Try to extend volume but find the Extend Volume greyed out in Disk Management? Here we explain the reason why it is unclickable and provide methods to solve it easily in Windows 11/10/8/7.
As we all know, most Windows users are accustomed to managing disk partitions with Window's built-in tool - Disk Management. It can really help users solve a lot of problems to some extent. However, sometimes we may find the option "Extend Volume" greyed out in Disk Management. Why cannot we use the feature to extend volume on Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP?
In fact, "Extend Volume" option under Disk Management tool is only available when there is contiguous unallocated space behind the volume you want to extend. As there is no unallocated space after the C partition drive, "Extend Volume" option is not available. So, we need an unallocated place behind the goal partition (drive: C). Theoretically, we can shrink volume D for unallocated space, but you will find the unallocated space locates behind drive: D, not drive: C. And you cannot move that unallocated space.
As the only workaround to fix it, you have to make the drive: D an unallocated place by deleting it, but if you do that, you will lose all data on drive: D. To avoid that, you can back up the D partition beforehand. But this will cost you too much time. Therefore, many users are looking for another shortcut to get around "extend volume greyed out" without data loss and costing lots of time.
Here AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional is highly recommended. It includes powerful functions such as resize/move partition, split partition, merge partitions, allocate free space, dynamic disk management, create partition, wipe hard drive and partition, and so on. In addition, it allows you to create a bootable USB drive in case that you need to manage the disk partition without loading Windows, such as formatting the system drive.
When the "extend volume" is not available, you can try the "Merge Partitions" feature of AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional.
Before you do: ① If the partition has running applications, AOMEI Partition Assistant will suggest you close them or perform the operation under PreOS Mode. ② You can merge data partition into system boot drive, however, you cannot merge system boot drive into data partition; "System Reserved" partition could not be merged. ③ You can only merge 2 adjacent partitions every time. On the contrary, you can merge any unallocated space into a partition.
Step 1. Install and launch the software. You can see there is unallocated space next to the D drive on the main interface. (If there is no unallocated space, you can use Resize Partition to get unallocated space)
Step 2. Right-click the Cdrive and hit “Advanced” > “Merge Partitions”
Step 3. Choose unallocated space, and then click OK.
Step 4. Click Apply, you will see the C drive has been extended.
This is the whole process of how to fix Windows extend volume greyed out. From the steps mentioned above, you can see clearly that the unallocated space is adjacent to D drive. However, with the feature of Merge Partitions, you do not have to worry about the extend volume option not available, you can extend C drive freely. Furthermore, the easy-to-use interface makes you finish the task in seconds.
If there is no unallocated space on the hard disk, you can switch to the "Allocate Free Space" feature, which allows you to assign some free space from one partition to another.
The software solves the "Extend Volume" greyed out issue in Disk Management. You can use it to extend any drive even though there is no unallocated spade next to the to-be-extended drive. So it is a good partition manager for you. Besides, when you find the Convert to MBR Disk or Convert to GPT Disk option greyed out in Disk Management because there are partitions, the AOMEI Partition Assistant can also help avoid such issues easily without deleting any partitions.
By the way, there are different versions of AOMEI Partition Assistant for different users. For home users, Partition Assistant Professional is a good choice. For enterprise users, you can try AOMEI Partition Assistant Unlimited, which supports unlimited usage within one company. Besides, you can also use Technician Edition to provide charged technical services to your clients. Please choose a proper edition based on your needs.