How to expand the C drive on Windows 7 and Windows 8

Sooner or later, any computer user faces such a problem as a lack of free space on the system partition of the hard drive. Here and the question arises: "How to expand the C drive?". In principle, its overflow occurs for a variety of reasons. Each person has different ways. Either too many programs are installed, in particular games. It is on the system partition. Someone permanently deletes files and at the same time forgets to clean the trash. Someone initially was mistaken and at installation of an operating system set the size of the system partition too small. More advanced users try to expand the space on the C drive by removing unnecessary programs and temporary files. But sooner or later even such actions cease to bring the desired result, and we begin to look for a way how to expand the hard drive. It becomes clear that the size of the system partition should be increased. Next, we will consider in detail how to expand the C drive and not harm the information stored on it.

Ways

We will try to do this in two ways. First, by the operating system itself. In Windows 7, to expand the C drive is quite simple. All this is done relatively quickly. The main thing is to keep the information you need on some other medium. This is done in the event of some kind of malfunction or force majeure, when it is impossible to expand the C drive.

Windows 8 provides the same tools to increase the space. Therefore, this method is also applicable to this operating system. The second way will be with the help of third-party software. This is an easy and free utility that will help you quickly solve this problem. Now let's talk about everything in more detail.

Operating System Tools

First we need to go to the tab "Computer Management". To do this, right-click on the "My Computer" icon and go to the "Management" tab. In the left menu, we need to select "Disk Management". When this tab is opened, you will see all the media in the window that are currently connected to the computer. Each hard disk can be divided into several logical ones. The very first will be "Disk 0". On the right, the space reserved by the system and the logical partitions (C, D, E, F, etc.) will be displayed. If you only have one C drive and it's full, then you will not be able to expand the space. In this case, you must install one more physical disk. If you have several logical partitions, then we go further.

Principle of division of a disk

The principle of action is this: we must expand the C drive at the expense of the adjacent logical partition. It can be a disk D, E and so on. In the same way, you can increase not only section C, but also others, if you have such a need.
So, delete the adjacent disk, for example, D. Click on it with the right mouse button and select the option "Delete volume". Click OK. Immediately thereafter, this volume should be displayed in black. The inscription "Tom is not distributed" should appear on it. Now you can add the space we need to the C drive. To do this, right-click on the C partition and select "Expand volume". Click "Next" and select the size you want to add.

You can use the maximum size, as suggested by default, or choose at your discretion. Click "Next" and then "Finish". If no additional windows popped up, the operation was successful. You learned how to extend the C drive with Windows 7 tools. The main thing to remember is that the system partition can be increased only if there is free space to the right of it. Otherwise, nothing happens.

Possible difficulties

What other difficulties can there be? Suppose we have five volumes. We want to configure them so that part of the space is added to the C drive and the other one to the D drive. If one of the partitions is deleted, the "Delete volume" function may not be active, and the "Expand volume" function is not available on volume C.

The thing is that the style of the MBR section can be used. This is an obsolete style. In this case, two adjacent volumes can be linked by a green border. This means that you can not create more than four volumes with the MBR partition style. Now you've learned how to extend the D drive or split it into several parts. Now let's talk about additional features.

Additional programs

There is a program like Paragon. On the official site you can download a utility called Partition Manager. Download and install it on your computer. You can download to the USB flash drive. The program is free, but to get the activation key, you must register. You can do it directly from the installer by clicking on the link.

Beginning of work

Opening the program, we get to the menu, where you can select five operations. We need a second Resize Partition. This means changing the size of the partition. Click the Next button and go to the control window. It displays a similar picture, which we saw in the disk management section of Windows 7. Expand the C disk here on the same principle.

You will see a scale on which you will see all your physical media and logical partitions on them. Also from left to right. First the space reserved by the system, then the C drive and the following volumes, if any. Also, the style of the partition and the media number will be indicated at the top. In this program it is still easier than in the operating system. We need to click on the sections that interest us. They will be highlighted with a red border, and then open in a separate window. Here we do not need to delete the volumes, and then something to create anew. Everything is done much faster.

Below there is a special slider. We can move it to the right or left. We just need to move the slider to the desired position in order to increase the size on one partition, and reduce it on the other. Also we can visually observe the increase in the system partition. Next to the slider there are numbers with which we can navigate, as far as we increase the volume. If desired, they can be entered manually for each section. To enter the disk size in the third way, you must move the mouse cursor to the volume boundary and press the left button. There will be arrows in the window. Now, moving left or right, you can move the boundaries of division of sections, increasing or decreasing the size of the desired volume. Everything is very simple.

Next, press the Next button. Here we are warned that it is necessary to apply the changes. We select the top item "Yes, apply the changes". Also, we are informed that the computer will be rebooted, and the process of allocating disk space may take a long time. It depends on the fragmentation of your disk and on its filling with various garbage. Next, click Next, then click "Restart the computer".

Restart the computer

Make sure that all other programs are closed and all documents are saved. After the reboot, you will see the program window. No need to take any action. Everything will happen automatically. During this process, do not restart the computer and do not turn it off. This can result in the loss of all data on the hard drives. At the end of this process, another computer reboot will occur. Now you need to go into the hard drive explorer and check if any changes have occurred. So, you learned how to extend the C drive on your computer using special utilities.

conclusions

In conclusion, it is necessary to pay attention to several important aspects. The most important thing that you have to do before any operations with hard disks is to save the information from them. It is advisable to do this on another medium that you will not crash. Also, you can save it in the cloud storage.

Another important aspect is never to interrupt the operation of the computer at the time of the partitioning operation. This is guaranteed to lead to data loss, and the system may crash. You will need to format the disk and reinstall the system. Of course, there are programs for recovering lost data, but this is another story altogether.