerned questions, you may use the search option on the top right corner of EaseUS software home page to search and find solutions.