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I'm trying to extend in the C partition in Windows 7. I have a D partition to the "right" of C that has extraneous space, so I shrunk it down so that there is unallocated space to the right of D. However, neither EaseUS Partition Home Edition nor Windows 7's own partition manager will allow me to extend the C partition into the newly unallocated space.

I'm sure that I've done this before with another partition manager. Question is, why am I not allowed to extend C into the unallocated space, just because D is between them?

Extending C drive

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Windows "extend" will only extend into an unallocated partition directly to the right of it. You will have to use 3rd party software to get the job done, be warned backup your important files on all partitions before you do any partition re-sizing. Full disk image prior to re-size is recommended also. – Moab May 23 '12 at 2:50

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The problem is that Windows does not perform this task because it would have to move the data from the beginning of the D: partition in order to make way for extending the C: partition. Typically, partitioning tools have to boot into a PE environment to perform the task and make sure that the Windows install doesn't have a lock on the data that needs to be moved.

I use a utility called MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Editionand it does the trick for such operations. The product is free, but there are some limitations on how many changes you can perform at once - it will do fine for what you want to do.

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Yes it does - all you have to do is shrink D: from the beginning of the partition and then expand C: into the newly opened space. It will reboot into PE to perform the task. – Dustin G. May 23 '12 at 3:59
I'm used Ease-US Partition Master, it does the same thing. Shrinking D, moving it to the right, then extending C into the new unallocated region to the left of D works well. Thanks! – xiongtx May 23 '12 at 12:52
Always glad to help! – Dustin G. May 24 '12 at 5:13
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Download the image for Gparted.

Burn a disc from the image, boot to the disc, select the D partition, and slide it to the right. This will put the unallocated space between the C and D partitions. You can then, in GParted, extend the C partition as well... and then apply the changes.

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