How to Resize Partition with Qiling Disk Master?

Updated on Jun 08, 2024 | by Nick Jones

Overview of Resize Partition

Resizing a partition allows you to change its size, either by extending or shrinking it, to make better use of your hard drive space. By shrinking a partition, you can free up space to be used by other partitions, or to create new ones, giving you more flexibility in how you organize your files and applications.

Here are several situations in which you would like to resize partition:

When you buy a new laptop or PC, it often comes with a pre-installed system and a large C drive, but a small data partition. This can limit your ability to use the full disk space, making it difficult to store all your files and data.

When a computer has been used for a long time, it may display a message indicating that the system drive is running out of space, which can cause issues with the computer's performance and functionality.

If a Windows 10 upgrade fails with the error "Couldn't update system reserved partition", it's probably because the system reserved partition is too small, and extending it can resolve the issue.

When I downloaded a player online, I encountered an issue where my C drive didn't have enough space to install the application. Following the installation steps without setting a destination led to this problem. Luckily, my friends advised me to set the destination to either the D or F partition, which avoided the issue and allowed me to successfully install the player.

I was frustrated with managing my disk space, especially extending my C drive, which seemed like a daunting task. As someone who's not tech-savvy, I often found myself stuck with problems. However, with the help of Qiling Disk Master, I've been able to easily manage my disks using its user-friendly interface and straightforward steps. This software is compatible with various Windows versions, including Windows 11, 10, 8/8.1, and 7, making it a convenient solution for me.

How to Resize partition with Partition Assistant

Before you do

Download and install Qiling Disk Master on a Windows computer.
To resize a partition, first, check the partitions you want to resize and make sure there is no error. This is a crucial step to ensure that the resizing process goes smoothly and without any data loss.
To resize a partition, there must be enough free space on the same drive to accommodate the new size of the partition.
Be sure to save your work and shut down the computer properly to avoid data loss.
Please close all running applications on the partitions you want to resize, as they may interfere with the resizing process.
To safely partition your hard drive, you'll want to back up your data, ensure you have a Windows installation media, and boot from it. Then, you can use the built-in Disk Management tool or a third-party partition manager to create a new partition or resize an existing one. It's also a good idea to defragment your hard drive and consider upgrading to a solid-state drive (SSD) for improved performance.

Case 1: Extend Partition

Extending a partition means to increase its size, allowing for more storage space within the partition.

To expand a partition on a hard disk, there must be an unallocated space on the same hard disk where the partition to be expanded is located. If there's no unallocated space, other partitions on the same drive can be shrunk to generate the unallocated space.

The unallocated space should be adjacent to the partition you want to extend, no matter it is in front of the target partition or behind it. If not, you could use the feature to merge the partition with the unallocated space. However, the unallocated space should be next to the target partition for the extension to work."Move Partition" to adjust the position of it.

1. To extend the C drive, launch Qiling Disk Master and view the partition configuration in the main console. Right-click the C partition and select "Extend" to extend the partition into the unallocated space behind it. This will allow you to increase the size of the C drive."Resize /Move Partition".

2. In the pop-up window, position the mouse pointer on the right border of the partition and drag the border rightwards to extend the partition, then click "OK" to confirm the operation."OK"If there's no unallocated space beside the partition, you won't be able to drag the border.

Tips:

The software offers a safe and fast option for resizing or moving partitions, especially for NTFS partitions, which ensures data integrity even if the process is interrupted or cancelled.
If you're running low on space on your C drive, you can use the "App Mover" tool to relocate programs and folders to an external drive, freeing up space on your main drive.

3. You can preview the expand operation by viewing the "Pending Operations". Please click "Proceed" to resize the partition.

Tips:

Qiling Disk Master enables you to extend a partition even without unallocated space or contiguous unallocated space, which can be achieved by referring to the tutorials on how to allocate free space, use the extend partition wizard, or merge partitions.
If you want to extend the system reserved partition, you can move unallocated space to the right side of it and then resize the partition.

4. Wait for the operation to be finished. After it is completed successfully, you will find the C: partition has been expanded.

Case 2: Shrink Partition

Shrinking a partition can free up unused space, allowing you to create new partitions or expand existing ones with the newly available space.

1. Install and launch Qiling Disk Master, then view the whole partition configuration in the main console. Right-click the partition you want to shrink (in this case, D:) and select the desired option from the context menu."Resize Partition".

2. In the pop-up window, position the mouse pointer on either border of the partition and drag the border rightwards or leftwards to shrink the partition, then click "Apply" to confirm the changes."OK".

3. You can preview the shrink operation by viewing the "Pending Operations". Please click "Proceed" to shrink the partition.

4. Wait for the operation to be finished. After it is completed successfully, the D: partition will have been shrunk.

Conclusion

By following these steps, you can successfully expand or shrink your partitions, making it easier and faster to manage your disk space. This tool is very useful for helping you manage your disk space.

This feature is used to expand partitions when one partition runs out of space, while there's more free space on other partitions or unallocated space on the drive, allowing you to extend your system partition if your computer runs out of space.

Partition Assistant offers additional wizards to facilitate quick adjustments, including allocation of free space and expansion of partitions, among other options.

Notes:

The partition shrinking operation will be performed under PreOS Mode and your computer will reboot when:

Shrink system and/or boot partition.

If you need to shrink a partition on which the page file or Qiling Disk Master installation file is located, you should first move the page file to a different partition or disable it during the shrinking process. This can be done by going to Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance Settings > Change, or by running the command "movepagesetup.

Qiling Disk Master will suggest to close running applications or perform partition shrinking operations under PreOS Mode when attempting to shrink a partition where applications are running.

Partition Assistant will first decrypt the BitLocker encryption in advance for encrypted partitions.

FAQs:

Q: Why the option "Resize Partition" is greyed out?

A: Qiling Disk Master is unable to resize file systems such as ReFS, ExT2/3, ExFAT, and others, but it can format, delete, and wipe them.

Q: Is it possible to resize the exFAT partition?

A: Currently, it is unable to resize the exFAT partition.

Q: How long will it take to resize a partition?

A: The program will take a certain amount of time to process, depending on the size of the data, and will display an estimated time after clicking the "Apply" button.

Q: No, the "Resize Partition" feature is designed to resize a partition on the same hard disk, not to extend a partition with space from another hard disk. To extend a partition with space from another hard disk, you would need to use the "Merge Partitions" feature or manually move files and resize the partition.

A: Currently, you can only use the feature to extend a partition with space on the same disk.

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