Windows 10: Unable to create/combine partition from unallocated space

Hello,

I just assembled a new PC. It has a single 4TB hard drive. During Windows 10 installation, I created a 200gb partition to install to as the C: drive. It auto partitioned my drive into a 500MB system reserved partition, my C: drive, and two unallocated spaces of 1852.69GB and 1678.02GB respectively. The 1852GB space I can create a partition on, but the 1678GB space I cannot do anything with: Cannot create a partition, and cannot combine it with the rest of the unallocated space.

I would like to combine the two unallocated spaces to create a single partition from the remaining unallocated spaces, but cannot figure out how. I contacted Microsoft tech support via chat, allowed them to remote in to my machine, but they could not determine the issue either. If anyone could shed some light on this, I would greatly appreciate it.







:)

 

Unallocated Space to C Drive

Thanks

 

Unallocated Space to C Drive

Hi Travis,

It appears that a disk partition was created but was never assigned its allocation. Assuming there are no files stored in the unallocated partition, perform these steps to combine it with your C: drive:

• In Disk Management, right-click on (C which appears next to the
  Unallocated partition.
  
• Select Extend.

Let us know if you're able to combine the spaces after following the steps above.

Regards.

 

It looks to me as if you have done a legacy bios install not an eufi install.

You need EUFI to access all of disk space (max for bios is 2.2GB).

Open up a command vprompt with admin rights and run these commands and post image.

diskpart

list disk

Also tell us if a 32bit or 64bit install.

 

That sounds possible. OS installed is Win 10 Pro, 64-bit

 

Yeah - this is a legacy bios install. Is pc eufi capable?

 

Problems with your setup:

• Your MB does not support UEFI so when you install Windows, The HD was initialized with the old legacy MBR. With MBR, the max size is ~2TB usable, making the rest unusable.
• You need to get a smaller size HD < 2TB to use with MBR type disk to install Windows so the whole disk is usable.
• You can still use your 4TB as data disk, just re-initialize the disk to be GPT type disk then the whole disk will be available.

 

I was looking into that after cereberus above mentioned uefi; I was not aware this MB didn't support it. Not a huge deal, I can buy a second hard drive and reinstall. I bought the board due to needing Micro ATX form factor due to size constraints.

Any idea if I'll have problems reinstalling 10 and trying to use the same key with different hardware configuration?

 

Changing disk doesn't affect activation - it will be fine. I'd get a small cheap SSD for the OS and use your current drive for data if it was me.

 

There are 3rd pary tools like seagates diskwizard that will allow you to access the extra space on an mbr boot drive.

But sdd for OS plus converting hdd to gpt as suggested by lx07 and topgundcp is really best way to go.

Use Macrium Reflect Free to clone existing W10 install to SSD, and then boot pc, run msconfig, select boot tab and set ssd drive as default (will probably still be hdd). You may be able to choose ssd as default from bios (some bioses don't).

Once you have booted from sdd, do following

open command prompt with admin rights and run

diskpart

list disk

sel disk n (n= number of hdd - tell by capacity)

clean (wipes everything)

convert gpt

cre par pri

sel par 1

format fs=ntfs quick

assign

exit

exit

Drive will now show all capacity.

 

@cereberus, I hope you don't think I'm trying to be prescriptive (or annoying) here but using

Code:

 xxx 

tags and not using abbreviations might make it a bit clearer. Code: diskpart list disk select disk n (n= number of hdd - tell by capacity) clean (wipes everything) convert gpt create partition primary seectl partition 1 format fs=ntfs quick assign exit exit[/quote] I mean cre par pri for create partition primary is a bit gobbledegook and makes a simple procedure sound more complicated than it is.

But I agree with what you said - it was only the layout I thought might be confusing.

 

Since you have a 4TB hdd. It is plenty to store your personal data. All you need is an SSD 120GB, 240GB is better. The price for the SSD is no longer that expensive. Windows does not take lots of space, small SSD will be easier to maintain/backup Windows.
All you need: using Macrium Reflect Free to make a backup image of the current Windows 10 to an external HD, or even shrink your 4TB HD enough to store the backup. Again, with your SSD connected, click on Restore tab then restore the image to the SSD, set BIOS to boot from SSD as first boot device. Reboot, you're back in business.

 

Thanks guys. I've ordered a SSD and should be here Saturday. I'll post results after I install it.

 

First, I'm so happy I found this thread and thanks to 'farclane' for asking the question and to 'cereberus' for the answer. For 1.5 days, about 10 hours searching for an answer and now it has been solved.
Thanks
Leo

 

I mean cre par pri for create partition primary is a bit gobbledegook and makes a simple procedure sound more complicated than it is.

But I agree with what you said - it was only the layout I thought might be confusing.[/quote]
yeah fair point - i just know these off by heart!