Expand the system partition in Windows 7

As you know, the operating system partition is the place where more space should be saved. Applications such as hotfixes, patches, service packs will take up a lot of space in this partition. If you use these applications much, more space is needed.

Microsoft previous operating systems have a number of utilities available to help users expand the drive partition. However, these operating systems are still limited as the drive must be configured as Dynamic Disks. Although some other applications can extend the drive partition, but within the scope of this article, we would like to focus on some of the methods available in the operating system.

Unlike previous operating systems, Windows 7 allows you to easily expand the drive partition as well as make them wider.

Note :

- Partition expansion requires one thing that if you don't, you won't be able to expand the partition. The requirement is that your hard drive must be empty where the partition is contained. You cannot expand any partition if there is no space for it.

- When expanding the partition, the data currently existing in that partition will not be deleted. However, to prevent it, you should still use an appropriate backup method to retrieve your data.

- This article only focuses on expanding the system disk partition but the following methods can still be applied to expand any other partitions, not just the system partition.

- Expanding the system partition does not require a reboot.

Basically, there are two methods to expand the system partition in Windows 7:

Method 1: Use GUI to expand the system partition

1. Log in to the system as an administrator

2. Open Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Administrative Tools > Computer Management . You can open Computer Management by going to Start > Computer > right mouse and select Manage

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You can also go directly to Disk Management MMC by typing the command ' diskmgmt.msc ' into Run

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Enter the password or confirm if required when logging in the system

3. Select Storage -> Disk Management

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4. Select the drive you want to expand, for example drive C

5. Right-click the drive to expand, select ' Extend Volume '

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6. Select ' Next '

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7. Windows 7 will show the capacity that you can expand in the previous partition. You can manually enter the size you want to expand by changing the value in the ' Select the amount of space in MB ' section. Note that you cannot enter a value higher than the value already available. Then, select ' Next '

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8. The process of expansion will complete quickly without having to restart. You can also see the size of the new partition.

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Method 2: expand the system partition with the command

Expand a partition or disk set using the CLI command line interface according to several steps:

1. Select ' Start ' -> ' CMD '. It is best to run the command to admin. To do this, right click on ' CMD ' and select ' Run as Administrator '.

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When the command allows the processor to run, click select 'Yes'.

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Alternatively, you can use the command ' CMD ' and press CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER to display the shortcut icon of ' Run as Administrator '

2. Statement: Diskpart

3. Select the appropriate drive and partition to work. Usually in Windows 7 is drive 0 and partition 2. However, you should make sure that you have selected the correct disk and partition to take the next step. You can use a list to display the current drive and partition before manipulating the wrong partition extension.

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4. Once you have selected the appropriate drive and partition, run the ' EXTEND ' command. If you do not specify an extension size, the command will expand the partition with the entire remaining space of the drive.

Extend size = 500: partition extension up to 500MB

Extend: expand the partition with all available disk space

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Also, you shouldn't confuse the ' extend ' command with the ' expand ' command in Windows 7 when doing virtual drive size expansion.

5. Check the volume of the new partition with the ' list ' command

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6. Exit DISKPART with the command ' Exit '