This article introduces how to shrink D to extend C drive on Windows 10 (32 & 64 bit). Drag and drop to expand C drive by shrinking partition D or E without losing data.
Can't shrink D to extend C drive in Windows 10 DM
From Windows Vista, Microsoft added advanced Shrink Volume and Extend Volume feature in Disk Management tool. When C drive is full, some people try to extend it with this native too, thinking this problem can be solved without reinstalling Operating System. But, they can't do this because of the inherent limitations.
Windows 10 inherited these two feature without any improvement, so many people feedback that they are unable to shrink D and expand C drive via Windows 10 Disk Management, because Extend Volume is always greyed out.
Why can't extend C drive by shrinking D?
If you have tried to shrink a partition, you'll find that the only option you can do is encountering an amount, then Shrink Volume will decrease this partition and produce Unallocated space on its right side. There is no option to produce on the left side.
Another Extend Volume feature can only expand the partition with contiguous Unallocated space on its right side. So, after shrinking D, Extend Volume is workable for D, all other partitions cannot be used.
In this situation, you need professional partition editor software to move Unallocated space from right side of D to the left.
If you did not shrank D in Windows 10 Disk Management, you can shrink D with NIUBI Partition Editor and produce Unallocated space on the left side directly.
How to shrink d and expand partition C on Windows 10
To accomplish this task, you just need two steps to drag and drop on the disk map. Download and install NIUBI Partition Editor, you'll see the main window with detailed disk partition parameters and available operations.
Step:1 Shrink partition D and generate Unallocated space on the left side.
Right click drive D and select "Resize/Move Volume", drag left border towards right in the pop-up window.
As you see, Unallocated space is produced on the left side of D.
Step:2 Extend C drive with this Unallocated space.
Right click drive C and select "Resize/Move Volume" again, drag right border towards right in the pop-up window.
As you see, C drive is extended by merging the Unallocated space.
This software is designed to work in virtual mode first, real disk partition won't be modified until click Apply to confirm. Before this, you can preview, undo and redo the pending operations.
How to move partition D to extend C
If you want to get free space from the non adjacent volume E, right click it and follow Step 1 to shrink it and generated Unallocated space on its left side. Then you need to move partition D before extending C drive:
Right click D and select "Resize/Move Volume", drag middle position towards right in the pop-up window.
Then follow Step 2 above to expand C drive.
If you have shrank partition D with Disk Management, use the same method to exchange the position of D and the Unallocated space.
In Summary
Both Shrink and Extend Volume have serious limitation, so they are not the best tool to help resize disk partition. To shrink D and extend C drive in Windows 10 (32 & 64 bit), NIUBI Partition Editor can help you easily. Besides shrinking, moving and extending partitions, it also help you copy, convert, defrag, wipe, check, scan, hide partition, etc.
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