If you just upgraded your desktop or laptop to Windows 11, you may get a low disk space warning if you don’t have enough hard drive space to save new files and software. In this case, you may need to extend the partition to solve this problem.
Although the Windows system comes with the "Disk Management" tool, sometimes you may find that the "Extended Volume" becomes grayed out and cannot be used. But don’t worry, this article introduces you to the solution to this problem, please read on.
Why can't I expand the C drive in Windows 11?
When the system disk is full in Windows 11, you can migrate files or software to other locations to free up some space. In addition, you can also extend the free space on other partitions to the C drive, but what if the "Extend Volume" function in the "Disk Management" tool is grayed out and unavailable? Before solving the problem, let's understand why the "Extend Volume" function is grayed out:
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The partition to be extended is not an NTFS file system. Because the "Extend Volume" function requires your partition to be a RAW or NTFS file system, other file systems are not available.
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There is no unallocated space to the right of the partition to be extended.
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The partition is a dynamic disk.
From the above content, we know that the built-in disk management tool of Win11 system has some restrictions when expanding the volume, then we can delete the partition adjacent to the target partition and on the right side to create an unallocated space, so that it can be expanded C drive, but this needs to delete all data and files on adjacent partitions. What should I do if I don't want to delete the data?
How to solve the problem that the C drive cannot be expanded in Windows 11?
In order to avoid deleting data and quickly expand the space of C drive, it is recommended that you use AOMEI Partition Assistant Pro. It is a disk partition management software specially designed for Windows 11/10/8/8.1/7/XP users. Using this software, you can ignore many restrictions, there is no problem of adjacent right, no file system limitation, no trouble of data loss! Through a few simple steps, it can help you easily complete the task of lossless partition expansion!
Method 1. Merge non-adjacent unallocated space on the hard disk
If there is indeed unallocated space on your hard disk, and it is not adjacent to the specified partition, then we can use the function of merging partitions to directly merge it into the specified partition.
1. Open AOMEI Partition Assistant, right-click the C partition you want to expand in the main interface, and then select the "Merge Partition" option.
2. Select unallocated space on the same disk, and click OK.
3. Return to the main interface, click the "Submit" button in the upper left corner to preview the upcoming tasks, and click "Execute" after confirming that it is correct to merge non-adjacent unallocated spaces to the designated partition.
Method 2. Allocate unused free space in other partitions on the hard drive
If there is no unallocated space on the disk, follow these steps:
1. Open AOMEI Partition Assistant, right-click the partition with unused space on the same hard disk on the main interface, and select "Allocate Free Space".
2. In the pop-up window, select which partition you want to allocate the unused space in this partition to, and click "OK" after setting.
3. Return to the main interface, click the "Submit" button in the upper left corner to preview the upcoming task, and click "Execute" after confirming that it is correct to start allocating unused space in other partitions on the same hard disk to the specified partition.
Summarize
The above are all the solutions to the failure to expand the C drive in Windows 11. The above methods can help you solve the gray problem of "Extend Volume". In addition to the above functions, Partition Assistant can also help you resize partitions without loss, convert MBR and GPT disks, migrate the system to a new hard disk, create a bootable USB disk, etc.