Add the unallocated 48GB to the D drive

NavyLCDR · Mar 20, 2022

badrobot said:
If I remember it correctly, using Windows partition utility, you can only extend a partition if the additional drive space is located to the right of the partition you want to extend. And "extend" option will only work if the additional space you want to 'merge with/extend to' is "unallocated"?

Exactly correct. However, MiniTool Partition Wizard will handle the task with ease (once D: is decrypted), and costs nothing.

cereberus · Mar 20, 2022

NavyLCDR said:
First of all, GeneralLee01 is trying to increase the size of D:, not C:. But, let's reduce the EFI System Partition to 100 MB and add 160 MB (0.16 GB) to:
C: - increase in size of 0.16% (less then 2 tenths of 1%)
D: - increase in size of 0.02% (2 hundredths of 1%)

Is it really worth messing with the EFI System Partition in order to gain such a minuscule increase in the other partitions? Again, I think you are looking for unsuspecting beta testers for your scripts and/or trying to create problems that just are not there. At a minimum increasing the complexity of a simple solution way beyond what it has to be.

Yeah - this guy is getting ridiculous with non stop spamming requests for these scripts to be run. It totally derails the threads, and in 99% of cases, totally irrelevant to original question.

badrobot · Mar 20, 2022

Btw, I hope you created your image backup before starting to do anything about this. Dealing with partitions sounds easy but very risky.

TairikuOkami · Mar 20, 2022

Ghot said:
I use both.

Have you tried Macrorit Partition Expert, it seems to have the least limitations in the free version.

NavyLCDR · Mar 20, 2022

And another thread....

Ghot · Mar 20, 2022

NavyLCDR said:
And another thread....

View attachment 24835

Not directed at anyone, but this has always been my favorite wrecked... pic...

But that train is ptretty good too.

GeneralLee01 · Mar 20, 2022

Thanks for all the great help and suggestions guys and girls

> EaseUS doesn't need money. It will do all this for FREE. But it can't deal with Bitlocker.

The upgrade window pops up. No way to get around that as far as I know.

> 1. Right click the D: partition and choose: resize/move.
> 2. Grab the LEFT handle and slide it all the way to the left, to use up all the unallocated space.
> 3. At the top left... click EXECUTE.

Then I get the upgrade popup :-(

> Last, but not least... when you're all done, go and buy an External Hard drive

Thanks for the url, bur errrrr, I buy about one external a year (and one for work). Why do you want me to get another one ? :)

> Probably. But that is no use as long as Partition Master can not do this for free.

I am worried about turning bitlocker off. Don't want my system decrypting for days.

> MiniTool Partition Wizard Free will do it. And, as its name suggests, its free.

Thanks Navy. Will check that out

> And yes, you must turn off Bitlocker on any partition that you want to move/resize.

Any guesstimate how long that would take ?

> If you want to get rid of the Windows Recovery Partition just run (in a command prompt with admin):
> reagentc /disable
> Delete the recovery partition. Then run:
> reagentc /enable

thanks, very helpfull. never realized I can delete it and then create it again.

> Neither one looks big enough for a factory recovery partition. But, with MiniTool Partition
> Wizard Free you can explore the Recovery Partitions and see what files and folders are in them.

I might do that. But at the moment the whole project is on hold untill I have a feeling how many days my system will be decrypting.

> I will add a vote for MiniTool Partition Wizard, been using it for years.

Vote counted :)

> 1) What problems had you had that the EFI partition was modified to 260 MB?

No idea. I that a problem / issue / not normal ?

> This is the opportune time.

Nope. Not needed to play with this as an exercise. Fiddling partitioning when not needed is way to dangerous in my opinion.

> Exactly correct. However, MiniTool Partition Wizard will handle the task with ease (once D: is decrypted), and costs nothing.

Thanks LT. Any guestimate about the time required to decrypt 800 GB ?

> Btw, I hope you created your image backup before starting to do anything about this.

Nope. Do not have any images. But have full file backup that is refreshed every couple of weeks.

> Have you tried Macrorit Partition Expert, it seems to have the least limitations in the free version.

So it is better than MiniTool Partition Wizard. The one LT recommended ?

glasskuter · Mar 20, 2022

I use both, but when it comes to extending partitions into non-consecutive space, I rely on Mini-tool boot disk.

Winuser · Mar 20, 2022

glasskuter said:
I rely on Mini-tool boot disk.

I could never get the boot disk to work.

Ghot · Mar 20, 2022

Winuser said:
I could never get the boot disk to work.

Try this one... I use this one (from a CD)
This is an ISO image of the bootable media from version 9.0

Dropbox - Error - Simplify your life

www.dropbox.com

Use RUFUS to put it on a USB stick or, just right click and burn to a CD.

When you boot from it, choose the non-UEFI option.

glasskuter · Mar 20, 2022

Ghot said:
Try this one

Yes, that's the version I use. I incorrectly said boot disk, but it's actually on a multi-boot usb.

Winuser · Mar 20, 2022

Ghot said:
Try this one... I use this one (from a CD)
This is an ISO image of the bootable media from version 9.0

Dropbox - Error - Simplify your life

www.dropbox.com

Use RUFUS to put it on a USB stick or, just right click and burn to a CD.

When you boot from it, choose the non-UEFI option.

Thanks! I'll give it a try later when I get some more flash drives.

GeneralLee01 · Mar 21, 2022

Decrypting went wat faster than expected. Only about 2 hrs

- Using Disk Management to enlarge the partition was not possible. At least was difficult to figure out how to do it since the option was not available,
- Partition Master wanted money (screen shot click here). So I deleted that from my system. Unfortunately the deinstall was incomplete. (screen shot click here)

So I used Minitool Partition Wizzard Free. It added the unallocated space to the D drive without a problem. MANY THANKS to all of you !

Below the result . . .

Only imperfection I noticed (till now) is that all my desktop icons where moved all the way to the left. But who cares about that. The partition work was ok !

Anything I should do about the other partitions (besides C and D) before I enable BitLocker again ? Or you guys recommend to leave those alone ?

glasskuter · Mar 21, 2022

It looks fine to me but let me point out one thing.

Every time a windows update comes down the pike that is a version upgrade, a Windows.old folder is created at the root of C:. This folder equals the size of your current installation. You do not have enough unused space available on C: to accomadate creating the Windows.old folder.
When such a Windows update is received, it will fail. Therefore you will have to intervene to tell Windows update where to create this folder.

Windows update will pop up the "Windows needs more space" error message. On the Windows update page, select Fix issues. This will launch the Windows update tool that lets you update your PC using an external storage device. From here, follow these steps:

Connect an external storage device with enough free space to your computer.
On the Windows update page, you'll see an External Storage Device option with a drop-down menu. Select your external storage device from the menu and then click Next to continue.
Follow the on-screen instructions to finish installing the update. Once the installation is complete, you can safely remove your external storage device and restart your PC. You can delete the windows.old folder from your external device at your disgression but I would keep it a few days to make sure the computer runs ok with the new version of windows.

Using bitlocker is a personal preference. I have mine turned off.

GeneralLee01 · Mar 21, 2022

Clear. Thanks Cuter for all that additional info and the solution !

So I do need the additional partitions ? One Reserved and two Recovery ?

Ghot · Mar 21, 2022

GeneralLee01 said:
Decrypting went wat faster than expected. Only about 2 hrs

- Using Disk Management to enlarge the partition was not possible. At least was difficult to figure out how to do it since the option was not available,
- Partition Master wanted money (screen shot click here). So I deleted that from my system. Unfortunately the deinstall was incomplete. (screen shot click here)

So I used Minitool Partition Wizzard Free. It added the unallocated space to the D drive without a problem. MANY THANKS to all of you !

Below the result . . .

Only imperfection I noticed (till now) is that all my desktop icons where moved all the way to the left. But who cares about that. The partition work was ok !

Anything I should do about the other partitions (besides C and D) before I enable BitLocker again ? Or you guys recommend to leave those alone ?

Yeah... Disk Manager can only add from the right not the left.
EaseUS must have changed recently.. oh well.
As for not uninstalling completely... just manually delete the EaseUS folder in Program Files (x86).

Godd job, with everything.

cereberus · Mar 21, 2022

GeneralLee01 said:
Decrypting went wat faster than expected. Only about 2 hrs

- Using Disk Management to enlarge the partition was not possible. At least was difficult to figure out how to do it since the option was not available,
- Partition Master wanted money (screen shot click here). So I deleted that from my system. Unfortunately the deinstall was incomplete. (screen shot click here)

So I used Minitool Partition Wizzard Free. It added the unallocated space to the D drive without a problem. MANY THANKS to all of you !

Below the result . . .

Only imperfection I noticed (till now) is that all my desktop icons where moved all the way to the left. But who cares about that. The partition work was ok !

Anything I should do about the other partitions (besides C and D) before I enable BitLocker again ? Or you guys recommend to leave those alone ?

You have two GPT recovery partitions - only one will be active.

Run following from admin command prompt

Code:

reagentc /info

and it will tell you which one is active e.g.

On my pc, it is partition 4. I rather expect partitition 6 to be redundant now. If so, you can delete partition 6 and expand D a bit further.

My only other comment (more my preference) is your C drive is a bit small, and I would recommend 200 GB as it will not take long to fill up 100 GB. Still, no rush to do that as you know how to resize partitions now.

Other than that things look pretty good now.

Of course, I would get crucified by regulars here if I did not recommend that you now make an image backup (preferably before bitlocking to avoid forgotten password issues) so you can recover if drive fails or gets corrupted. I (always) recommend Macrium Reflect Free.

glasskuter · Mar 21, 2022

GeneralLee01 said:
So I do need the additional partitions ? One Reserved and two Recovery ?

DO NOT mess with the reserved partition. Ghot's right. Normally, there is only one recovery partition, but IMO the space is negligible. Since the recovery partitions are created by Windows, I would leave them alone until your next clean install which will work them out. I'm of the mindset that much can go wrong when messing with partitions of a live installation so I do only what is necessary. But that's just me.

I would like to ask a question though. What is your D: drive used for?

cereberus · Mar 21, 2022

glasskuter said:
DO NOT mess with the reserved partition. Ghot's right. Normally, there is only one recovery partition, but IMO the space is negligible. Since the recovery partitions are created by Windows, I would leave them alone until your next clean install which will work them out. I'm of the mindset that much can go wrong when messing with partitions of a live installation so I do only what is necessary. But that's just me.

I would like to ask a question though. What is your D: drive used for?

I rather disagree - Recovery Partitions are not that important and deleting them does not cause any serious damage. Op has already done all the hard work with no damage - this is just a final polishing. Everybody has opinions but if OP makes image backup like I said, then going that little extra is not a serious risk and is a good way to learn.

NavyLCDR · Mar 21, 2022

cereberus said:
I rather disagree - Recovery Partitions are not that important and deleting them does not cause any serious damage. Op has already done all the hard work with no damage - this is just a final polishing. Everybody has opinions but if OP makes image backup like I said, then going that little extra is not a serious risk and is a good way to learn.

Especially if you run reagectc /disable before deleting the recovery partitions. After they are deleted, the run reagentc /enable and you still have recovery environment enabled, it's just the files are under C:\Recovery now. I see absolutely no use for a recovery partition that is on the same physical disk as the Windows OS is on.

Add the unallocated 48GB to the D drive

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