This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
I am trying to remove a partition on an internal HDD and place this unused disk space in the C: drive. I currently have two partitions C: and D:. The D: partition was originally used for recovery purposes, but is now empty. The problem I am having is when I go into disk manageement is that the D: partition is situated to the left of the C: partition (I assume this was done by the manufacturor. Therefore even if I delete the partition to unallocated space I still cannot extend C to the left since extend can only be used after the C: partition. I have tried to use diskpart.exe, but have had no success with this either. I tried Gparted boot disk to resize/move, but when I try to apply I get an error and nothing happens. Any help would be appreciated.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Answer accepted by question author
You won't be able to do that, since the disk was encrypted by the OEM that made it to prevent copyright violation or corruption of the files. You will need some third party app to save your data, and repartition the whole drive.
Rating posts helps other usersMark L. Ferguson MS-MVP
Unfortunately, I pressed "yes" before looking at your answer. I now have free space that I would like to add to my C drive. I am using Vista Business.
Many thanks! Good thing I waiting before pressing "yes"
Can anyone help me with deleting a partition of my hard drive? i have win xp. my laptop's hard drive is divided into a 14 GB C: and a 42 GB D:. C: is almost full, and there's nothing in D:. My idea is to delete the partitioning and have a larger and freer C:. I have computer management open. if i right click D: and click "delete logical drive", will all be well?
FYI, C: is listed as the primary partition, and D: as the extended partition and logical drive
Many thanks
XP cannot use its Disk Management tools to expand the size of a partition while preserving the data. (Win 7 can do it.) You would need to save the data on the C: drive, before you tried anything. (Sometimes the Windows setup files are on a hidden partition, there to do a restore of the system to 'factory defaults'.) In any case, it's not the 'logical drive' that is the problem with expanding C:, it's the 'extended partition', and removing that creates 'free space' that would not be part of the existing C: until C: was re-formatted to the larger space (destroying the data on it).
Rating posts helps other usersMark L. Ferguson MS-MVP
Can anyone help me with deleting a partition of my hard drive? i have win xp. my laptop's hard drive is divided into a 14 GB C: and a 42 GB D:. C: is almost full, and there's nothing in D:. My idea is to delete the partitioning and have a larger and freer C:. I have computer management open. if i right click D: and click "delete logical drive", will all be well?
FYI, C: is listed as the primary partition, and D: as the extended partition and logical drive
Many thanks
