How to Merge C Drive That Is Less Than 2GB with Unallocated Space?

“The space of C drive is too small, and data grows to fill with it. No more than 1 GB has left. When I want to use AOMEI Partition Assistant to merge C drive and other unallocated space, but unallocated space can’t be ticked? How to use "Merge Partition" in AOMEI Partition Assistant to merge C drive that is less than 1GB with unallocated space ?”

As the above picture shown, if your C drive is less than 1GB, you can’t use “Merge Partitions” in AOMEI Partition Assistant to merge C drive and other unallocated space. Because it might cause file system broken and your system won’t boot normally. Under this circumstance, for avoiding some error possibilities, AOMEI Partition Assistant offers other functions to let you extend C drive instead of merge partition.

How to merge C drive that is less than 1GB with unallocated space

Since the C drive is too small, it is okay to extend it to at least 1GB. Therefore, the first thing you should do is to extend C drive. Please follow the below steps:

► Part 1. Move partition

In order to move partition for Windows 11, you can ask for help from third-party software. Here we highly recommend you the powerful partition manager: AOMEI Partition Assistant. It supports almost all Windows operating systems like Windows 11/10/8/7. With it, you can resize/move partition Windows 11 in only a few clicks. It will always keep your data safe so you don't have to worry about any data loss. Now, you can download the software and take the following steps to have a try.

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant.

All of your partitions are displayed on the main interface. Here you can see that there is a piece of unallocated space behind the D partition.

Step 2. Select the target partition.

If you want to extend C drive, you need to move the unallocated space to the left side of D partition, just right click D partition and select "Resize/Move Partition".

Step 3. Move the partition.

In the pop-out window, put the mouse on the D partition part and drag it rightwards until the end. Then, click "OK".

Step 4. Confirm and apply the operation.

Then, you will back to the main interface, you will find the D partition and the unallocated space have exchanged their positions. Now, click the "Apply" at the left top to submit the operation.

After the C drive and unallocated space are adjacent, you can begin to resize partition Windows as follows.

► Part 2. Resize partition

You can use "Shrink Volume" or "Extend Volume" in Disk Management (DM) to reduce or increase the size of the partition, however, DM has some limitations: it can only extend NTFS and RAW partition and there must be unallocated space behind the target partition. Fortunately, AOMEI Partition Assistant is always on standby, it can not only merge the non-adjacent unallocated space to the target partition, but also resize NTFS, RAW, FAT32, and exFAT partitions. To make the size adjustment easier, AOMEI Partition should be your top priority.

Note: AOMEI Partition Assistant also supports resizing encrypted partitions effortlessly.

『 Shrink partition 』

Shrinking a partition can help you release some unallocated space for certain purposes, let's see how to get it done most easily.

Step 1. Launch AOMEI Partition Assistant.

The home interface will display info of all hard disks and partitions. Right-click on the partition you want to shrink, and select "Resize/Move Partition".

Step 2. Change the size of the partition.

In the following window, adjust the length of the green bar by dragging the rings on both sides to determine the size to shrink. When it completes, hit "OK". 

Step 3. Then, click "Apply" > "Proceed" to start the shrinking process.

『 Extend partition 』

Way 1. Using "Resize Partition"

This method is available only when there's unallocated space on either side of the partition. The steps below are details.

Step 1. Locate the partition you want to enlarge.

Right-click on it and select "Resize/Move Partition".

Step 2. Enlarge the partition.

Now, you find there's a segment of white bar next to the green bar. The white bar is the unallocated space. Drag the ring to adjust the size you want to add. After finishing, click "OK".

Step 3. Hit "Apply" on the upper left to start the extension.

Way 2. Using "Merging Partitions"

When there's no unallocated space on either side of the partition, you can try "Merge Partitions" which can directly add non-adjacent unallocated space into another partition or merge two partitions into one, which is more flexible and convenient.

Step 1. Locate the partition.

Right-click the partition you want to enlarge, choose "Advanced" > "Merge Partitions".

Step 2. Tick the unallocated space and click on "OK".

Step 3. Commit the operation.

Go back to the main interface, click on "Apply" and "Proceed" to commit the pending operation.

Note: What if you want to enlarge the partition but there is no unallocated space on your hard drive? Don't worry, you can also enjoy a powerful function called "Allocate free space" which allows you to move the free space from one partition to another directly.

There are multiple ways to extend a partition. As a software that is specifically designed for managing partitions and disk, AOMEI Partition Assistant offers you a lot of functions to extend partitions. When you find that one function doesn’t work, perhaps some condition of the partition or disk can’t meet demand. If you encounter the situation mentioned in this article, you can use other functions to operate. After all, their purpose is to extend the partition without data loss. The only difference is how many steps you will do.

Tips:

• No matter whether you resize partitions or merge partitions, they are involved with moving data. Before operating, you’d better defragment or check and fix the partition, so as to improve the speed of the process.

• For better to process fast, you’d better click “Apply” after each step finishes. A single operation will be faster than the whole operation.

• Do not plug out your electrical power while software processing, or do not change the number of disks. For example. If you have clicked on “Apply” and find that there is a removable device plugged into the USB port, don’t remove it until it finishes.

Ending

This article shows how to merge C drive the free space is less than 2GB via AOMEI Partition Assistant. If your disk has unallocated space, you can directly use "Merge Partition" to merge non-adjacent partitions. If your hard disk doesn't have free space for merging, you can also use the free space on other partitions to shrink and extend the C drive space via resizing.