2024 Guide: How to Resize C Drive in Windows 10/8/7

How to resize C drive in Windows 10? Are you looking for a reliable way to expand or shrink the C drive space on your computer? Follow this page, and you will get 3 free methods to effectively extend or shrink the C drive space on your computer without losing any data or reinstalling the operating system:

Why is it necessary to resize the C drive?

Typically, the C: drive provides permanent storage for the operating system and other files needed to “boot” the computer. Hence, it is called the system partition – the drive on which a computer by default looks for its operating system.

Regardless of the operating system you have installed, you may find that you need more space on your C: drive. The following are a few reasons why you might need to adjust or change the size of your C: drive:

• Coming up: Windows updates are taking up more and more space on Drive C. • C Drive is full: Low on space on Drive C. • Drive C is too large and needs to be resized to free up space for other data drives. • The computer is running slower and performance is declining.

To resolve these issues, you need to resize the C drive on your computer. How? You'll need a reliable partition adjustment utility.

3 Free Tools to Resize the System C Drive in Windows 10/8/7

While Microsoft offers two reliable disk tools, Disk Management and the DiskPart utility, for partition management on Windows computers for free, they are not the best options.

Here, you will find the top 3 partition managers to freely resize C drive in Windows 10/8/7:

According to the comparison table, Disk Management and DiskPart can extend a partition only if there is contiguous unallocated space next to the target volume.

Obviously, the third-party disk partition manager - AOMEI Partition Assistant is the best choice to resize system partition – C drive.

How do I resize the C drive, then? Read on through the next two sections, and we'll show you how to use any of the three tools recommended here to resize your C drive for free.

The process is the same for resizing partitions on Windows Server machines and Windows XP/Vista systems.

First part: How to expand the C drive to have more space?

Applies to: Resizing the C drive to increase its capacity for free.

Question: How big should the C drive be? Answer: Generally, your C drive should be at least one-third of your total hard drive capacity.

For example, if you have a 500 GB hard drive, your C: partition should be 150 GB or larger. To help you quickly and easily expand your C: partition, we'll list methods from simplest to most complex.

You can extend the C drive space by following the recommended solutions below:

• #1. Resize C Drive with Partition Master
• #2. Extend C Drive with Disk Management
• #3. Expand C Drive with DiskPart Utility

Note: If you don't have any Unallocated space on your disk, you may need to follow Method 1 below to make your C drive larger.

Method 1: How to Resize C Drive with Partition Master Tool

AOMEI Partition Assistant, as a fantastic partition magic, is a comprehensive hard disk partition manager which owns powerful functions to help you manage disk partitions easily.

• Resize and move partitions
• Copy partitions
• Copy disk, create partition
• Delete, format partition, as well as merge partitions and split partition
• Disk conversion – convert MBR disk to GPT disk and vice versa, etc.

Download a free partition manager, and then follow the steps to extend the system partition (Drive C:).

Step-by-Step Guide: How to Resize and Expand C Drive Space

Step 1: Free up unallocated space on Drive C.

If there is no unallocated space on the system disk, go to the Partition Manager, right-click on the partition next to C:, and select "Resize/Move Partition".
Drag the left border of the partition to shrink it and leave unallocated space behind your system C: drive, then click "OK".

Step 2: Increase the C drive space.

Right-click on the C: drive and select "Resize/Move."

2. Drag the end of the system partition to the unallocated space to add space to the C drive, then click "OK".

Next up, just translate the sentence into American English:

Step 3: Keep all changes to extend C: drive.

Click “Run the Task” and “Apply” to save all the changes and extend the system C: drive.

Video Tutorial: Resize or Extend C Drive

Method 2: Resize C Drive with Disk Management

Here's how to do it using Disk Management on Windows 10:

Step 1. Right-click the Start button and select "Disk Management."

Step 2: Right-click on the C: drive and select "Extend Volume".

Click “Next,” then set the size of the unallocated space you want to add to your C: drive. Click “Next” again to proceed.

Press “Finish” to complete the process.

Method 3: Extend C Drive with DiskPart Utility

The process of using DiskPart to adjust the size of your C drive might vary depending on the operating system. If you're familiar with using DiskPart, follow these steps to extend your C drive and resize it to a larger size. In this example, we'll walk you through the process using Windows 10:

Step 1: Right-click the Windows icon, select “Search,” type cmd, and hit Enter.

Step 2. Type diskpart, then hit Enter. Click Yes to launch DiskPart.

Step 3: Type the following commands, pressing Enter after each one:

• list disk
• select disk N (Replace N with the number of your system disk)
• list partition
• select partition 2 (Replace 2 with the number of your C drive partition)
• extend size=X disk=N (Replace X with the exact size of the unallocated space in MB, and replace N with the number of your system disk)

Step 4. Once the extension is complete, type exit to close the “Disk Management” window.

Part 2: How to Shrink C Drive to a Smaller Size

Applies to: Shrinking a partition to free up space on drive C:.

Is it safe to compress Drive C? Generally, it's not recommended to shrink the C drive. This is because, as Windows updates and files on the C drive accumulate, you may run out of available free space.

If your C drive is too large, you can try the following methods to shrink its size. Here are three tools you can give a shot:

• #1. Resize C Drive with Free Partition Manager
• #2. Shrink Drive with Disk Management
• #3. Shrink C Drive with DiskPart Utility

If you want to know how to shrink C: or another partition, select a method and follow the tutorial steps to shrink your C: drive:

Method 1: Shrink C Drive with Free Partition Manager

Step 1: Locate and select the partition that you want to shrink.

In the Partition Manager section, right-click on the partition you want to shrink, and select “Resize/Move”.

Step 2: Resize to shrink the partition

Resize the target partition by dragging its end with mouse.

You can also adjust the size bar to shrink the target partition. When you're done, click “OK” to continue.

Third step: Execute the operation.

Click the Run Task button and choose Apply to save all changes.

Method 2: Resize the Drive to a Smaller Size with Disk Management

Step 1: Type "Disk Management" in the search bar, then click on "Create and format hard disk partitions" to enter Disk Management.

Step 2: Right-click on the C drive and select "Compress volume."

Step 3: Enter the amount of space you want to shrink in MB, then click the "Shrink" button.

Once that's done, you'll have unallocated space to expand into another partition.

Method 3: Shrink C drive with Disk Management

Step 1: Click the "Start" button, and type cmd.

Step 2: Right-click Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.

Step 3: In Disk Management, shrink the C drive by typing the following commands in order:

diskpart List volumes Select volume 1 (the volume number of the partition you want to shrink) shrink desired=123464 (the desired size in megabytes that you want to shrink the partition to)

Step 4. When you are finished, type exit and press Enter to close the disk partition utility.

This will show you the unallocated space remaining on your computer's hard drive. You can then use this unallocated space for other purposes.

## Additional Tips: How to Resize the C Drive - Allocate Space from D to C

If there is no unallocated space for expanding, you can also upgrade the Free Partition Master to Professional version. In this way, you can use “Allocate Space” feature.

With it, you can flexibly allocate free space from other volumes on your computer's disk to the C drive without losing any data.

Step 1: Right-click on Drive D with sufficient space and select "Allocate Space".

Select the partition to allocate space from

Step 2. Select the target partition - C drive, and then drag the partition panel to the right to add unallocated space from Drive D to Drive C. Then click "OK" to confirm.

Step 3. Click the “Execute Task” button and then click “Apply” to start the process of moving free space from Drive D to Drive C.

If you're looking for detailed information and solutions on shrinking your C drive, we've got a comprehensive guide on the topic. Click on the link below to view the full guide.

How to Shrink C Drive without Losing Data [2023 Full Guide]

How to shrink C drive in Windows 10? If you're looking for a detailed answer on how to do this, you've come to the right place. On this page, you can find three free tools to successfully shrink your C drive without compromising your data.

In addition to resizing partitions, Partition Master also offers partition recovery and disk & partition copy features to solve your disk and partition problems.

Conclusions

On this page, we explain the importance of the C drive, why you need to resize it, and recommend 3 important tools to adjust C drive space in Windows 10/8/7.

If you're new to Windows or just looking for an easy way to resize your C drive, Partition Master Free Edition is your best bet. In addition to resizing partitions, you can use this tool for free to solve other disk partition problems.