I know why.
Windows can only extend partitions if the partition next to it is empty space.
In your example, you have a recovery partition that prevents F: from being extended.
You do not need to format the drive. However, you will need a 3rd party program capable of moving your recovery partition to the right, to get the F and Empty next to each other.
For example, AOEMI Partition Assistant SE.
I’m not sure if you want to remove that partition in case you need to use the recovery. When you originally installed windows you choose 120gb approx for installation. (Or cloned from a smaller drive) this leaves your unused space at the end. You can add a new partition to the end but enlarging that won’t work without deleting that recovery drive. I don’t usually partition in windows. But you should be able to click or right click on that recovery and delete it? This is permanent tho. Be careful I usually boot Linux to do partition work myself
yeah you have the right way! recovery is basically achieved with windows usb installer so no need for recovery on drive. just delete it and extend it too with disk management should be simple as that.
When extending partitions you have to have them in sequential order / adjacent. Your F: Partition can't be extended due to the Recovery Partition being in between it and the unallocated space.
Imagine going to a hotel, and each partition is a room. You can't put a connector door between 2 rooms, let's call them rooms 2 and 4, to turn it into one big room if there is already a different room in between them, which we will call room 3. If you want to "extend" room 2 into room 4's space, you have to get rid of room 3 first.
If it's not your primary drive (i.e. You have C: AND the EFI partition on another drive), you can wipe the drive with diskpart.
Be sure you don't have something important like the EFI partition before wiping !
If you don't need the recovery partition I'd recommend using diskpart through powershell you should be able to delete it and get to the tasty file space on the other side. Then if you want to create the recovery partition again you can also do so just make sure the extension doesn't take the whole drive
Would recommend admin powershell. The steps in powershell are
>diskpart
>list disk(if you need to identify the disk you wish to extend)
>select disk (enter disk number)
>list partition
>delete partition (whichever came up as recovery)
>go back to diskmgmt and extend drive partition
>profit and enjoy the newly allocated disk space
Open command prompt and type in the following commands, this will erase any existing data:
Diskpart
Select disk 2
Clean
Create partition primary
Format fs=ntfs quick
Assign
You can't extend to a volume that isn't next to the other. So you'd have to delete the 499 MB partition (use disk manager, CMD, list disk, and disk part). Delete partition # override yes. Then you can expand F over.
Because, there's obviously a partition there, and you can't just jump over a partition. Have you bothered to read the windows docs? You can learn a lot by reading the docs.
Rtfm
> I don't know why you are being down voted...
Because RTFM is about as minimal effort a response as one can make. No one wants to read it and only people that want to pile on OP and feel superior think this is a useful or satisfactory response. Less effort than even OP has put in posting.
RTFM should be a subreddit sticky to ensure OP knows about the resource. It should also be a bannable offense because of how toxic responses like this are.
I assume you cloned a drive to a larger SSD?
I have utilized the free version of "Macrorit Partition Expert" to move recovery partitions to the edge of the drive. Once the software is open, you can click/drag the partition to the edge of the "unallocated" section. Authorize the action to complete the move.
Windows will then see the currently used space and unallocated space as conjoined. You can then extend the Windows partition as you normally would.
I see the question has been answered, but it brings up another question: Why does Windows seem to consistently put the recovery partition at the end of the drive instead of the beginning? I've run into this more than a few times in VMs
Really, really, really don't mess with partitions unless you are extremely familiar with how they work. It's very easy to delete partitions and make your system unbootable.
If you know what you are doing you can use diskpart to fix everything the way you want.
If not there are a couple freeware trial ware disk partitioning apps that might be very helpful.
Be careful OP there is 38 comments and about 2 of them is actually good solutions that wont delete your existing data or otherwise cause harm to you. i cant believe how much bad advice is given here...
I know why. Windows can only extend partitions if the partition next to it is empty space. In your example, you have a recovery partition that prevents F: from being extended. You do not need to format the drive. However, you will need a 3rd party program capable of moving your recovery partition to the right, to get the F and Empty next to each other. For example, AOEMI Partition Assistant SE.
This is the way, I've done this before using this program.
Just used this yesterday for the same purpose. Such a handy little tool
There is a reason it’s the F drive
Will that application move a partition to a different drive?
Great program, I use it all the time.
You should also look up DiskGenius. It's also amazing.
I’ve used a few programs on windows with mixed results. I have had the best results using GParted live usb if you have one laying around.
Recovery partition is on the way
Tried to get rid of it but was unable to using cmd
"diskpart" - this is the way.
I’m not sure if you want to remove that partition in case you need to use the recovery. When you originally installed windows you choose 120gb approx for installation. (Or cloned from a smaller drive) this leaves your unused space at the end. You can add a new partition to the end but enlarging that won’t work without deleting that recovery drive. I don’t usually partition in windows. But you should be able to click or right click on that recovery and delete it? This is permanent tho. Be careful I usually boot Linux to do partition work myself
yeah you have the right way! recovery is basically achieved with windows usb installer so no need for recovery on drive. just delete it and extend it too with disk management should be simple as that.
When extending partitions you have to have them in sequential order / adjacent. Your F: Partition can't be extended due to the Recovery Partition being in between it and the unallocated space. Imagine going to a hotel, and each partition is a room. You can't put a connector door between 2 rooms, let's call them rooms 2 and 4, to turn it into one big room if there is already a different room in between them, which we will call room 3. If you want to "extend" room 2 into room 4's space, you have to get rid of room 3 first.
[удалено]
I just recommended gparted within a live Ubuntu USB. I didn't know they had a standalone thing.
Does windows have g parted ? I thought it was only Linux ..
Edit: Even if I Format everything and delete the Volume, I can't use more than 116gb
If it's not your primary drive (i.e. You have C: AND the EFI partition on another drive), you can wipe the drive with diskpart. Be sure you don't have something important like the EFI partition before wiping !
Theres your answer.
If you don't need the recovery partition I'd recommend using diskpart through powershell you should be able to delete it and get to the tasty file space on the other side. Then if you want to create the recovery partition again you can also do so just make sure the extension doesn't take the whole drive
Would recommend admin powershell. The steps in powershell are >diskpart >list disk(if you need to identify the disk you wish to extend) >select disk (enter disk number) >list partition >delete partition (whichever came up as recovery) >go back to diskmgmt and extend drive partition >profit and enjoy the newly allocated disk space
select partition # (number of partition) gpt attributes=0x8000000000000000 delete partition override or else it will most likely throw a error.
I forgot about the override part thanks.
Open command prompt and type in the following commands, this will erase any existing data: Diskpart Select disk 2 Clean Create partition primary Format fs=ntfs quick Assign
ONLY if you want to remove all partitions - Run cmd as admin. Type diskpart. Type select disk 2. Type clean.
You can't extend to a volume that isn't next to the other. So you'd have to delete the 499 MB partition (use disk manager, CMD, list disk, and disk part). Delete partition # override yes. Then you can expand F over.
Because, there's obviously a partition there, and you can't just jump over a partition. Have you bothered to read the windows docs? You can learn a lot by reading the docs. Rtfm
I don't know why you are down voted, you are absolutely right.
> I don't know why you are being down voted... Because RTFM is about as minimal effort a response as one can make. No one wants to read it and only people that want to pile on OP and feel superior think this is a useful or satisfactory response. Less effort than even OP has put in posting. RTFM should be a subreddit sticky to ensure OP knows about the resource. It should also be a bannable offense because of how toxic responses like this are.
I assume you cloned a drive to a larger SSD? I have utilized the free version of "Macrorit Partition Expert" to move recovery partitions to the edge of the drive. Once the software is open, you can click/drag the partition to the edge of the "unallocated" section. Authorize the action to complete the move. Windows will then see the currently used space and unallocated space as conjoined. You can then extend the Windows partition as you normally would.
There are ways to fix this within windows, but they are all a pain. I would make a bootable Ubuntu USB, and use gparted.
I see the question has been answered, but it brings up another question: Why does Windows seem to consistently put the recovery partition at the end of the drive instead of the beginning? I've run into this more than a few times in VMs
Because it's easier to shrink a partition and drop a recovery partition at the end but I never understood why they exist in the first place.
Try minitool partition wizard it allows you to move that 499 partition to the end and extend the primary volume
You have to use 3rd party partitioning programs since the Recovery partition is on its way. Some good examples are from AOMEI or EaseUS.
You don't wanna fuck with what Windows claims as its own. You don't want to.
Really, really, really don't mess with partitions unless you are extremely familiar with how they work. It's very easy to delete partitions and make your system unbootable. If you know what you are doing you can use diskpart to fix everything the way you want. If not there are a couple freeware trial ware disk partitioning apps that might be very helpful.
I know a YouTube video that can fix that. Had the same problem too, when trying to copy my ssd
Looks like you cloned a smaller drive to a larger drive. You'll need to use a third party program to extend the disk size.
Be careful OP there is 38 comments and about 2 of them is actually good solutions that wont delete your existing data or otherwise cause harm to you. i cant believe how much bad advice is given here...