Windows 10 Partition Problems

jerichoi224 · Jan 4, 2016

Hi, I'm currently using a Lenovo Y510P laptop, which I bought with an OEM installed, but I've removed it and clean installed Windows 10 with a recovery media I made with Microsoft's tool

Anyways.. in the process, I've noticed my laptop has a lot of, probably some unneccesary partitions left by the OEM. Some were named "OEM Reserved" or Recovery Drive.

I've deleted some but I don't seem to be able to merge these with the Primary, C: drive I have windows installed in.

As you can see, I've deleted the partitions, but I don't seem to be able to combine it with the main one as the "Extend Volume" option is greyed out.

So, here were my questions.

1. I'd like to just combine them all and then keep them as two 500 GB partitions. How can I combine these?
2. What is the EFI System Partition? It seems important so I just left it, but I'm willing to do another clean install if its needed to get this organized. Can I also delete the EFI system partition and combine them all if I'm planning to install window cleanly??

Thank you.

chrunos · Jan 7, 2016

On an GPT disk, Windows does require a 450 MB recovery partition Windows 10. Since you have deleted Windows recovery partition, I suggest you create a recovery drive or system repair disc just in case.
In disk management, you can only extend partition using the unallocated space next to its right side. so even if you shrink D: drive, the option to extend C: drive is still grayed out. My suggestion is to use a third party software, AOMEI Partition Assistant, both the standard (free) or the Professional(paid) version will do. you can use it to either move the unallocated space and extend partition with disk Management or directly merge partitions.

ussnorway · Jan 4, 2016

You can not merge a drive with the drive after it... only the one before. You would have to wipe that C drive and formate the efi then start again, at that point you can use those two first blank spaces but the one on the other end can be used now as its own or just tack it onto the d drive.

p.s, It was a VERY bad idea to remove those two backups but its too late now.

jerichoi224 · Jan 4, 2016

ussnorway said:
You can not merge a drive with the drive after it... only the one before. You would have to wipe that C drive and formate the efi then start again, at that point you can use those two first blank spaces but the one on the other end can be used now as its own or just tack it onto the d drive.

p.s, It was a VERY bad idea to remove those two backups but its too late now.

But... I have unallocated space both before and after the C:, but I still can't extend the C drive. Shouldn't I be able to extend with atleast one of them??

Additionally, do the backups really matter if I have all of my data backed up in an external drive, and I want to just start clean?

ussnorway · Jan 4, 2016

jerichoi224 said:
But... I have unallocated space both before and after the C:

Not on the image you posted, you don't... the C drive on that image has a D drive next to it.

If you formate that D drive out (not a recommendation) then you could add that D-drive + the blank space to C

MikeHawthorne · Jan 5, 2016

Hi

I'm pretty sure that you need to delete the D:\ drive not un-allocate it.
In order to add the D:\ drive to the C:\ drive it needs to see the D:\ drive as blank space on the drive, not a partition.

Then when you click on C:\ you will have the option to extend it.

Read through this...

How to Merge Partitions Without Data Loss in Windows 10?

Mike

Ps. Once you have added the D:\ drive repeat the process to add the un-named partition to the right side of the D:\ drive.

Don't try and do them at the same time.

If you want, try and delete the un-named partition first and then add it to D:\ drive.
You can try it out without involving your C:\ drive but the drives that you are going to combine need to be adjacent.

You cant add the un-named partition to the C:\ dive with the D:\ drive in between.

chrunos · Jan 7, 2016

On an GPT disk, Windows does require a 450 MB recovery partition Windows 10. Since you have deleted Windows recovery partition, I suggest you create a recovery drive or system repair disc just in case.
In disk management, you can only extend partition using the unallocated space next to its right side. so even if you shrink D: drive, the option to extend C: drive is still grayed out. My suggestion is to use a third party software, AOMEI Partition Assistant, both the standard (free) or the Professional(paid) version will do. you can use it to either move the unallocated space and extend partition with disk Management or directly merge partitions.

Verki · Jan 25, 2016

Windows Disk Management can only extend partition with an adjacent unallocated space behind the partition you want to extend. So, you need to delete the partition behind the one you want to extend. Or you can also try to use some freeware to help you when Windows DM cannot extend volume to unallocated space. Generally, third party software can fix up the defects of Windows DM.

Windows 10 Partition Problems

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