Windows has a disk partitioning system where the C drive usually stores all system files and program installation files. Those with smaller storage capacity or those who play heavy games will know that one day or another, a lack of space on the C drive will show up. After Microsoft started sending Windows updates that were cached and stored on the C drive for recovery purposes, the storage issue on the C drive worsened significantly. In such a scenario, you have no choice but to increase the C Drive space. However, the process is not simple. That’s why we offer you a detailed guide on how to expand C Drive Space in Windows 10. So, without further delay, let’s get started.
-
Expand C Drive Space Locally in Windows 10
Here we will learn how to expand the storage of C Drive on our Windows 10 computer. we are using native Windows tool — Disk Management — To increase the space of C Drive. As for your files and folders, make sure no data is lost in the process. But before we move forward, let me give you a brief overview of how to expand C Drive storage.
Before everything, You can expand the volume of C Drive only if the nearest drive (which is D) is empty and unallocated.. You cannot expand C Drive storage from E or F or the next drive. So what you need to do is either move your D drive files to other drives like E or F. Back up the D Drive files to an external hard drive if you don’t have any free space on any drive. Simply put, back up the files from drive D and keep it empty because we will defragment it to drive C.
one. Right click on the Windows Start Menu and open “Disk Management”.
2. I assume you have backed up all your files from D Drive. Now, right click on D Drive and Click on “Delete Volume”. It will format the partition and make it an unallocated partition.
3. Next, right-click on the C drive partition and Choose “Expand Volume”.
Note: If the “Expand Volume” option is greyed out, you will need to use a third-party tool. We talked about all the instructions in the next section. However, before continuing, right-click on the unallocated partition and select the “New Simple Volume” option. After that, keep clicking “Next” and create a new drive. You can use this section in the next section.
4. A pop-up window will open. Keep clicking “Next” and finally click “Finish”.
5. Finally, your C Drive will be defragmented and storage space will be increased instantly. This is how you can expand the C drive space in Windows 10.
-
Expand C Drive Space with AOMEI Partition Assistant
In the above section, we have merged all D Drive with C Drive. However, if you want Add only 10 or 20 GB or any storage from D or other drives You can use AOMEI Partition Assistant (download). It is a third-party partition manager that comes with a wide variety of features. Note that even this way, you need to back up all your files to be on the safe side of things.
Further, if the native method above didn’t work Then I recommend you to try this method. Sometimes, the “Extend Volume” option for C Drive is greyed out in Disk Management. In this case, you can use AOMEI Partition Assistant.
one. Right click on any drive with available storage and select “Resize/Move Partition”. If you are coming from the above partition, select the new partition you created earlier via simple volume.
2. Next, use the slider to choose how much memory you want to keep on the current driver and click the “OK” button. For example, I kept about 800GB out of 821GB, which means I’m subtracting 21GB from the current drive. I want to merge this 21GB with C Drive. You can choose your own storage.
3. Next, right click on newly created drive Have 21GB of storage (in my case) and choose “Merge Partitions”. By the way, this partition is called the unallocated drive.
4. Here, select the “C:” drive and the unallocated drive from the list and click the “OK” button.
5. Finally, click the “Apply” button in the upper left corner and then click the “Continue” button to make all the changes. Note that the entire process will take up to 20-30 minutes to complete. Restarts the computer several times. If you end up with any errors, don’t worry. Simply restart your computer and you will be back to your PC.
6. Finally, C Drive will be expanded without any data loss. This is how you can increase C Drive space in Windows 10 using AOMEI Partition Assistant.
Increase C Drive Partition Two Easy Ways
So you can expand the storage of C Drive using the two methods mentioned above. While the Windows method is simple and straightforward, sometimes users complain that it doesn’t work because of the “Expand option greyed out”. You can still use AOMEI Partition Assistant, which works incredibly well in such a case. Anyway, that’s it for us. If you found the article helpful or are facing some issues, comment below and let us know. We will definitely try to help you. Also, follow our linked article if you want to learn how to speed up Windows 10.
Support our work ❤️
If you enjoyed this article, consider leaving a tip to help us keep publishing great content.
