Windows 10: Recovery partition getting in the way of extending C: partition

Hello everyone,

This is my very first post to this forum, so please don't bite my head off if my question has been answered already or if it's in the wrong section. *Redface

So, I've had this 1Tb HDD lying around unused, so I had the bright idea of shoving it in place of my Dell Latitude E6410's original 640Gb HDD, use that in place of the old 60Gb HDD on my T60 (a mere 60Gbs just weren't enough to accommodate my Google Drive - running on Linux with InSync - and Mega cloud storage), and put my latest W10 Pro system image on the 1Tb in the E6410.

All well and good so far - except when I checked the partitions after I reinstalled the system image from the original 640Gb, this is what I got:





Which wasn't too surprising, given how Windows works. What I wanted to do was to expand C: into all that extra unallocated space, but as you can see, the recovery partition is in the way. I wouldn't be too surprised, either, if there was no workaround that doesn't involve reinstalling Windows, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed here. So, any suggestions are appreciated.

Shady

:)

 

Partitioning a Windows 10 computer

Move the recovery partition to a space in the un-allocated space then extend the C: drive.

I use EaseUS Partition Manager free and can do it graphically.

Click in the recovery partition and hold and drag to the right,

Then go to the end of the C; drive and get double ended arrow and drag it to the recovery partition.

Then do it.

 

Can't Extend Windows Partition

windows disk management is limited in what it can do, you can only extend a partition to the right but your recovery partition is in the way.

Aomei partition assistant will enable you to move partitions and extend c:

make sure you have decent backups before adjusting any partition.

tutorials (might be useful)

How to Move Partition with Partition Assistant?

Extend Partition Wizard Built-in AOMEI Partition Assistant Changes Partition Size without Rebooting

 

I don't think there is an easy way around that tbh.

What you might find in any case is that the Dell restore partition is no longer functional having been transferred to a different drive. I would try accessing it and seeing if it does actually work. Dell PC's can be very fussy over any such changes.

I wouldn't even hesitate over this... pull your data off the drive and then clean install W10 using the install media to delete all that is on the disc (take it all down to unallocated space) and so free up all the disk capacity.

If you are intent on keeping the image as it stands then I think you could use disk imaging software (Acronis, Macrium etc) to make a disk image of your operating system (storing that image on another drive) and then wiping this drive clean and reinstalling the image.

 

There is a very easy solution. Install MiniTool Partition Wizard Free:
Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Free

Move the recovery partition to the end of the drive. Extend the C: drive partition into the resulting free space that will be created directly behind it when you move the recovery partition. Don't forget to hit the "apply" button in MiniTool before exiting the program to actually make the changes.

In MiniTool to move the partition you will click on the recovery partition to highlight it, select the move/resize button. Click in the middle of the graphic for the partition and get the + with arrows cursor icon and drag the entire partition all the way to the right. The unallocated space numbers in the numbers columns should go to zero after the partition and the number for space before the partition should go up. The middle number for partition size should stay the same.

To resize C: drive you will click on it, select move/resize, then click on the right edge of the graphic partition to get the - with arrows cursor icon and drag just the partition edge (boundary) all the way to the right. The middle number in the columns should go up, the free space before the partition should stay at 0 and the free space after the partition should decrease to 0.