How to allocate hard drive space vista

In this article, we will share all possible methods to redistribute disk space without repartitioning hard disk or losing any important data in Windows 10, 8, 7. When it comes to reallocating hard disk space, most users think of Disk Management one of Windows native disk management tools. It allows you to shrink partition to generate some unallocated space, with which you can only create a new partition.

You cannot extend C drive with the unallocated space from shrinking another partition like D drive. If you do that, you will find the "Extend Volume" option is greyed out. To easily and flexibly reallocate hard drive space from one drive to another, the best way is to make use of a third-party partition manager like AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. If you have shrunk another partition to get unallcoated space for extending C drive in Disk Management, you can use this software to move the partition that is shrunk to the right side and make the free space adjacent to the c drive, and then you can extend the system partition in Disk Management.

Merge Partition : it is able to directly merge unallocated space into another partition no matter they are contiguous or not , and merge two adjacent partitions into one. Or, alternatively, copy files you wish to restore to another hard disk.

As you can see, lost partition recovery can be realized with a few simple steps. Considering that the recovery cannot play up to desired effect once data overwriting occurs. So, it is important to pay attention to following points in order to maximize the recovery rate.

When a partition on your hard drive becomes unallocated, files disappear at the same time. How to recover data from unallocated partition? The easiest solution is using DiskGenius to scan the unallocated space and recover recoverable files. Launch DiskGenius and find the hard drive that contains unallocated space. Right-click the unallocated area and choose "Recover Lost Files" option. Tip: if the unallocated area shows after accidentally deleting a partition, you can also try "Partition Recovery" function to search for the partition.

The complete recovery will scan the disk space fully and try to show files with original names and paths. The search for known file types scans the selected disk area sector by sector to locate all possible data. When the software finishes scanning, it displays files and allows users to preview files: double-click a file to open it and view file content. After previewing files, you will have a clear understanding of the recovery result before purchasing and registering the software.

The first option to fix and access unallocated hard drive space is to create a new partition. Once the disk space is allocated to a partition and it will show up in Windows File Explorer. Here is how to create a partition in Disk Management. Right-click the Start menu and click Disk Management. Simple volume is an average partition used by most users on a basic hard drive in Windows; other options like spanned volume and stripped volume can create partition on disk space from separated hard drives.

Step 3. Follow this wizard and you will be able to create and format the partition successfully. The other option to deal with unallocated space on hard disk is adding it to an existing partition. Merging unallocated space to a nonadjacent partition needs the help of third-party disk partition software.

Then you can specify a partition to which you want to transfer the space. You should be wary of bad sectors when a hard drive becomes unallocated suddenly. It is suggested to check bad sectors for the hard drive before using it to store files again.

To verify bad sectors, follow these steps:. Tip: Do close all other programs that are using the hard drive; if you want to check bad sectors for the drive 0 unallocated space, then perform the task in WinPE with DiskGenius WinPE edition. Unallocated disk cannot be formatted directly, and you need to create a partition before formatting it. If you have a hard drive that contains unallocated space, then follow steps below to format unallocated to NTFS. Unallocated disk space does not belong to any partition, and it is not available for storing data, thus it is not shown in Windows File Explorer.

However, you can view unallocated space on hard drive in Disk Management or third-party disk partition software, provided that the hard drive is connected to computer properly. Partitions and files do not exist on unallocated space, and they are not accessible to users. To restore lost partitions and files from unallocated disk, you will need the help of professional data recovery software.

It is normal to see unallocated disk not showing in Windows 10 File Explorer, as it has not got ready to be used by Windows. To recover unallocated space in hard drive, you can try either method below:.

Method 2. Transfer the unallocated space to an existing partition using free disk partition software such as DiskGenius Free edition. Briefly, the free space refers to the usable space in a partition and it is available for storing data.

Free space can be accessed and used by users directly. Whereas the unallocated disk space is not showing up in Windows File Explorer, and no partition is created on it. To make use of unallocated hard drive, you need to create a volume first. Free space is the vacuum of the existing partition. The GB is the free space of the D drive. Sometimes, the free space may refer to the unusable space shown in Disk Management or the usable but unused space on an existing partition.

When you use Disk Management or other third-party partition tools to create a partition, extend C drive , or increase drive space, you must make sure that you have unallocated space on your hard drive. The limitation is that there must be unallocated space next to the partition which you want to resize.

You cannot move free space from one drive to another directly. What's more, you can only get unallocated in these ways:. Any of these ways can maximize the risk of data loss. Is there any way to directly add free space from one drive to another? With it, you can directly allocate the unused space of the selected partition to another partition on the same disk. Besides, it has many highlights:. Download EaseUS disk management tool and follow the steps to allocate free space on a hard drive.

Here, I take D drive and C drive as an example. Step 1. Right-click on the D: partition with enough free space and select "Allocate Space". Step 2. Select the target partition - C: drive and drag the partition panel rightward to add the free space from D: drive to C: drive. Then click "OK" to confirm. Step 3. Click the "Execute Operation" button and click "Apply" to start the process of moving free space from D: drive to C: drive. You have learned the way to allocate a hard drive.

How can you free up disk space? You may get free space in the following methods. You can get free space quickly if you use reliable junk file cleanup software.