Solved How to add unallocated space to C: partition?

Almighty1 · Aug 17, 2025

Bree said:
Your screenshots still say 'bitlocker' for the DELLSUPPORT partition.

In a Terminal (admin) you can confirm by using the command manage-bde -status
To decrypt the Z: partition use manage-bde -off Z: and wait for it to complete.

Windows references the WinRE partition by partition number. As long as the number and order of the partitions remains the same it doesn't matter if you move them.

You are right about the Bitlocker part but it was also confirmed by Hasleo that the data is only imaged unencrypted. As even Macrium Reflect will not be able to image with the data encrypted either.

Macrium Reflect X

knowledgebase.macrium.com

Didn't realize that unlocked and decrypted are two different things as everything I read yesterday appears to indicate when the Bitlocker partition is unlocked, the data would be in the clear and decrypted. Always learn something new.

Okay,
manage-bde -off Z:
BitLocker Drive Encryption: Configuration Tool version 10.0.26100
Copyright (C) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Decryption is now in progress.

is it supposed to tell me it's complete? Since nothing showed up but after waiting 5 minutes and no messages shows up,

manage-bde -status Z:
BitLocker Drive Encryption: Configuration Tool version 10.0.26100
Copyright (C) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

ERROR: The volume Z: could not be opened by BitLocker.
This may be because the volume does not exist, or because it is not a valid
BitLocker volume.

and ofcourse in Minitool Partition Wizard:

As for Windows RE, that was what I meant. I thought if I moved them, then the partition # will change since at one point, I had two WinRE partitions where I deleted and recreated from scratch using the combined space after reagentc /disable and then reagentc /enable afterwards.

Almighty1 · Aug 17, 2025

Bree said:
You'd have to move the last partition, DELLSUPPORT, first. Only then would you be able to move the WinRE partition.

That makes sense, never done this before so just wanted to be safe than sorry.

Bree said:
It's possible that you may have already started decryption of Z: but it hasn't completed yet. If so the status will say it's decrypting. Just wait until it's completed before trying to move it.

Yes, I see the decryption started but there was nothing about it completing. Is it supposed to show something to let me know it's completed? There was actually no new status other than when I tried it:

Code:

manage-bde -status Z:
BitLocker Drive Encryption: Configuration Tool version 10.0.26100
Copyright (C) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

ERROR: The volume Z: could not be opened by BitLocker.
This may be because the volume does not exist, or because it is not a valid
BitLocker volume.

Ghot said:
To do what you want, you have to move those two partitions.
I've never had a DELL Support partition, but it to has to be moved for you to do what you want.

Iirc, @Bree has many computers, some of which are DELLs.

The DELL Support partition is just the factory backup. If you use backup software, you don't really need it.

However you do it... the object of the game is to have nothing between the C: drive and the unallocated space.

That's not what the DELL Support partition is only for as I noticed the files are updated as recently as a few days ago since it also contains Dell SupportAssist, the diagnostics to test all the hardware which seems to be part of DELLSUPPORT as well so it does come in handy to tell me if there is a fault with the hardware like if the AC Adapter is faulty or not, etc. I will never use it for the factory backup since it would be Windows 10 Home if that was the case and I am already on Windows 11 24H2 Beta.

Ghot · Aug 17, 2025

Almighty1 said:
since it also contains Dell SupportAssist

I'll take your word for it. I've never owned a DELL.

Still... you need to move those two partitions before you can combine C: and the unallocated space.

Josey Wales · Aug 17, 2025

Thanks @Almighty1 , because of this thread I was able to remove one unnecessary Recovery Partition. I have a Dell Aurora Alienware PC and when my Warranty runs out, I will delete that Dell partition. I do not use Dell Support Assist.

Bree · Aug 17, 2025

Almighty1 said:
Yes, I see the decryption started but there was nothing about it completing. Is it supposed to show something to let me know it's completed?

It's a long time since I've decrypted a drive. I don't use Bitlocker, and the only times I've needed to turn off Device Encryption was after a clean install that had enabled it

As I recall the only place I could see the Bitlocker status while decrypting was in the Control Panel.

gunrunnerjohn · Aug 17, 2025

When you turn off BitLocker, that decrypts the drive on it's way out.

Almighty1 · Aug 17, 2025

I just tried doing the move/resize on DELLSUPPORT and this is what it shows:

It seems to have the partition size as 0.00, and the smallest size it will accept is 1.23GB.

Ghot said:
I'll take your word for it. I've never owned a DELL.

Still... you need to move those two partitions before you can combine C: and the unallocated space.

Basically, it's this:

How to Run Dell Preboot Diagnostics and Hardware Tests on Your Dell Computer | Dell US

I am just trying to decide on which tool to use right now as Minitool Partition Wizard atleast for the DELLSUPPORT partition will not allow the original size of 1.06GB while DiskGenius will and then use Minitool Partition Wizard to do the C: as it seems like DiskGenius cannot do the C: while in Windows if their documentation is correct.

Almighty1 · Aug 17, 2025

Josey Wales said:
Thanks @Almighty1 , because of this thread I was able to remove one unnecessary Recovery Partition. I have a Dell Aurora Alienware PC and when my Warranty runs out, I will delete that Dell partition. I do not use Dell Support Assist.

You are welcome. A few months ago, I used to have two Windows RE partitions so I deleted both after reagentc /disable which moved the winre.wim to the C:\Windows\system32\Recovery\winre.wim, created a new partition using the combined space but then Minitool Partition Wizard does not have a way to flag it as a Recovery partition so I had to use DiskGenius to do that part and then reagentc /enable which moved the winre.wim back to the newly created recovery partition at \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition4\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim'

Almighty1 · Aug 17, 2025

gunrunnerjohn said:
When you turn off BitLocker, that decrypts the drive on it's way out.

Not for me, I turned off Bitlocker over 5 years ago on C: and of course that drive is decrypted. It's the hidden unlocked DELLSUPPORT partition which seems to be unlocked but still encrypted until @Bree who I owe a big thanks to for telling me to decrypt it.

Almighty1 · Aug 17, 2025

Bree said:
It's a long time since I've decrypted a drive. I don't use Bitlocker, and the only times I've needed to turn off Device Encryption was after a clean install that had enabled it

As I recall the only place I could see the Bitlocker status while decrypting was in the Control Panel.

View attachment 142676

I don't either so never figured out why I had a hidden BitLocker Recovery protection. Only thing is it's unlocked and not locked and didn't realize it was encrypted still as everyone else including Macrium and Hasleo would tell me it will only be backed up unencrypted as all the Partition Manager's only will show it's BitLocker locked. Macrium will show it's unlocked but nothing shows the encryption status. The Control Panel item only works when the drive has a letter but I didn't have it up since I was in the command prompt so I figure if it shows up as a regular NTFS drive in MiniTool Partition Magic and the command prompt status no longer sees it as BitLocker, it's all good.

RD Mercer · Aug 17, 2025

The only way "in my personal experience" to extend a drive, is delete every partition to the right of the c: partition. I have Paragon Partition Manager, but I also tried others, none of them worked, until I removed/deleted every partition to the right of the c: drive, good luck.

Bree · Aug 17, 2025

Almighty1 said:
I figure if it shows up as a regular NTFS drive in MiniTool Partition Magic and the command prompt status no longer sees it as BitLocker, it's all good.

If it shows as a regular NTFS drive in MiniTool, then it should now allow you to move it.

Almighty1 · Aug 18, 2025

RD Mercer said:
The only way "in my personal experience" to extend a drive, is delete every partition to the right of the c: partition. I have Paragon Partition Manager, but I also tried others, none of them worked, until I removed/deleted every partition to the right of the c: drive, good luck.

That's strange as it works fine for me since it took me exactly 2 minutes to get everything working but had a big headache earlier so I will post the details here. Not sure why you had to delete every partition to the right of the C: partition as these tools are all supposed to be non-destructive partitioning which I believe had existed since 1995 or so with Partition Magic.

Basically, I don't have any spare USB Flashdrives to do WinPE boot drives for Minitool Partition Wizard but I do have two USB Flashdrives of 64GB and 128GB with the exact same tools under Ventoy. I tried Sergei WinPE which has both Win10/11 and the May 22, 2025 version. Both of them BSOD with Kernel Security Check error, maybe I got a corrupted download since they are both from the same download. I know the older version worked without a problem.
So I then took out Hiren Boot WinPE CD and actually used three things from it...

EaseUS to move the DELLSUPPORT 1.06GB partition which did everything fine,
AOMEI to move the Windows RE Tools partition which kept turning the 2.34GB into 2.35GB after it was done. I liked the consecutive 234 number so I used DiskGenius to change the size back to 2.34GB,
and then as now it's C:, Unallocated space, Windows RE Tools and DELLSUPPORT,
I used DiskGenius and did a resize and chose the largest number which was 3.7TB so the other parts says 0 free and it took another 10 seconds

I couldn't figure out how to move with DiskGenius only that in all the programs, they are always the two arrows at each end of the bar to change the size of the partition while the 4 direction arrow like a cross is what's used to move things. I couldn't figure it out earlier when I was still in this thread with Minitool Partition Wizard because the size of the DELLSUPPORT was the size of a grain of rice as this is on a 15" 3840x2160 UHD 4K Display on a notebook.

The DiskGenius in Hiren's BootCD is way older than the one I have in Windows as the current version shows C: as 3.6TB instead of the 3.7TB in the Hiren BootCD version of DiskGenius. But all in all, I got things working in 2 minutes flat and this was opening and closing three programs after each action was done.

This is what it looks like now:

Thanks to all those who provided your input especially @Bree for the hint on the decrypting part.

Bree · Aug 18, 2025

Almighty1 said:
I got things working in 2 minutes flat and this was opening and closing three programs after each action was done.....

....Thanks to all those who provided your input especially @Bree for the hint on the decrypting part.

Congratulations, well done! :thumbsup:

Time to click the 'Solved' button at the top of the thread

Josey Wales · Aug 18, 2025

Almighty1 said:
You are welcome. A few months ago, I used to have two Windows RE partitions so I deleted both after reagentc /disable which moved the winre.wim to the C:\Windows\system32\Recovery\winre.wim, created a new partition using the combined space but then Minitool Partition Wizard does not have a way to flag it as a Recovery partition so I had to use DiskGenius to do that part and then reagentc /enable which moved the winre.wim back to the newly created recovery partition at \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition4\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim'

It seems that I needed 2 recovery partitions, after I removed the one, my PC started to act strange. I then did an inplace repair and it put it back. I may try to merge the two??

Bree · Aug 18, 2025

Josey Wales said:
It seems that I needed 2 recovery partitions, after I removed the one, my PC started to act strange. I then did an inplace repair and it put it back. I may try to merge the two??

There should only be one recovery partition that's in active use. The inactive one(s) are redundant and can be deleted safely. The trick is knowing which is which.

In an admin Terminal use the command reagentc -info to find which one is the active one.

Josey Wales · Aug 18, 2025

Bree said:
There should only be one recovery partition that's in active use. The inactive one(s) are redundant and can be deleted safely. The trick is knowing which is which.

In an admin Terminal use the command reagentc -info to find which one is the active one.

I just did and it is the 4th one, but the one I removed is the 3rd one which may be the Macrium Reflect one. MR is what started to act strange. I think I will just leave it alone, I have a 2TB drive and space is not an issue. I probably can disable the 4th then remove it but like the old saying, "If it ain't broke don't fix it."

gunrunnerjohn · Aug 18, 2025

RD Mercer said:
The only way "in my personal experience" to extend a drive, is delete every partition to the right of the c: partition. I have Paragon Partition Manager, but I also tried others, none of them worked, until I removed/deleted every partition to the right of the c: drive, good luck.

I've used Paragon Partition Manager several times to move partitions so I could extend a partition, it's always worked for me. I'm sure there are some special cases or configurations that might make it choke, I just haven't encountered them.

Bree · Aug 18, 2025

Josey Wales said:
the one I removed is the 3rd one which may be the Macrium Reflect one. MR is what started to act strange.

The MR boot files should be in C:\boot\macrium and the boot menu entry should be pointing to it.
In an Admin command prompt the BCDedit command (on its own, no switches) will show details of all the boot entries.

Josey Wales · Aug 18, 2025

Bree said:
The MR boot files should be in C:\boot\macrium and the boot menu entry should be pointing to it.
In an Admin command prompt the BCDedit command (on its own, no switches) will show details of all the boot entries.

Solved How to add unallocated space to C: partition?

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