Aspire TC-1780-I'd like to do repartition my hard drive, without deleting the existing partition.

SteveCollyer

Hi.

I have searched, but I can't find a step-by-step for this.

I do a lot of photography, and a session can contain a large amount of data. I have the standard C/D partition on my PC, but I can't see any good reason to keep the D drive.

When I try to departition the HD, the option to delete the D drive is greyed out.

It turns out that there is 10.1 GB System & Reserved in the D drive, which I seem unable to move.

Can anyone please advise me how to departition my HD, as I can see no good reason to keep it.

Many thanks! 😊

[Edited the topic title to include the topic issue.]

Joe_Kingsley

The C & D(Reserved Partitions are System partitions that are created at the time of OS installation by automatically and it is not advised to touch those partitions but still if required - Yes, you can repartition a hard drive in Windows 11 without affecting the system partitions by using a third-party partition manager software like DiskGenius. DiskGenius can create, format, delete, convert, move, resize, extend, shrink, and split partitions without damaging data.

Joe_Kingsley

Yes, it's possible to repartition a hard drive in Windows 11 without deleting a partition by shrinking the current partition and creating a new one:  

1. Open Disk Management by right-clicking the Start menu  
2. Select the drive you want to partition  
3. Right-click the partition you want to shrink and select Shrink Volume  
4. Enter the amount of space to shrink  
5. Right-click the blank space and select New Simple Volume  

You can also use third-party partition management software to merge partitions or unpartition a hard drive: Partition Master, Partition Wizard, Partition Assistant, and DiskGenius.  Formatting a partition will destroy all data on it, so be sure to back up any data you want to save before you begin.  

SteveCollyer

Thanks, but I don't seem to be able to move the Windows System & reserved volume from the D drive to the C.

If I can clear the D drive, losing the partition should be extremely straightforward.

Joe_Kingsley

The C & D(Reserved Partitions are System partitions that are created at the time of OS installation by automatically and it is not advised to touch those partitions but still if required - Yes, you can repartition a hard drive in Windows 11 without affecting the system partitions by using a third-party partition manager software like DiskGenius. DiskGenius can create, format, delete, convert, move, resize, extend, shrink, and split partitions without damaging data.

SteveCollyer

Many thanks. 😊

billsey

You can likely do it without resorting to third party apps… Just move the system reserved files from the hidden folder on D to a newly created hidden folder on C. This is only applicable though if the D: drive is around half the full drive size. Often what has happened is the system reserved partition has been assigned a drive letter in error. That partition is actually very small and needed in order to boot. Check the size, and remember a MB is 1/1000th of a GB. :)