How to Extend Partition in Windows 11 without Losing Data (Two Ways)?

How to extend partition in Windows 11?

I bought a new PC with Windows 11 system, but it only has a 1 TB hard drive. Now I think the C partition space is too small, I want to extend it a bit. I see some free space on the hard drive. So I want to know if there is any free way to extend the system partition?

Why do we need to extend the partition in Windows OS?

When the partition space is insufficient, it will cause a lot of trouble. For example, new programs cannot be saved, and there is a prompt of insufficient space every time when the PC is used. Especially when the C drive is almost full, the running speed of Windows 11 may slow down significantly. Even if you delete some infrequently used files, you cannot solve the problem from the source. Therefore, we need to extend the free space of the partition.

Extending a partition means reallocating the available space in the hard drive. That is to say, the available space on the hard disk is allocated to the partitions with insufficient space. Fortunately, this tutorial will use very detailed steps to show you how to extend the partition in Windows 11 for free.

Two freeways to extend partition in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7?

Two methods will be introduced in this part. One is to use Disk Management, and the other is to use third-party software. When you have trouble using the first one, you can switch to the second one to try.

Method 1. Extend partition through Disk Management

No need to download, just open Disk Management via Windows 11 desktop. Here are the specific steps:

Step #1 

Click the “Search” icon to select Disk Management.

Step #2 

You can see there is unallocated space behind the C drive. Then, right-click the partition you want to extend and choose “Extend Volume”.

Step #3 

You will open the Extend Volume Wizard, you can complete the operations following the instructions.

Please note:

Although Disk Management is a built-in tool of Windows, it has always had more or fewer flaws. If there is no unallocated space behind the partition that needs to be extended, then “Windows 11 Extend Volume grayed out” will happen. If you want to solve it, you can only delete the partition behind the C drive to generate unallocated space, and then extend it. But that will make you lose data!

Method 2. Extend partition without damaging data

After reading Method 1, you definitely want to find a way to extend the partition without losing data. To achieve this, you need the help of third-party software. I have used AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, I think it is very useful, now I recommend it to you.

This professional partition magic is designed to solve various disk partition problems. It is not only compatible with Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista/XP, but it is also very simple to use. Don’t worry about complicated terminology being incomprehensible, the GUI interface makes the user very clear.

Why do I recommend it so? Because it can extend or shrink the size of the partition without damaging the data. And the software is completely free, you don’t need to worry about it containing any computer-damaging viruses when you download it.

Step #1 

First of all, download the software and open it. You can see the current status of your disk and there are many functions you can use.

Step #2 

Right-click the C drive and select “Merge Partition”.

Step #3

You can check the unallocated space or empty partition in this step and add it to the partition that needs to be extended. Then, click OK.（Please note that the unallocated space at this time is not adjacent to the C drive).

Step #4 

After completing the previous step, you can find that the unallocated space behind Disk D has been successfully added to Disk C. Click Apply to submit the operation.

Tip: If there is no unallocated space on your hard disk, you can right-click to select a partition with more free space and select Resize Partition to generate an unallocated space.

Conclusion

This is the way to extend the partition in Windows 11. There are two methods for you to choose. If you have unallocated space on your hard disk and it is adjacent to the target partition, you can use Disk Management directly. But if your hard drive has no unallocated space or unallocated space is not adjacent, AOMEI Partition Assistant can help you.