How to Easily Extend System Partition in Windows 10

Normally while extending partition during Windows installation, we keep the storage space for System Partition at least close to 100GB. But, eventually the storage bar indicator turns red and you feel the need for more storage space on your drive. Well, you probably must be knowing that the inbuilt disk management utility in Windows 10 won’t let you extend your system drive. Even though you have enough unallocated space, the Extend Partition option will be greyed out.
Yes, you can manually extend system partition by backing up the logical drives and deleting them. And, thereafter extending system partition using the available space. But, that’s a tedious task and will take too much time. So, here I’d like to show you how you can easily extend system partition without doing any backup or deletion of logical partitions.

How to Extend System Partition using AOMEI Partition Assistant

The software we’ll use here is called AOMEI Partition Assistant. . You can try out EaseUS Partition master too if you want to. But, AOMEI Partition Assistant is used for this guide. And, we totally recommend it.

Download and install the software. The software is packed with many features with some being blocked behind the paywall. But, the one feature that we are going to use here is free. It’s called the Extend Partition Wizard.

You can approach this system partitioning guide in two ways. You can let the software shrink the logical drives for you. Or you yourself can shrink a specific logical drive and create unallocated space. If you want the wizard to choose a specific unallocated space then you should approach the second way. But, if you want the wizard to automatically shrink the logical drives and transfer space to system partition then choose the first way.

For the second way, only unallocated space will be used. No shrinking process will be applied. So, the second way will be faster. If you have an SSD on your PC, then you can choose the first way. It will speed up the process and will shrink faster.

Method-1: Choosing Logical Drives for Free Space (Automatic Shrinking)
Step-1: Open the software and click on Extend Partition Wizard.
Step-2: In the new Window you’ll get two options. Select Extend System Partition. It will be selected by default. Click Next.
select-extend-system-partition
Step-3: The next dialog box will give the option for an automatic mode for extending the partition. This will automate the process of selecting the logical drives for shrinking. Don’t do that. Just click Next. Now, here select the logical drives that you want to shrink. (The drive from which you want to give away some space to system drive.) And, click Next.

select-partition-to-shrink

Step-4: 

On the next screen set the partition size for your system drive. You can drag to set the value or manually add the value. But, not greater than maximum partition value. Once selected, click Next.

drag-to-set-system-partition

Step-5: 

The next screen will show you from which drive storage is being taken. If there’s unallocated space with other drives then the wizard will take those unallocated spaces too. Don’t worry, only the drive you selected will be shrunk. That too, only if necessary. If that drive has enough unallocated space then that will be used.

So, after the partitioning is over you should get the following message.

Here, I added 20GB to my system drive. Next, I’ll add another 20GB using the second method by selecting the unallocated space.

Method-2: Using Unallocated Space (Manual Shrinking)

As stated before, this method is a little bit faster. The above method took me 18 minutes and this method took 14 mins. The time totally depends on your system configuration. The process is pretty similar. You just need to click on a link shown in Step-3 above. The link is provided at the bottom.select-unallocated-space-link
Then you’ll have to add the space you need for your system drive. Notice that only unallocated space is made available for the system drive.
assign-unallocated-space-to-system-drive
Then follow the remaining steps shown in Method 1 and you’re good to go. You have successfully extended your system partition without any hassle
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