While it is useful to have different partitions on your hard drive for different uses, sometimes you may need to merge them into a single contiguous volume. Whatever your reason, you are here because you want to combine multiple partitions on your computer into a single volume, preferably without any data loss. So today we will show you how to merge (merge) multiple hard disk partitions into a single volume on Windows 10 computers using a built-in Windows tool called ‘Disk Management’, a third-party application called AOMEI Partition Assistant. command line tool ‘DiskPart’ (command prompt or cmd).
Defragmenting Multiple Hard Disk Partitions in Windows 10
Windows 10 offers a built-in partition management utility called Disk Management It can be used to merge or merge multiple partitions. However, you can also use third-party tools and even use the command prompt (cmd) to defragment partitions in Windows 10. Each method has different pros and cons, and here we will tell you exactly which method is suitable for what. aim. Without further delay, let’s see various methods by which you can merge (merge) multiple partitions into one contiguous volume and extend an existing partition in Windows 10.
Things to Remember Before Merging Partitions in Windows
You can easily partition your HDD or SSD using a built-in Windows tool called Disk Management. It can perform basic tasks such as erasing, formatting, and creating new volumes, all of which are required to handle a computer’s storage structure. However, there is no real ‘Defragmentation’ functionality in Disk Management. Instead, the size of a partition (volume) can be increased by adding unallocated contiguous space to the right. Another major disadvantage of the Disk Management tool is that you have to delete all the data in the plugin area before you can merge it with other partitions.
Besides Disk Management, we will also use a third-party disk management tool to defrag or merge two partitions. Most of these apps let you add non-contiguous unallocated space to create a large, contiguous volume without losing data. For the most part, they have better user interfaces and are easier to use for general users. Many partition management software are available for Windows, including EaseUS Partition Master, MiniTool Partition Wizard, Paragon Partition Manager, AOMEI Partition Assistant, and more. Almost all of them support the ‘Merge’ function. Finally, we will also learn how to use the command line tool DiskPart to merge partitions on a Windows computer.
That said, let’s check out how you can combine multiple partitions into one in Windows 10:
Method 1: Using Disk Management (Data Loss)
Create a complete backup of Windows 10 before continuing with this method as this method will cause you to lose data.
- Go to Control Panel and search for ‘Disk Management’. Click on ‘Create and Format Hard Disk Partitions’ from the results.
Note: You can also open Disk Management from Run > diskmgmt.msc..
- Find the two partitions you want to merge and then delete the right one. For example, to defrag/defrag the D: and E: drive on my computer, I will first need to delete the E: drive. For this, right-click on the E: partition and select ‘Delete Volume’.
- You will get a warning saying that all data will be lost. Click ‘Yes’ to continue.
- Now right click on the D volume and click on ‘Extend Volume’.
- You will now see the ‘Expand Volume Wizard’ which will allow you to choose how much you want to expand the disk. Click ‘Next’ to start the process.
- Accept the default options and click ‘next’ without changing any values.
- Finally, click ‘Finish’ to completely merge the two partitions.
- As you can see, I have successfully merged (merged) the D: and E: partitions on my Windows 10 computer.
Method 2: Using Third Party App (No Data Loss)
Note: We’re using AOMEI Partition Assistant for this demo, but most of the other programs on our list support the ‘defrag’ functionality, including the ones mentioned above..
- First, download and install AOMEI Partition Assistant (Free). Now open it and right click on the partition you want to increase the size of. Select ‘Merge partitions’ from the drop-down menu.
- Now select the partition you want to add to the main partition [1] and select the volume label [2]. Finally, click ‘OK’.
- Now you have successfully merged two partitions in Windows 10 without losing data.
Method 3: Using DiskPart (Data Loss)
You can also use the command line (cmd) tool DiskPart to merge two partitions in Windows 10. You can do this like this:
- Type ‘diskpart.exe’ (without the quotes) in the Windows Search Bar and hit Enter.
- Type ‘list volume’ in the command line window that opens and press Enter.
- Now select ‘unit’
Type ‘ (without the quotes) and press Enter. For example, if the partition you want to merge is E:, ‘select volume e’.
- Type ‘delete volume’ to make this volume ready for defragmentation.
- Now select the partition you want to expand. For that, ‘select unit’ to shift focus to that unit
‘ in summer. In this case, I will type ‘select d’ and press Enter.
- Finally, type ‘expand’ to expand this section. You should get the message ‘DiskPart successfully expanded the volume’.
This much. Your D: drive and E: drive are now a single contiguous volume.
Easily Defragment Hard Drive Partitions on Your Windows 10 PC
Now you know how to merge or merge partitions on your Windows 10 computer using the built-in Disk Management tool, the command line (DiskPart), as well as third-party applications such as AOMEI Partition Assistant without losing data. By the way, since you are already dealing with partition management, you should also check out how to convert your hard disk partition style from MBR to GPT. For a more holistic understanding of how your computer works under the hood, you should also review our detailed explanation on the difference between BIOS and UEFI.
