AOMEI Partition Assistant
Free Ways to Extend Volume in Windows 8 or 8.1 without Losing Data
This tutorial will show you how to use the Windows built-in tool Disk Management to extend volume in Windows 8/8.1, and also introduce another better method.
By Dervish / Updated on May 12, 2023
My C drive is almost full!
“Hello everyone, I have installed Windows 8 Home. But due to the default download location, there is almost no space on my C drive. So what I want to say is how to extend volume of C drive in Windows 8? Can someone help me? Thanks in advance!”
Why we need to extend volume in Windows 8?
Generally, the C drive is used to save data and programs by default. But soon you will receive a “Low Disk Space” warning. When your C drive is insufficient, you cannot install new programs, nor can you update Windows 8. And it will cause Windows 8 to run slowly or even crash. Therefore, in order to ensure the smooth running and maximum performance of Windows 8, extending the C drive is an operation that cannot be ignored.
How to extend volume in Windows 8 without data loss?
No matter you want to extend partition C or other partitions in Windows 8 or 8.1, you can use these two methods. You can compare and choose the one that suits you best.
│ Method 1. Extend volume by Disk Management
Disk Management is a tool that comes with Windows, in which you can see the current status of the disk on the computer and manage the disk. I will show you the specific steps:
Step 1. Press “Windows + R”, enter “diskmgmt.msc” to open Disk Management.
Step 2. In this window, right click C drive and select “Extend Volume”.
Step 3. Then, follow the prompts that will appear to complete the operation.
Please note:
☞ “Extend Volume” can only extend NTFS file system partitions, but cannot extend partitions in other file system formats.
☞ There must be an unallocated space adjacent to the target partition, otherwise “Extend Volume will be grayed out”.
│ Method 2. Extend volume via powerful partition manager
As you can see, Disk Management is not perfect, it makes you have some difficulties in managing disks. But fortunately, there is a perfect replacement for it. AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard (compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 10/8.1/8/7 and Windows XP/Vista) is a professional utility to enables you to manage hard drives flexibly and timely. Not only is it free, but it can also make up for the shortcomings of Disk Management.
To extend volume in Windows 8, I highly recommend you to use Merger Partition. Because it can directly add unallocated space (no matter where it is located on the disk) into the target partition.
If you upgrade to AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, you can also use advanced features such as Allocate Free Space, App Mover, and Extend Partition Wizard to extend or free up volume.
Step 1. After download and installation, double-click the icon of AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard on the desktop. And you can see most of the features of it in the main interface, right-click the C drive andchoose “Advanced” and select “Merge Partition”.
Step 2. In this window, tick the unallocated space and click “OK”.
Step 3. Back to the main interface, click “Apply” to commit the pending operation.
In addition, you can also use “Move Partition” to make the target partition adjacent to the unallocated space, and then use “Resize Partition” to extend volume.
Bottom line
From what has been discussed above, I believe you have understood how to extend volume of C drive in Windows 8 with built-in tool and third-party tool. With AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, no matter you want to extend volume in Windows 8 or shrink volume in Windows 8, you can complete it in a few steps without any complicated operations. Last but not least, if you want to resize partition in Windows Server 2019/2016/2012/2008/2003, you can try AOMEI Partition Assistant Server.
