How to Increase C Drive Space in Windows 11 Computer

After running Windows 11 laptop/desktop/tablet computer for a period of time, system C drive is getting full. If you install all programs to C drive, this partition will become full very quickly. You'd better install programs to another partition and change the output path to a large partition. What to do if C drive is already full? Nobody wants to recreate partitions, reinstall operating system and all programs. Many people ask whether it's possible to increase C drive space in Windows 11 without losing data. The answer is yes. This article introduces how to increase C drive free space in Windows 11 with native tool and best free partition software.

Increase C drive space in Windows 11 with Disk Management

The same with previous Windows 10, Windows 11 has the ability to change partition size without losing data (not 100%). If you don't want to use any third party software, you may try this native tool. However, your disk partition contiguous must meet the requirements:

1. There's a separate partition (such as D:) behind C drive and you must delete it.
2. This contiguous drive must be a Primary partition.

If you can delete the adjacent Primary partition, follow the steps below. Otherwise, jump to the next section.

Steps to increase C drive space in Windows 11 using Disk Management:

1. Right click Windows logo on taskbar and click Disk Management.
2. Right click the contiguous partition D and select Delete Volume, then its disk space will be changed to "Unallocated".
3. Right click C: drive and select Extend Volume option, follow up the pop-up Extend Volume Wizard.

If you want to enlarge C drive by shrinking D or other partition, Disk Management cannot help you. Learn why cannot extend C drive in Windows 11 via Disk Management.

3 ways to Extend C drive in Windows 11 with free partition editor

To increase C drive space in Windows 11 laptop/desktop/tablet, third party software is better choice, because you don't have to delete any partition. With NIUBI Partition Editor, you can make Unallocated space on the left when shrinking D drive, then C drive can be extended easily. Better than other tools, NIUBI Partition Editor has Virtual Mode, unique 1-Second Rollback, Cancel-at-will and Hot-clone technologies to protect system and data. Because of the special file-moving algorithm, it is 30% to 300% faster. To Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista/XP home computer users, it has free edition.

Download NIUBI free edition, you'll see all storage devices with partition structure and other information on the main window.

To increase C drive space in Windows 11 desktop/laptop/tablet, there are 3 ways. Follow the corresponding method according to your own disk partition configuration.

Method 1 - Increase C drive space from D (adjacent partition)

In most of Windows 11/10 computers, there's plenty of free space in the contiguous partition. You can shrink this partition and make Unallocated space on the left. When there's contiguous Unallocated space, C drive can be extended fast and easily.

How to increase C drive space from D in Windows 11:

1. Right click D: drive and select "Resize/Move Volume". In the pop-up window, drag the left border towards right, or enter an amount in the box of "Unallocated space before".
   
2. Right click C: drive and select "Resize/Move Volume" option again, drag the right border towards right to combine this Unallocated space.
   
3. Click Apply on top left to take effect. (Real disk partitions won't be changed until click Apply to confirm.)

Tips: the drive letter of the adjacent partition in your computer may be different.

Method 2 - Extend C drive with E (nonadjacent partition)

If there's not enough free space in the contiguous partition D, you can shrink other partitions on the same disk. The method is similar only except that there's an additional step to move Unallocated space  to the left before merging to C drive.

How to increase C drive space in Windows 11 from E (nonadjacent volume):

1. Right click the non adjacent partition E and select "Resize/Move Volume", drag the left border towards right to make Unallocated space on the left.
2. Right click the middle partition D and select "Resize/Move Volume", drag the middle of D drive towards right to move Unallocated space to the left.
3. Extend C drive with this Unallocated space (the same with step 2 above).
4. Remember to click Apply to execute.

Method 3 - increase C drive size with another disk

In few computers, there's no available free space on the same disk. In that case, no software can extend C drive by adding space from a separate disk. Instead, you can clone this disk to a larger one and extend C drive with extra disk space.

Besides shrinking partition and extending C drive in Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista/XP computer, NIUBI Partition Editor helps you do many other disk/partition management operations such as create, delete, format, merge, move, convert, defrag, hide, wipe partition and scan bad sectors.

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