Best free software to merge two NTFS/FAT32 partitions on GPT/MBR internal or external hard drive without losing data in Windows 10/8/7.
A hard drive needs to be partitioned into several parts for better management. However, sometimes it was not reasonable-partitioned. For example, C drive for operating system is not big enough and D drive somehow is too large and useless. In that case, merge C and D drive would be an acceptable solution for storage utilizing.
What’s more, you need to reduce primary partition amount if you run Windows on an MBR disk. MBR disk style has the limit of up to 4 primary partitions. When it overpasses 4, you cannot create new primary partitions any more. You could either convert MBR to GPT to break the limit or merge two primary partitions into one to minimize partition amount.
Anyway, there are other reasons that may lead you to merge two partitions in Windows 7/8/10. But, how can you achieve that and what exactly do you need?
To merge partitions using Disk Management or Diskpart of Windows, you need to delete one of the partitions to make it “unallocated”. Then, extend the left partition to that space. Theoretically, you will lose data on the deleted partition. But you canbackup files before formatting or deleting to avoid such loss.
That way is workable yet time-consuming and error-prone for the beginners. Fortunately, there is one free partition manager allows you to merge partitions without losing data. AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard works its magic on Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows XP and Windows Vista. It is embedded with user-friendly interface and easy-to-use wizards.
How does it work? During the partition merging process, AOMEI Partition Assistant will move all data from source partition to destination partition and add its storage to that partition as well. After the operation, you’ll see partition enlarged and a folder named with “driveletter-drive” in destination partition, storing all data of source partition. That’s how it protects your data. Free download to have a try.
1. Install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant. If you want to merge partitions on external hard drive, connect it to your machine first.
2. Right click one of the partitions you want to merge and choose “Advanced” and select “Merge Partition”.
3. At this window, tick the two partitions and you can set destination partition in lower right corner. Click OK to continue. Note: All data in the E: partition will be merged into D:\e-drive.
4. This is virtual result. Click Apply and then Proceed to take effect.
Note: You cannot merge system drive to data drive.
Tips:
You can only merge two adjacent partitions into one.
You can only merge two partitions that on the same physical hard drive.
Above steps apply to merge partitions in Windows 7/8/XP/Vista as well.
AOMEI Partition Assistant supports to merge NTFS partitions and partitions on GPT disk. Except for merging two partitions, you can also merge two unallocated space or add unallocated space to existing partition with AOMEI Partition Assistant. Steps are the same except ticking different boxes.
With the help of AOMEI Partition Assistant, you can easily merge partitions in Windows 10/8/7 without data loss. No need to delete or format existing partitions. The advanced version, AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, even allows you to allocate free space from one partition to another directly. You kept the data on selected partition but you moved free space to another partition. Why not?