How to merge two Partitions which is separated by a recovery partition?

Question

I recently reinstalled Windows 10 due to virus attack. Everything is fine yet. I also used Linux in dual boot, but now I no longer need Linux so I deleted its partition.

Please see the Picture below..

As you can see, There is a C: and a Unallocated partition (gained after deleting Linux partition) separated by a Recovery Partition. The task I want to do is merge the C: and that Unallocated partition. Then shrink it to get 100GB of C: and 100GB of Unallocated partition, so that I can create a empty partition of 100GB for data. But that 509MB Recovery Partition is blocking my way. I cannot even browse (to backup) or delete the recovery partition. So how do I merge those (C: and Unallocated) partitions? Can I delete the recovery partition some how? If yes, can I also restore it?? There are 2 recovery partitions here (Which I didn't Include). My final goal is to merge the C: and unallocated partition which is separated by a Recovery Partition, So does anyone know how to do it? Thanks!

Answer 1

You need to move the Recovery partition to the end of your drive, as such that the empty space is moved to the left.

Windows natively does not support this, but there are many Partition utilities out there, and almost all of them support moving partitions. I have used AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard (free) succesfully in the past for this kind of operation.

You install it in windows, and run the tool, and select the operation you want. When you commit, it will ask you to reboot. It will then reboot into its own tool to move the data, then move back into windows.

It can also enlarge the C drive, but I recommend performing that as 2 separate actions. AOMEI has a tendancy to try and do batch operations but fail somehow and although you don't get any changes, time is consumed. Windows can also perform the partition resize once the recovery partition has been moved.