How to Increase/Extend C Drive Space in Windows 11(Fixed)
What Is Windows 11
Windows 11 is the latest operating system from Microsoft, which offers a network-centric approach for PCs and devices, combining the strengths of Windows 10. It's a departure from incremental revisions and aims to provide a compelling experience for PC users.
Windows 11 focuses on simplicity, speed, and security, with a new look for apps and icons, and features like enhanced window snapping for easier multitasking.
| Workable Solutions | Step-by-step Troubleshooting |
|---|---|
| Fix 1. Use Qiling Partition Master | Run Qiling Partition Master > Right-click partition and choose "Resize...Full steps |
| Fix 2. Increase C Drive Space with Disk Management | Open Disk Management > Figure out two situations > Choose...Full steps |
| Fix 3. Increase C Drive Space with CMD | Open CMD and choose Run as administrator...Full steps |
Why Do You Need to Increase C Drive Space
A computer's internal hard drive, typically the C drive, is a storage device that holds a significant amount of essential data. As you use your computer, the C drive space fills up, making it necessary to increase the storage capacity to accommodate new applications, games, and data, ultimately requiring additional C drive space.
1) Low C disk drive space issue: To run your Windows 11 PC smoothly, it's recommended to have enough free space on your C drive, as it's considered the "heart" of your PC, but over time, installing multiple programs and data on it can leave insufficient space.
When the C drive runs out of disk space, it can cause chaos for the computer system. To mitigate this, consider extending the hard disk storage and optimize the computer system by removing unwanted files and folders on the C drive.
2) Slow Windows performance issue:When your computer's storage usage becomes heavy, it can lead to hard drive fragmentation, causing Windows OS and overall computer performance to slow down gradually. This can affect your daily PC activities and even cause temporary freezing.
Slow computer performance can be frustrating, but one way to bypass this issue is to free up space on the local drive. This can be achieved by extending the volume space on the C drive using free disk space, which can be a challenging task for non-professionals to do without the help of a partition extension tool.
You can increase your C drive's free space by extending drive space using the Qiling Partition Master program, which is more convenient than the built-in Windows 11 disk management tool. While the disk management tool is sufficient for experienced users, it has limited capabilities and can make it difficult to extend the drive space if there is no unallocated space in the partition. Qiling Partition Master, on the other hand, is easier to use and can be particularly helpful in this situation.
How to Expand C Drive in Windows 11
Method 1. Use Qiling Partition Master
Qiling Partition Master Free is a powerful partition manager that allows users to expand the C drive space without losing data, manage, reorganize and maintain disk partitions, merge adjacent partitions, and create new larger ones.
With Qiling Partition Master, the partition becomes more flexible, allowing for extension without unallocated space, migration of the OS to an SSD/HDD without reinstalling the system, and easy merging of partitions.
Step 1: Free up unallocated space for C drive.
If there is no unallocated space on the system disk, right-click on a partition next to the C: drive and select "Resize/Move" to free up space.
Drag the left partition to shrink and leave unallocated space behind the system C: drive, then click "Proceed".
Step 2: Increase C drive space.
1. Click on C: drive and select "Resize/Move".
2. To add space to the C: drive, the system partition end should be dragged into the unallocated space. This will effectively expand the C: drive's capacity by utilizing the newly allocated space.
Step 3: Keep all changes to extend C: drive.
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The Qiling partition manager allows users to easily manage partitions without risk, fully supporting all Windows operating systems, including Windows 11. It also offers advanced features such as creating bootable discs and modifying partitions' system files on the fly. With its user-friendly interface, everyday users can navigate operations with ease, and it doesn't limit the number of partitions for data storage, allowing users to create partitions of virtually any size.
Method 2. Increase C Drive Space with Disk Management
#1. If you find unallocated space on your drive, follow the below steps:
Step 1. Press Windows + R keys and type diskmgmt.msc, press Enter.
Step 2. Right-click on the disk C drive, and click on "Extend Volume".
Step 3. Select any number of disks in the Available column and click on add to select the disks for extending the C drive space, then click Next to continue.
Step 4. Click on "Finish" to close the Disk Management tool.
The Disk Management tool has successfully increased the C Drive Space in Windows 11. This was achieved by using the tool to extend the volume of the C drive, effectively increasing the available space.
#2. Look for any unallocated space behind your system C: drive. If you can't find any unallocated space, follow these steps.
Step 1. Press Windows + R keys and type diskmgmt.msc, press Enter.
Step 2. Right-click on a partition adjacent to C drive, select "Shrink Volume" to free up space.
Step 3. Enter the shrink size in MB, then click "Shrink" to confirm, and the operation will be performed.
Step 4. Now, Right-click on C drive and choose "Extend Volume".
Step 5. Follow the above steps from "Step 3" and complete the process.
If you don't want to understand the process in detail and don't want to spend much time on it, you can use third-party software like Qiling partition manager to quickly and safely manage partitions and create new ones without any knowledge in Windows 11.
1. Connect the external drive to your computer.
Method 3. Increase C Drive Space with CMD
To extend system C drive space in Windows 11, you can use the Diskpart tool. This valuable tool allows you to manage your disk partitions and extend the C drive space. To do this, open Command Prompt as an administrator, type "diskpart", and press Enter. Then, type "list disk" and press Enter to identify the disk number of your C drive.
This method is more suitable for advanced users and should be used with caution.
#1. Extend C drive When Unallocated Space is available
Step 1. Press the Windows key + R, type "cmd", and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to run Command Prompt as an administrator.
Step 2. Type diskpart and press enter.
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- type list disk
- 1. Type `select disk 0` (replace the number 0 with your system disk letter) in the command prompt.
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- type list partition
- The command `type select partition 3 (replace the number 3 with your system C drive letter)` is likely a typo or a misunderstanding. The correct command to select a partition is `select partition 3` is not a valid command.
You used the number "3" because your C drive partition number is "3", as shown in the screenshot.
- type extend
- type exit
#2. If there is no unallocated space, follow below steps:
The Virtual Disk Service error typically occurs when trying to extend a partitioned volume, which can be due to not leaving enough space beside a system drive, a system drive being close to full, or a corrupt disk partition.
If your C drive is full of data with no unallocated space, you can still increase its space in Windows 11 by following these steps.
Step 1. Press the Windows and R keys together, then type "cmd" and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open the Command Prompt as an administrator.
Step 2. Type diskpart and press enter.
Now type the below commands and press enter to run the command.
- list disk
- select disk 0 (replace the number 0 with your system disk letter)
- list partition
- select partition n (replace the number n with your partition number that you want to delete)
You want to delete a partition with 1000 MB of space and use that space to extend the C drive in Windows 11. Is that correct?
- delete partition
- select partition n ( replace n with your C: drive letter)
- type extend
- type exit
Conclusion
To alleviate the issue of a small C drive on Windows 11, you can expand one partition to free up space for new documents without needing to purchase a new disk. This approach allows you to utilize existing storage capacity more efficiently.
Running out of disk space on your C drive can cause significant issues, making it difficult to perform tasks on your computer. If the partitions are completely full, you may even struggle to start Windows, highlighting the importance of monitoring and managing your disk space to avoid such problems.
You can extend the C drive on your Windows 11 PC by using the Disk Management and Diskpart tools, which can utilize the available compacted space next to the C partition.
To expand the C drive, you need to combine the unallocated space of other partitions with the C partition. If your Windows machine is not equipped with a third-party partition tool, you might run into problems when trying to perform this process by hand. Qiling partition manager is the best choice.
It allows you to allocate space from other partitions to the C drive without deleting them, and can even expand the C drive quickly even if the unallocated space is not adjacent to the drive.
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