GParted: Extend Windows System Partition Step by Step

Need to extend Windows system partition

The system partition contains the operating system and the related boot files, and it is an essential part of every computer. When it runs out of disk space, your computer will run into different troubles. The most serious one should be the computer slows down and even freezes now and then. Therefore, it is necessary to extend Windows system partition to resolve such problems. Next, we will introduce free solutions to extending system partition on Windows 10, 8, 7 computer.

Use GParted to extend Windows system partition

GParted (short for GNOME PARTition EDitor) is a free application for graphically managing your disk partitions. With GParted, you can resize, move and copy partition without data loss. Besides, it also enables you to extend or shrink system drive (C: drive). The following are the specific steps of extending Windows system partition via GParted.

Note: No matter which operating system you are using, Linux, Windows, or Mac OSX, you have to boot it from the bootable media that contains GParted Live. To use all features of GParted, a minimum of 320 MB of RAM is required.

Step 1. Download GParted ISO files and burn it to a CD. Boot your Windows computer from the GParted Live bootable CD.

Step 2. Once you boot to GParted to see the following screen, please choose the default setting GParted Live by default.

Step 3. Then, you will be required to choose keymap, language, mode and other settings. It is advised to choose the default settings.

Step 4. Then the GParted window will open. Then right-click the Windows system partition, and choose “Resize/Move” from the drop-down menu. In the new pop-out window, drag the partition to the right side to add into the unallocated space, and click on “Resize/Move” button at the bottom. AT last, click on the “√” icon on the toolbar to commit the pending operation.

No matter you want to use GParted to extend Windows boot partition or other data partition, there must be unallocated space on the either right side or left side of the target partition. Besides, when the kernel that supports for mounting NTFS file system is absent, you will find that the “Resize/Move” option is greyed out and unclickable in GParted, then you can try to install “ntfsprogs/ntfs-3g” to fix this. If GParted cannot enlarge NTFS system drive still, you can execute the “sudo apt-get install ntfsprogs” command to solve this problem.

Free alternative to GParted: extend Windows boot drive easily

The previous content shows it requires too many complicated steps to extend Windows system partition via GParted. Even some users cannot boot into GParted Live. So, if you are one of them, or unable to successfully enlarge NTFS system partition, it is advised to switch some free alternative like AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard.

This is a free partition manager, compatible with all editions of Windows 10/8/7 and Windows XP/Vista. To extend Windows system drive with unallocated space more flexibly, it provides the “Merge Partitions” feature, which can directly merge unallocated space into the target partition even if they are not adjacent to each other. Also, it can merge two adjacent partitions. You can download the freeware and learn how to extend system partition via the recommended feature.

Note: if there is no unallocated space, please first shrink another partition that has enough unused space to get one.

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. Right-click the system drive and select "Advanced"> “Merge Partitions”.

Step 2. Tick the “Unallocated” space and click on “OK”.

Step 3. Back to the main interface, click on “Apply” to commit the pending operation.

See? Only 3 steps can enlarge system partition capacity easily. Besides, this freeware also has the “Move Partition” feature, which can move the partition and make unallocated space contiguous to the volume you plan to extend.

Moreover, if you upgrade to Professional edition, you can enjoy more advanced feature to extend system partition with the most ease. For example, its “Allocate Free Space” allows users to directly transfer some space from other partitions to boot partition, and the “Extend Partition Wizard” can help extend NTFS system partition without rebooting computer.

Summary

After reading this post, you should know how to use GParted to extend Windows system partition step by step. Furthermore, we also share a free alternative in case that you cannot enlarge system drive using GParted. The recommended AOMEI Partition Assistant also offers more features than GParted, such as “clone hard disk”, “convert MBR and GPT without deleting partitions/data loss”, “migrate OS between MBR and GPT disk”, “split partitions”, “dynamic disk manager and converter” and more. It is definitely worth your trying.