How to Shrink D/E/F and Extend C Drive for Free
Summary
Large D drive but small c volume? This can be awkward when your DRIVE c is becoming smaller and smaller while THERE IS a still pretty large free space on D or E? This article is telling the solution to fix large d/e/f or any other big drive and expand c drive safely without reinstalling the Windows OS.
Updated Feb 23, 2024
Table of Contents
The following guide is based on a large D partition. It applies equally if you have large E/F/G drives on your disk that need space distribution to the C system partition.
How to Shrink D and Extend C Drive with Disk Management - free method without software
Disk Management is a Windows system built-in tools to resize the disk partitions. You can use Windows built-in tool Disk Management to resize partitions only when there is unallocated space adjacent to the NTFS C drive.
The “Extend Volume” option would grey out if the c partition has no unallocated space adjacent to the C drive. Or when the c drive is FAT32.
Here are the steps to shrink d partition and extend c drive with Disk Management:
Step1: Right-click the 'Start' icon, on the left bottom corner of your PC., choose “Disk Management” to go. (Admin privileges required)
Step2: Choose the d drive which is next to c drive, right click it to shrink volume, type a number in the box you want to shrink the size. (Note: it is more eaiser to extend c if you directly delete the drive next to it, however this shall be done on the condition that you have already move the data on the D to somewhere else.)
Shrink D drive
You may enter the volume size for D drive to get it shrinked.
Shrink D drive
Step3: After you shrink the D drive, there will be a unallocated space there, then you can extend the c drive.
If the unallocated space is not next to c drive, you may use freeware Partition Resizer Free to move the free space to the right side of C by moving the D drive.
Or you may delete the D volume and then it is 100% availability that you can extend c drive with the free space under disk management.
Extending the C volume is straightforward when there is free space available, especially if you have deleted the D/E/F/G volume, which then becomes unallocated space.
extend c by disk management
If extending c drive is not available under disk management, try the following freeware Partition Resizer Free to resize c drive for free.
Free to Shrink D/E/F/G Expand C Drive in Windows 11/10/8/7 with FREEWARE
Is there a safe way to shrink the D/E/F/G partition and add space to c drive in Windows 11/10/8/7? Sure, you can try a partition manage program. Here is a freeware for you which called IM-Magic Partition Resizer Free. It is a 100% safe and effective partition freeware, you can use it to resize your disk partitions, including shrink, extend, format, delete, wipe, etc. It has a way better resize ability than other freeware, it is definitely worth a try.
Free Partition Magic Download for Windows 10/11 (1208)
Free Download Disk Management Tool to Manage Disk Volumes without losing data as Partition Magic Windows 10 freeware.
IM-Magic Partition Resizer Free has a good compatibility, if you use Windows 11/10/8/7/XP/Vista, you are lucky since it is free.
Step1: Download IM-Magic Partition Resizer Free and install it on the computer. Run the program.
Step2: Right click the D drive, choose “Resize/move partition”, and move the cursor to shrink the partition.
Shrink D drive and extend C drive with IM-Magic Partition Resizer
Step3: After shrink the D drive, move the unallocated space to C drive side. Then you can resize your C drive space by moving the cursor.
Shrink D drive and extend C drive with IM-Magic Partition Resizer
Step4: Click APPLY CHANGES in the software and then after these simple steps, you can have your C drive extended.
Note: Data and the operating system remain untouched during the resizing and redistribution of disk spaces with Partition Resizer. What's more, it even offers protection against accidental power surges or other unexpected events during the resizing, unlike other tools. Plus, it's a free tool.
Shrink D Drive and Extend C in Server 2003/2008/2011/2012/2016/2019/2022
If you use Windows server system on your computer, the Resizer Free edition will not work on Windows Server OS. You can use IM-Magic Partition Resizer Server which is designed for Windows server edition, or you can use IM-Magic Partition Resizer Unlimited, which can be used for any Windows systems.
Shrink space from another disk
Shrinking space from another disk and extend the c drive shall be based on RAID array.
The large volume size shall be on the same disk with c drive if there is no RAID which means if you want to redistribute space from another disk, you need to build raid array. Raid is preferred by advanced users.
Or you may follow this video to see how to build a RAID Array on your PC.
Shink c drive without losing data? See this guide too: How to shrink c drive for free
Related Product
- IM-Magic Partition Resizer Server - Partition space redistributing software that works for Windows Server 2003-2022.