Merging sections. Additional software. Merging hard disk partitions using built-in Windows tools

Let's take a closer look at how to combine sections hard drive.

If you have too many unused partitions on your PC and you want to remove them, use the following instructions from the article.

Preparing to delete a disk volume

Before you merge multiple volumes, there are steps you can take to help preserve your files.

Any editing of a partition in Windows results in permanent deletion of files and folders in this volume.

In most of them you can use up to 20 GB of space for free (, DropBox, and others).

Merging partitions in Windows 7

In Windows 7, users can merge disk partitions without booting additional programs to your computer. All necessary settings can be changed as follows:

• Go to the Start menu and open the Run window. In Home Edition this key may not be available. In this case, just press Win + R to open the desired window or edit appearance Start menu in home screen settings;
• In the window that appears, type diskmgmt.msc – a command to open the computer’s disk management window. Confirm the action by clicking on "OK".

Fig.2 - command entry

• The following window will open. All connected to the system are displayed at the bottom of the window. hard drives and their conditional division. Each division section is a separate volume. It is designated by a letter and has its own file system type and space;

Rice. 3 – display sections in settings

• You need to select the section that you want to delete (merge with the main volume of drive C). Then right-click on it and click on “Delete Volume”. Next a window will appear with system message that all data on the volume will be deleted and you will not be able to restore it. Confirm uninstallation. Essentially, you're not deleting anything, just erasing the section. All space goes to drive C;

Rice. 4 – volume deletion

After deleting one volume, you can do the same with the rest, thus creating free partitions. “Empty Volume” will appear in place of the previous object.

Don't forget to attach it to to the required section. Click on the section into which all objects will be combined and into context menu Click on “Extend Volume”.

In the window that opens, select an available empty partition and add it to the main one. Continue this action until there is no unreserved part of the hard drive left on the computer.

Rice. 5 – volume extension in Windows 7

After completing the procedure, you must restart Windows operation, otherwise further work may lead to errors and data deletion.

Instructions for Windows 10

The instructions described in this section of the article are suitable for both Windows versions 8. You can merge partitions using built-in OS tools.

As in the previous description of the settings, we will need the utility "Disk Management". Follow the instructions:

• Go to the search box and enter the word "Management". The desired option will appear in the results. And also, you can press the key combination Win and X to bring up the quick access menu. It contains a link to access "Disk Management";

Fig. 6 – hard drive settings window in Windows 10

• Decide which sections you no longer use. For better orientation, they are indicated by letters that correspond to the names of the drives in the window "This computer";
• If you only want to keep one volume, choose which volume you will attach the rest of the items to;
• Then click right click to the object to be deleted. And uninstall it;

Fig. 7 - deleting a partition in Windows 10

• Confirm the action, agreeing to data loss;
• Remove partition space;

Fig. 8 - freeing up space

• Now you will see that the section has become empty, but its division remains. Since it is no longer used in the system, its name and other attributes are removed. The object can be combined with the main disk;
• As a result of correctly performing all the actions, you will see that the following message appears in place of the disk section: "Not distributed". Now you can start merging the sections.

Click on the main section - in most cases this is drive C. In the menu, select volume expansion.

Rice. 9 – element connection

The Settings Wizard window will open. With its help, you can easily divide free space or combine it into one system storage medium.

Fig. 10 - merging sections

Working with Acronis Director

Often in standard window"Disk Management" users are faced with the fact that the "Delete Volume" key is not available or other functions cannot be performed.

This is due to the limitation group policies.

Maybe, system administrator has prohibited performing such actions or your OS version does not allow you to configure disk partitions and other system parameters.

Using third-party utilities will help solve the problem.

Acronis Director is one of the best programs, which allows you to customize the disk configuration and bypasses all prohibitions on changing the settings of your computer.

The main window of the utility contains all the necessary data about the hard drive. Partitioning information is also provided in this window.

Rice. 11 – main window in Acronis Director

To create one disk instead of several sections, simply select all the partitions that you no longer want to use and click on “Merge” on the left side of the window.

Detailed settings of elements will appear in a new window. You must select a volume that will be the primary one and attach other objects to it one by one.

Merge hard drive partitions FAST!

I'll tell you how to merge hard drive partitions using a simple Acronis program Disk Director. If you still don’t know how to do this, then watch my short video tutorial, where I outlined everything in detail. You will need a few minutes of your time to merge the disks and the Acronis Disk Director application.

I already told you... At the request of subscribers, today I will tell you how to do the reverse procedure. Merge several disks into one using standard Windows tools. No need to use third party programs.

How to merge hard drive partitions

So, let's go to the control panel. Open the Administration applet.

(To enlarge the image, click on it)

Computer management

Disk management

A panel with computer disks will open in front of us


Select the disk we want to expand. Right-click and select expand volume.


The volume expansion wizard will launch, click next. A window will open to select disks that can be used to expand the volume.


You need to select the disk and indicate the size you want to attach, or if you need to add the entire space, then just click next and you're done.


After completing the wizard, the selected disk will be enlarged to the desired size.

How to combine logical drives

Now let's consider the option when you need to increase the size using an existing logical disk.

ATTENTION! Before this procedure, save the data from this disk! This action irreversible! All information will be lost!

Every PC owner knows that there is never too much space on the HDD. What should I do if there is not enough of it on one of the sections? You don’t have to immediately run to the store to buy a new HDD. Let's look at how to combine hard disk partitions using standard Windows tools or using special software.

Why is this necessary?

There is an opinion that the HDD should be divided into two sections. One contains the OS, the other is for storing data. This will allow you to reinstall the system and necessary information will be untouched on another HDD. This is convenient, but does not mean that this is the only way to do it.

If the HDD is divided into two parts, increase one partition at the expense of the other. This is relevant if there is not enough space for software in the volume where the OS is located, or there is no space on the disk with information. How to do this? To do this, it is not necessary to seek help from specialists. Everything can be configured yourself.

What to do before deleting

Before you start merging, take care of data security. Editing a section will remove information from it. So create backup copy and save it to a flash drive or in the cloud. Use , Dropbox, or external hard drive.

Merging in Windows 10

We use the built-in tools of the system:

Sometimes it is not possible to merge partitions using the Disk Management utility. The Extend Volume links or other features may not be active. This occurs due to the setting of group policy restrictions, or the OS version does not support setting up HDD partitions.

How to solve such a problem? Using utilities from third-party manufacturers will come to the rescue. The use of such software will be necessary if you need to save information from partitions, but cannot transfer or copy it. Let's look at the best programs.

Acronis Disk Director

The official website of the developers is located at: acronis.com/ru-ru/personal/disk-manager.

The main program window contains all the information about the computer's HDD.

To merge, select the section that you will not use and click on “Merge”. In the new program window, configure the settings.

Select the volume that will become the main one and add other objects to it one by one. When all the settings have been made, click the “Run” button, it will become active.

How to merge with Aomei

Download the program from: disk-partition.com/free-partition-manager.html. The developers' website is not in Russian, but the utility supports it. Works with windows 7 and windows xp. To download, click on the green “Download Freeware” button, then “Local Download”. The download will start automatically. The program is completely free. Next, run the program installation file. Its installation is simple and will not cause difficulties even for novice users.

A program window will open.
To merge, we perform the following sequence of actions:

The merger will occur without data loss. In my case they will be saved in the “D-drive” folder.

If one of the partitions is system, a reboot is needed, which takes longer than usual. Therefore, if you are working on a laptop, make sure that it is connected to the network.

Conclusion

When you need to merge partitions, and there is no important data on the HDD, use the tools offered by the system. If the information is important, I recommend using Acronis Disk Director. The Aomei program is also a good free solution. Please note that if the attached disk has a second OS installed, it will not work after merging.

To make two local disks one or to increase the disk space of one of the volumes, you need to merge partitions. For this purpose, one of the additional partitions into which the drive was previously divided is used. This procedure can be done both with saving information and with its deletion.

You can merge logical drives in one of two ways: using special programs for working with drive partitions or using the built-in Windows tool. The first method has priority, since such utilities usually transfer information from disk to disk when merging, but standard program Windows deletes everything. However, if the files are unimportant or missing, then you can do without using third-party software. The process of how to combine local disks one on Windows 7 and more modern versions of this OS will be the same.

Method 1: AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard

This free disk partition manager software helps you merge partitions without losing data. All information will be transferred to a separate folder on one of the drives (usually the system drive). The convenience of the program lies in the simplicity of the actions performed and the intuitive interface in Russian.

After the merger is complete, you will find all the data from the disk that was joined to the main one in the root folder. It will be called X-drive, Where X- letter of the drive that was attached.

Method 2: MiniTool Partition Wizard

The program is also free, but it has a set of all the necessary functions. The principle of working with it is slightly different from the previous program, and the main differences are the interface and language - MiniTool Partition Wizard does not have Russification. However, basic knowledge is enough to work with it. English language. All files will be transferred during the merge process.

Look for the transferred files in the root folder of the disk with which the merger occurred.

Method 3: Acronis Disk Director

- another program that can combine partitions, even if they have different file systems. By the way, the ones mentioned above cannot boast of this opportunity. free analogues. User data will also be transferred to the main volume, but provided that there are no encrypted files among them - in this case, merging will be impossible.

Acronis Disk Director is a paid, but convenient and multifunctional program, so if you have it in your arsenal, you can connect volumes through it.

After reboot, look for files in the root folder of the disk that you designated as the primary

Method 4: Windows built-in utility

Windows has a built-in tool called "Disk Management". It can perform basic operations with hard drives, in particular, this way you can merge volumes.

The main disadvantage of this method is that all information will be deleted. Therefore, it makes sense to use it only when the data on the disk that you are going to attach to the main one is missing or not needed. In rare cases, perform this operation through "Disk Management" fails, and then you have to use other programs, but such a nuisance is rather an exception to the rule.

1. Press the key combination Win+R, type diskmgmt.msc and open this utility by pressing "OK".

   

2. Find the section you want to join to another. Right-click on it and select "Delete Volume".

   

3. In the confirmation window, click "Yes".

   

4. The volume of the deleted partition will become an unallocated area. Now it can be added to another disk.

   

   Find the disk whose size you want to increase, right-click on it and select "Extend Volume".

   

5. Will open . Click "Next".

   

6. In the next step, you can choose how many free GB you want to add to the disk. If you need to add all the freed up space, just click "Next".

   

   To add a fixed size to a disk in a field "Select the size of the allocated space" indicate how much you want to add. The number is indicated in megabytes, taking into account that 1 GB = 1024 MB.

7. In the settings confirmation window, click "Ready".

   

Result:

Merging partitions in Windows is a very simple procedure that allows you to effectively manage disk space. Despite the fact that the use of programs promises to combine disks into one without losing files, do not forget to make a backup copy of important data - this precaution is never superfluous.

In the previous article, we discussed ways to create partitions in Windows. There are circumstances that some users, having divided their hard drive into two or more partitions, ask the question of how to return parts of the hard drive to their original state.

After reading this article, you can easily figure out how to put all your sections together without losing important data.

How to merge hard drive partitions in Windows

For this procedure, you can use the built-in system tools "Disk Management" to merge partitions, however, in this case, you need to transfer all the information from partition E:, then delete partition "E:" and then merge both partitions into one. If there is a lot of information on the disk, it will take considerable time. We will discuss this method in end.

To connect sections we can use special program for disk management - you can download it at . This program Available for commercial and home use and absolutely free.

Attention!!!AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard refers to groups of programs for working with disk partitions. If you make a mistake when working with this program, you may lose important information on the disk, so we recommend that you make Backup all partitions of your disk to save all important information.

How to Merge Partitions Using AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard

Download and install the program on your computer, run it and follow the further instructions.

Sections are merged. All information that was on the second partition was automatically transferred to drive "C" in the folder " E-drive".

Merging hard disk partitions using built-in Windows tools

Open the "Start" panel and type "Computer Management".