Why does the “Extend volume” button in the diskmgmt.msc utility Windows 10 not work?
The integrated disk management tool in Windows 10 is inferior in functionality other volume managers, but is suitable for ordinary partition resizing. This operation can be carried out with the command “Rasshirit roof"(size increases) or "Shrink Volume"(size decreases). However, there are several limitations.
For example, you can expand the disk space of a partition by using space that has not undergone the allocation operation, which should be located on the correct portion of the media. Otherwise, the expand volume button will not work in the context menu of the marked partition. There are also several other reasons that prevent the volume from being expanded.
The unallocated area is not adjacent to the right of the volume being expanded
Increasing the size of a volume in the standard Windows tool is only allowed by adding unallocated space to it. However, one must be on the right side of the section being edited, and also adjacent to its boundaries. For example, if you expand the system volume with the letter C, you will need to erase logical partition D. If you shrink it, the free space will appear on the right side of "thinner» element, not adjacent to the limit of the C drive.
If you plan to create an additional area on a logical partition at the expense of a volume with Windows files, then this operation cannot be performed either: in the hard drive management tool, the unallocated space will appear to the left of the space with the letter D, allowing you to expand only the storage with files that support the operation of the OS.
The file system of the expandable drive is not supported
It is also impossible to give a different size to a volume in the disk management tool when it does not have NTFS, but a file system that differs from it. So, integrated into "ten" The diskmgmt.msc application will not allow you to expand FAT32 formatted disks. Therefore, when changing the size to a larger size, FAT32 needs to be converted to NTFS or a disk manager installed on the PC to bypass the mentioned restrictions.
Volumes are located on different physical HDDs
If your computer has at least two hard drives, a partition with an increased size and an unallocated space can be located on different media. Then the button to expand volume sizes will not be active. And you will have to combine disks only by creating software RAID array.
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Exceptions to the rules
Above we discussed the main reasons that prevent the “Expand volume” button from being activated. But there are exceptions to these rules regarding logical and dynamic partitions. If your hard drive has a logical volume with a bright blue color label in the management tool, the dimensions can be increased by using space that is not allocated and does not touch the boundaries.
Dynamic sections, marked in olive tone, also have their own nuance. software diskmgmt.msc. You can expand arbitrary volumes on such objects, including at the expense of space on the second physical disk. After such an operation, a single logical space with one letter will appear.
