home-Net-How to increase disk size in Windows 7. How to increase disk space from

How to increase disk size in Windows 7. How to increase disk space from

Incorrectly divided into several smaller local HDD brings more problems than benefits. An example of this would be the small amount of memory on system disk C, which will end very soon if you actively use the computer and install different programs. But nothing is unreal. Today we will learn how to enlarge the C drive.

The essence of the problem

The need to add several gigabytes to the C drive is a fairly common occurrence. This problem occurs when, during the initial installation of the Windows operating system, the disks are incorrectly partitioned and the system drive C is set to no more than 20 GB. 10 years ago this would have been quite enough. However, now computers are more powerful, and the list of programs has expanded significantly, not to mention online games and updates that weigh tens of gigabytes. Therefore, 20 GB, taking into account the fact that Windows has just been installed, will be enough at best for a month of work, after which the PC user will begin to seriously think about how to enlarge the C drive. By C drive we mean the system drive, i.e. the one on which it stands operating system, since in most cases it is he who performs this role.

In fact, it is much simpler than it might seem. There are a large number of utilities that relate to hard drive partition managers and are capable of managing it, including increasing the capacity of one, taking a piece of memory from another. A good program for managing a hard drive is Acronis Disk Director. The only downside is that it's paid. Of course you can find pirated version, but why break the law if there is a good, absolutely free utility AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard Edition.

A couple of lines about the program

AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard Edition is an excellent utility for managing your hard drive. The license is absolutely free for both home and commercial use. The utility is completely in Russian, as a result of which there should be no problems with use. In addition, its interface is similar to Acronis Disk Director, and those who have used Acronis will practically not feel the difference and will not have to think long about how to enlarge drive C. But those who are encountering this for the first time will be able to intuitively level to understand what and how. This utility has proven itself the best way, as evidenced by the pile positive feedback on a variety of websites and blogs.

Without preparation you can't go anywhere

Before increasing drive C, you need to download and install this utility. We go to the official website of AOMEI, find the desired program and download. We start the installation process. Click "Next" and wait for it to finish. If it was downloaded not from the official site, but from a third party, then the installation process must be controlled so as not to install “Sputnik Mail” and the “Amigo” browser. The utility is installed, but we are in no hurry to launch it.

Create a backup

Before increasing the C drive in Windows 7, you need to make a system backup. Backup is a function that creates a copy of data (recovery point) on one or more disks to return to this point in case of problems. This is done very simply:

  1. Open the properties of my computer, where you can find the section " Extra options systems".
  2. When the settings window appears, click on the “System Protection” tab, where the available disks and information about their security should be displayed, i.e. then whether a restore point has been created on them or not.
  3. Select drive C and click “Configure”. Here we put a tick on “Restore system parameters...”, if not, and allocate space for backup (5-10 percent). This needs to be done so that you can save several restore points and roll back from an earlier one, since they constantly replace each other. Click "OK".
  4. Now click on the “Create” button. Give the future backup a name and click “Create”.
  5. The same procedure can be carried out with the D drive.

You can view the newly created restore point in “Start”, then “standard: / utility: / system restore”.

Of course, it is absolutely not necessary to make a backup before increasing hard drive C. But it is worth remembering that AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard Edition is a manager hard drive, and if some error occurs, then all the information may be damaged.

How to enlarge drive C?

Let's launch the program. You can immediately notice that it displays all the disks on the hard drive plus the reserved area. So, our goal is nothing more than to increase drive C at the expense of drive D (Windows 7) without losing data. To do this, right-click on drive D and click on the first item from the list “Resize partition”. Now we either move the delimiter from left to right, marking how much needs to be separated, or in the “Unallocated space before” column we enter the required number of gigabytes. Click "OK".

As you can see, the picture has changed somewhat: an unallocated area has appeared, which needs to be attached to C. Right-click on it and act in the same way as with D - “Resize partition”. Here the window we already know opens, in which you need to move the delimiter slider to the right all the way. To start the process, click "Apply". But before we enlarge drive C at the expense of drive D, let’s double-check the operation parameters in the window that appears. If everything is in order, click “Go” and “Yes”. After which the transfer process will begin free space to N. That, in fact, is the whole separation operation.

Acronis Disk Director

As described just above, Acronis's interface is similar to AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard Edition. However, the problem of how to increase drive C at the expense of drive D (Windows 7) is solved here a little differently.

First, you need to have a license for this utility, since the demo version only allows you to transfer a few gigabytes. Install, create a restore point, launch. Select drive D and click “Resize Volume” on the left toolbar. Up to this point, it was necessary to decide how to increase the C drive at the expense of the D drive (Windows XP or 7). Drag to the right as far as necessary for C. Then click on the “Apply pending operations” button, which is distinguished by a black flag. As you can see, the utility has begun to separate space.

We do the same with the C disk, namely, go to the volume resizing section and move the slider to the maximum to the right. The only difference is that here you need to check the box “Add unallocated space to volume”. Then click on the black flag in the same way. However, after dividing the memory, this utility will require a restart of the computer.

It is also best to do disk partitioning with Acronis using boot disk or flash drives with the program. The program itself will help you do this.

It often happens that one hard drive runs out of space, but another has plenty of it. Usually you run out of space on drive C, because... Initially, the least amount of memory is allocated for it when installing the OS. So what is the solution in this situation?

Let's look at two absolutely safe methods.

Method No. 1

If you have an operating system on your PC Windows system 7 or 8, then everything is as easy as shelling pears for you. You can use the standard Disk Management utility, which is used to change and view hard disk partitions.

Method No. 2

If you are still “sitting” on XP or, even worse, on Vista, then in this case you need special programs. Personally, I advise - Acronis Disk Director or Partition Magic.

Now let's go through each method in more detail.

In the first case, the procedure is as follows:

Right-click (right mouse button) on the Computer icon on the desktop and go to Management in the context menu. A window opens, find and launch the utility - Disk Management.


Next, let’s assume the most common case, when we “expand” drive C at the expense of drive D. To do this, find drive D in the window, right-click and select - Shrink volume. A window will open where you will need to specify the size of memory that we want to transfer to the system disk. We drive it in the item - Size of compressed space (MB).

After this, a free memory area will appear on our hard drive, which we can transfer to any other drive, in our case, drive C. To do this, then right-click on it and select - Expand volume. The Volume Expansion Wizard will open. In its window, select the volume to be expanded (disk) and the amount of space to be added, click next and voila - after a short wait we get drive C with an increased amount of memory. Well, after such manipulations with hard drive Be sure to restart the computer.



The second method should not scare you; in fact, it is even simpler. The only thing you first need to download and install on your computer is the Acronis Disk Director program. I recommend it, as it has great functionality and allows you to do backups OS and hard drives and many other disk operations. But more on that later. In the meantime, we are interested in enlarging the C drive at the expense of the D drive.


After installation, we launch the program, a fairly clear program interface opens, which displays all the disks of our PC. To enlarge drive C, click on it and select in “Operations” - Resize volume. After that, in the new window that opens, check the boxes next to the items - Add unallocated space to volume and Take free space from other disks. In the window with percentages, we select how much space we want to borrow from other drives. After all the changes, click OK. After this, as in the first case, the system will ask you to reboot for the changes to take effect.


In both cases, you will get the same result and will no longer worry about running out of space on your drives.

I hope my article was useful to you and will help you when you need it!

If the operating system does not have enough memory, it’s time to think about how to increase the size of the disk (C:). Over time, the OS “grows” - new programs appear in it, updates are downloaded. There is less and less free space on the partition, even if you install all the utilities on another volume. You can clean your system disk of junk files or change its size. And you don’t need to format your hard drive or reinstall Windows to do this.

The characteristics of the HDD itself do not change. You are only redistributing existing resources between logical drives. Physical memory remains the same. If you want to expand it, you will have to purchase a new hard drive.

You should not expand the partition if there is still free space on it. If something goes wrong when resizing, you will lose all your data.

During operation, unnecessary information “settles” in the system. These are files left over from deleted applications, outdated cache, registry entries that lead nowhere and do not relate to anything. Separated from each other, they don't weigh that much. But in total they clog up the system and take up a large amount of memory. You can clean the OS of garbage and free up space for Windows needs.

  • Right-click on the disk icon.
  • “Properties” item.
  • General tab.
  • Clean button.

Click on "Cleanup"

  • Check the boxes next to the required items. It's better to delete "Temporary Files". You can also erase “Thumbnails” - these are previews (“thumbnails”) of images and videos. With them you see not an ordinary icon, but a picture or frame. But the cache may store thumbnails of drawings that you no longer need. Therefore, feel free to erase all the previews if they take up extra space. As soon as you open a folder with drawings or photos, new thumbnails for the icons will be loaded into the cache.

Place a checkmark next to the required files

  • You can also use junk removal programs. For example, CCleaner is suitable.

And a few more tips:

  • Do not install resource-intensive programs on the system drive. Use other sections to download games, editors, and multimedia programs.
  • Do not put videos, photos, archives in subdirectories (C:). Transfer your personal information to another location.
  • Don't clutter your desktop with shortcuts and folders.


When using a computer for a long time, the memory gradually runs out and the question arises: how to enlarge a disk? Usually you have to increase the size of the system disk, since little memory is allocated to it as standard. This issue can be resolved thanks to additional programs, taking memory from one disk and giving it to another.

How to increase disk space using Aomei Partition Assistant

Increase Windows disk 10 easily distributed software - Aomei Partition, for which you don’t have to pay. This application will help you learn how to increase the size of the C drive. It has a Russian interface, and is not installed with it when installed third party software. The program is also supported on Windows 7 and 8.1. It is better to download the application from the manufacturer's website.

It is important to know that if you turn off the power or do something wrong with the disks, the data on them will be lost. It is advisable to save the necessary information on a flash drive in advance.

So, install the utility, select the Russian language and launch it. When the program opens, the existing disks and sections. To expand the capacity on partition C thanks to drive D, you must:

  1. Right-click on drive D, find it and click “Resize”.
  2. A window will appear in which we set the size manually or with the mouse. It is necessary to move the slider that frees up space on the right, click OK.

  1. We also click on drive C, go to “Change size...”, expand the disk size using the space that appears and click OK.
  2. To save the work done, you must click on “Apply”. The application has a built-in deferred action system; changes are not made until the manipulation is confirmed.

After finishing, you will need to restart the computer twice, and we will see the result.

How to increase memory on drive C in MiniTool Partition Wizard Free

This utility will also help you figure out how to enlarge drive D. The main reason for using the application is to answer users’ questions about how to increase the size of drive C. The software downloads and works for free, no unnecessary software is loaded during installation, its drawback is the English interface.

Install and launch MiniTool Partition Wizard Free - by downloading it from the manufacturer's website. After opening the program you need to:

  1. Right-click on drive D, find and go to “Move/Resize...” at this point we change the size so that the free space is “to the left” of the occupied space.
  2. Next, go to drive C “Move/Resize...”, increase the size using unallocated space, and click OK. Let's go to home page and click “Apply”.

After completing all the necessary operations, we can see the result in Explorer.

Enlarge drive C at the expense of drive D without programs

There is an interesting way to increase drive C at the expense of space from partition D; its peculiarity lies in the fact that it can be done with the built-in tools of the system. This is a one-of-a-kind method on how to increase your hard drive without using utilities. There is one drawback of this method - the need to delete all data from drive D, but the necessary data can be copied to a flash drive in advance.

Algorithm of actions:

  1. Press the key combination “Windows + R”, a window will appear, enter “diskmgmt.msc”, click “OK” or press “Enter”.

  1. The “Disk Management” dialog box will appear, in which we can see all devices and their partitions. It is necessary to look at the partitions located in the root directories of the C and D drives; if invisible partitions are detected, it is not recommended to do anything with them.
  2. RMB on drive D and go to “Delete Volume”. Upon completion of the deletion, we will have free space that is not allocated anywhere, and we will use it to increase space on the C drive.

  1. Now we enlarge drive C, right-click on the media and go to “Extend Volume”. Here you need to indicate the amount of space added, usually all free memory is displayed, but you still need to leave it to create disk D. We expand the size by about 5GB or a little less.
  2. At the end of this process, drive C will be expanded.
  1. Right-click on the unallocated space and go to “Create a simple volume”.
  2. To do this, we use the wizard to create volumes, which uses all the remaining unallocated space and creates a disk with any letter.

The disk is ready, if necessary, we upload all the information back. As we see this question, is quite easy to solve.

If you still have questions on the topic “How to enlarge drives C and D?”, you can ask them in the comments


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Probably, every user has encountered such a paradox that no matter how huge the volume of the C drive is, the day comes when there is a catastrophic lack of space on it.

And then the question arises: is it possible to increase the volume of drive C painlessly for the system and for all stored data and how to do it correctly?

How to increase the size of drive C is a pressing problem for many users

This article is intended to answer this question. But first, let’s look at why space on drive C is starting to run out.

Why is there not enough space on drive C?

The fact is that the Windows operating system has such an unpleasant feature as an increase in the volume of its logical volume occupied after a certain time.

In this case, all files, both temporary and system, are subject to growth. And this happens with all versions of the OS - Windows 7, 8 and 10.

Of course, at first we try to free up space by deleting unnecessary files or cleaning the disk, but still there comes a moment when there is nothing left to delete, and the volume continues to be sorely lacking.

Disk C is completely full - an unpleasant but fixable situation

This situation has a very negative impact on our computer.

There is little disk space left - urgent action needs to be taken

– it often begins to crash and glitch, bringing us a lot of inconvenience, such as a decrease in PC performance and a slowdown in its speed.

The fullness of the disk also affects the security of the system; the risk increases that at the most inopportune moment during hard work at the computer, the program we need will crash.

3 ways to increase the capacity of drive C

Method 1. Free up space on drive C using a system utility

The Windows 7, 8 or 10 operating systems have a standard Disk Management utility that allows you to view and change hard drive partitions at our discretion.

Finding it is quite simple by following the instructions below:

  • Right-click on the “Computer” icon and select “Manage” in the dialog box that opens.

On the "Computer" icon, right-click and select "Manage"

In the menu that appears, find the “Disk Management” utility and click on it.

Find and launch the Disk Management utility

This program provides us with the opportunity, at our discretion, to manage all devices designed to save data - logical drives, flash memory, CD-ROM.

Using this utility, we can easily transfer the amount of free space from local disk D to drive C, that is, increase the size of the system disk on which we have installed the Windows 7 (8 or 10) operating system.

Before transferring free space, let's determine how much free space we have on drive D, how much we need for our local drive C, and how much we can transfer.

Now, in order to transfer this freed space to the system volume, right-click on it and select the “Extend volume” function in the menu that opens.

To transfer the freed space to our disk, select "Extend volume"

Now we press the “Compress” command, after which the system provides us with information about the freed up free space, which we redirect to drive C.

We now have information about the freed up space, which we can now transfer to the system drive C

In the field that opens, indicate the size in MB of the space that we intend to transfer. After this action, the system will poll the volume and provide you with the result in the following form:

We determine the amount of space required for compression and indicate this value in the appropriate field

In order to free up the volume of our disk, right-click on it and click on the “Shrink volume” option.

Right-click on drive D and select the “Shrink volume” function

So we launch special program"Volume Expansion Wizard" Click “Next” and in the proposed window we determine the amount of space that we are going to add.

Launch the "Volume Expansion Wizard" and decide on the size that we are going to add

After all the manipulations done, we reboot our computer.

Method 2. Increase the capacity of the system disk using the Aomei Partition Assistant program

One of the most versatile and proven programs for reliable and simple controls partitions of our disks is the free program Aomei Partition Assistant.

Aomei Partition Assistant - a universal program for working with hard drive partitions

This application allows the user to do the following:

Aomei Partition Assistant program is a universal and useful program for each user

  1. Create and delete hard disk partitions.
  2. Change the amount of free space.
  3. Format hard disk partitions.
  4. Merge, split and move or copy partitions, including to another hard drive or SSD.

Step 2: Install Aomei Partition Assistant

After launching the installation file, select the language (Russian) and follow the prompts of the installation wizard.

We install the Aomei Partition Assistant program, following the Wizard’s prompts

It should be noted that the program is distributed free of charge for private and commercial use.

Step 3. Launch Aomei Partition Assistant

After the installation is complete, a very convenient interface opens in Russian, where all the disks of our computer with all partitions are displayed.

The simple and convenient interface of the Aomei Partition Assistant program allows you to effectively work with all computer disks

Step 4. Increase the size of drive C at the expense of drive D

Let's take a closer look at how you can increase the space of volume C at the expense of volume D without losing data.

So, we carry out actions according to the instructions:

Right-click on drive D and select the “Resize partition” function;

Right-click on partition D and click the option “Resize partition”

In the console that opens, we can easily change the disk size just using the mouse by hovering the cursor over control points as shown in the photo;

Partition size can be easily changed using breakpoints

Click “Ok” and open system volume C in the same way and increase its volume using free space;

By analogy with D, we work with drive C, changing its volume at our discretion

After completing all manipulations with the disks, in the top panel of the main menu, click the “Apply” option;

After all the actions have been completed, click on the “Apply” function in the top toolbar.

  • Next, you may need to perform, as a rule, two reboots, after which we get desired result- increased size system C-drive by reducing drive D without losing any data.

Method 3. Resizing the disk with MiniTool Partition Wizard Free

Partition Wizard is a convenient and easy-to-use application

The program, like previous application, is shareware and does not require any additional knowledge other than the skills of an ordinary PC user.

However, it has one small drawback - the lack of a Russian-language interface. Which, however, is compensated by its simplicity and accessibility. In addition, work in MiniTool Partition Wizard Free

is very similar to working with the Aomei Partition Assistant program discussed above.

After installing Partition Wizard, we see the same simple interface, which makes using programs easy even without Russian-language settings.

A simple interface makes it easy to work in the program even without a Russian interface

Resizing disks also occurs in a similar way to the program described above. In the same way, using checkpoints we can easily change the size of the volume, due to the available free space.

Regulation of added disk space occurs in the same way in a simple way

After we have completed all the operations to increase the volume of system drive C at the expense of volume D, the result will be immediately available to us in Explorer.

I hope these simple methods will help you easily and quickly solve the problem of increasing the size of one disk at the expense of another without losing data.

Video on the topic

So there is almost no free space left on drive C and the question arose of how to increase the amount of free space on drive C. Below are recommendations for increasing the free memory of drive C.

1. Don't store a lot of data on your desktop

You should not store a large amount of data on your desktop because the folder that stores the content desktop, is located on drive C. Therefore, the larger the amount of data on the desktop (movies, photos, music), the less free space remains on drive C. The best place to store movies, photos, music, and other large files is on the D drive. If you only have drive C, you should split the drive into two partitions C and D and move large files to drive D

2. Clean drive C from temporary and unnecessary files

Folders with temporary files sometimes accumulate several tens of gigabytes of garbage. Therefore, it is necessary to clean the disk from debris. How to do this in the article How to properly clean your hard drive of debris.

3. Enlarge drive C using logical drive D

If the hard drive is divided into 2 partitions, then you can increase the size of drive C by reducing drive D. All data will remain safe and sound. You don't have to worry about this. But this process can take quite a lot of time - up to several hours, depending on the size of the hard drive and the free space on it.

To do this you will need Acronis Disk Director.

You can download the boot disk image. You can burn a disc using the free disc burning program DeepBurner 1.9.

Boot your computer from the Acronis boot disk. From the menu, select Acronis Disk Director 11 Advanced.

In the Boot Agent window, select Launch management console Now you first need to reduce the size of drive D to make room for increasing the local drive C. To do this, right-click on graphic image drive D and B context menu.

select item Resize volume mouse, drag the pointer to the right. This will reduce the size of drive D and free up space in front of it, which can then be attached to drive C.

In field Unallocated space in front of the volume You can manually set the size by which you want to reduce drive D and enlarge drive C. A volume can only be reduced by a size that does not exceed the amount of free space on that volume. Then click OK.

Right-click on drive C and select Resize volume.

Now take the right edge of drive C and drag it all the way to the right, thereby increasing drive C by the amount of unallocated space on the hard drive. Click OK.

All that remains is to complete the planned changes on the hard drive. To do this, click the button Apply scheduled operations.

A window will appear listing all the operations that will be performed. Click the button Continue.

The process of resizing drives C and D will begin. This may take quite some time, so be patient. When the process of increasing the volume of drive C is complete, click the button Close. Now you can launch the program and restart your computer. Disk C is enlarged at the expense of disk D.

4. Install a larger hard drive and clone partitions

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