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Extending primary Windows partition

Hello. I was wondering if someone could help me with how to extend the primary C partition for Windows 10. We had a laptop with a hard drive that was replaced by the retailer with a larger hard drive. When they replaced it, they didn't extend the C drive into the unallocated space they just copied the partitions over as they were on the original drive.

I would like to extend the C partition but not lose the recovery partition which is next to it. The partition layout in disk manager is as follows:

| 260MB EFI Partition | 237GB Windows C: boot | 704MB Windows RE Tools | 238.47GB Unallocated space |

I would like to join the unallocated space with the Windows C partition. and still have the recovery partition. Can I do that?

Thank you.

Lee W, MVP

You would need third party software to move the Tools partition to the end of the disk and then extend the C: partition.

You could also just format the unallocated space and move things like music, pictures, videos, and other files to it.

And you REALLY should have a backup of everything as any time you make modifications to a disk's partitions, you run the risk of corrupting the disk.

Lee W, MVP

I would also add I RARELY use the tools partition. PLUS, you DO have the original drive, right? If you have backups of your files and programs (as you SHOULD!) then at worst, you reload the computer and restore the programs and files. Then you could delete the tools partition and expand the C: drive through the rest of the disk with Disk Management (or more difficult) DiskPart.

CompProbSolv

Lee has given excellent advice above. I've used the following to accomplish the resizing and moving of partitions:
https://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/epm-free.html

Though I've never had it corrupt a drive, I always make sure I have a known good backup.

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prophet001

ASKER

I ended up using MiniTool so thanks for the help. The tool couldn't extend the primary partition though. I had to move the recovery partition to the end of the disc (which MiniTool was able to do) and then extend the primary partition into the unallocated space left by the recovery partition. I used the Disk Manager in windows to extend the partition. I cannot recommend this tool though. It's borderline adware and the download site has one legitimate link to download the file and 4 fake ones. I would not recommend it to anyone hoping to do this type of moving/resizing. Anyway, thanks for the help.