How to Merge Non-Adjacent Partitions in Windows 11/10

When setting up a computer, we often partition the HDD into two or more sections to keep data organized. For example, the C drive for system files, D for personal documents, games, and downloads, maybe an E or F drive, and so on.

Most users create four partitions on their computer, but there are times when we need to start over and redefine the number of partitions, especially when we run out of space on Drive C.

Are you looking to merge a nearly full partition with an empty one, or to lop off some unused space from an oversized partition? Never fear – here's how to move and merge partitions.

Why Can't I Merge Unallocated Space in Windows 11/10?

Windows Disk Management is a hard drive and partition management tool. Sometimes, you may want to extend a partition with unallocated space, but find the "Extend Volume" option grayed out. Why is that? This article will delve into the reasons why you can't merge unallocated space in Windows; please share this article to help more users understand these causes.

As long as the partition you want to extend has unallocated space right next to it, you can use the "Extend Volume" feature. But it's not that simple in most cases. Often, we don't have unallocated space, or the relevant partitions aren't adjacent, which is why the "Extend Volume" option is grayed out.

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In other words, the availability of an extended partition depends on whether there is unallocated space between two non-contiguous partitions. As shown in the illustration, for example, you can merge Drive C with the unallocated space, but you cannot directly combine Drive C with either Drive D or E, because they are not adjacent.

The condition for merging non-contiguous partitions:

Two Ways to Merge Non-Adjacent Partitions in Windows 11/10

Applies to: All levels of Windows users.

Users have two ways to merge unallocated space, either by using Disk Management or with a third-party tool - Partition Master. Both methods are user-friendly, so choose the one that suits you best.

Here's a comparison table that can help you decide which tool is best suited for your needs:

How to Extend Non-Adjacent Partitions with Disk Management in Windows

With Windows Disk Management, you can format, create a simple volume, extend/shrink volume, delete volume, and change drive letter and paths. If you want to merge non-contiguous partitions with Disk Management, you need to delete one of the drives first. As shown in the screenshot above.

1. To merge C and D, you must delete drive D, making it unallocated space. 2. For the C and E scenario, you'd need to delete both drives D and E, creating one large unallocated partition, and then extend C into that space.

I recorded a GIF to illustrate the process, though your drive letter may vary.

So, let's summarize what you're missing out on when using the built-in Disk Management for dealing with two non-contiguous partitions on the same drive.

• You lose all data when you delete a volume.
• You must specify a fixed-size area for unallocated space. It must be to the right of the partition that you want to resize.

Merge Non-adjacent Partitions in Windows 11/10 with Partition Software

A third-party partition management software - Partition Master, is designed to compensate for some inadequacies in disk management. It is fully compatible with all Windows platforms and offers users additional disk management features. Highlights that make it a must-have include "OS Migration," "Resize/Move," "Wipe," "Hide," "Convert between MBR/GPT," or "Basic/Dynamic," etc. The key point is, instead of deleting all related partitions and allocating the free space to one partition, you can directly use the "Merge" function to combine two partitions into one.

There are usually three common situations for users who want to merge non-contiguous partitions. In all cases, you can use the Partition Master tool. Download and launch the software on your computer. We will go through the detailed steps one by one.

Scenario #1: Merging Two Non-Adjacent Partitions with Unallocated Space

Merge with Unallocated Space

To merge C drive with D drive, right-click on C drive, select "Merge" > choose D drive and click "OK" > hit "Perform Operations" and then "Apply" to save all changes. The final merged C drive will be equal to the original C drive plus the unallocated space plus D drive.

Scenario 2: Free space only on resource pools to be merged

If you want to combine the free space of C and E drives, right-click on E and choose "Allocate Space" > then select C drive to move the free space to, and drag the pointer to merge all the available space into C. For more detailed steps, you can refer to this page: Combine Partitions in Windows 11/10.

Case #3: Merging an Entire Resource Partition

In this case, if you want to merge the whole E drive to C drive, you need to delete E drive first and make it unallocated space. Please note that deleting a partition will remove all data on it. Backup partition data before proceeding.

Download the software now and follow the instructions below to merge non-contiguous partitions.

Step 1: Right-click on the partition that you want to merge and choose "Merge" from the context menu in the Partition Manager.

Select partitions to merge

Step 2: Select a non-contiguous partition to merge and click "OK".

Step 3: Select the target partition that you want to remain, and then click “OK” to merge the non-contiguous partitions into it.

4. Click the “Execute Task” button and then “Apply” to start merging partitions.

What else can Partition Master do for you?

After this long scroll through the tutorial, you might find that Partition Master leans more towards handling data gently and trying to streamline the entire process intelligently. Apart from merging non-contiguous partitions as per the instructions on Windows 11/10, people seem to be concerned about the following issues. How do these tools resolve them?

How to merge unallocated space into C drive?

You can merge unallocated space into C: without having to place the unallocated space next to C:. Right-click on C: and choose "Resize/Move." Drag the pointer until all the space is merged into C:. Click "OK," then "Apply."

Can I merge two unallocated spaces?

For AOMEI Partition Assistant, it is easy to combine two unallocated spaces into one big space. You can directly use the "Combine Partitions" feature or the "Resize/Move Partition" feature. Which one you choose depends on whether the unallocated spaces are contiguous.

How to Merge Partitions on Two Hard Drives

Is this what you mean by merging two or three drives into one? Actually, there is still a group of advanced users demanding to merge the drive on Disk 0 to the drive on Disk 1. That's a cross-disk combination. The detailed guide is on the linked page, and here comes a standard operation for you to follow:

If the current disk status is "Basic" (which you can check in the software interface), convert it to "Dynamic Disk". Then locate a volume on one of the disks and merge it with the other disk.