Tutorial to Resize/Extend Boot (System) Partition

The definition of boot partition and system partition

The boot partition is the disk partition that contains the Windows operating system files and its support files, but not all files are responsible for booting.

The system partition is a disk partition that contains the boot sector and files such as NTLDR that are needed for booting Windows XP and earlier. (Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 and Windows 8 use a newer boot loader called bootmgr that replaces NTLDR and is configured by using BCDEdit.exe).

The system partition can be different from the boot partition, although they are often on the same partition (drive C:). Windows setup places the initial system partition based on motherboard BIOS settings. Bitlocker requires a separate, unencrypted system partition for booting.

Why do we need to Resize/Extend Boot (System) Partition?

As computer technicians, we are always asked with different questions, like how to speed up my computer and make it run faster, how to resize partition, especially extending boot partition on server or non-server system without reboot to maximize computer performance. Users, especially server users prefer to extend system partition to make hard disks and computers run faster and optimize the usage of the space. Would you please tell me the safest way to resize/extend boot (system partition) without data loss?

Disk Management Tool built in Windows

Actually it's a technical issue to resize/extend boot (system) partition for common users. Maybe some people will say that we could use the disk management tool built-in Windows itself to resize partition, indeed, we could create, delete, format, extend andreduce partition with disk management under Microsoft Windows 2008 Server, Windows Vista and Windows 7 (with limitations like it can only resize NTFS partition, merge partitions, it can only extend partition when there is unallocated space behind this partition, etc). What about the Windows XP users? They could create, delete, format, but they could not resize them. The worst thing is that we cannot preview or undo operation, which is terrible for server users.

Resize/Extend Boot (System) Partition with Partition Manager Software

Partition manager software - EaseUS Partition Master is recommended, which could provide you basic and advanced partition functions of partition management without data loss. Copy features are built in this partition manager software to protect your data, and you also can use the free backup software - EaseUS Todo Backup Free.

Let's suppose C: is the boot partition, and E: is the data partition behind C:. To resize boot partition, you need to follow steps below:

1. Choose right edition of EaseUS Partition Master and install it. After that, launch EaseUS Partition Master, right click E: and select "Resize/Move partition" to shrink and move it. Then, the unallocated space will exist behind C:.

Shrink Data Partition E:

Move Data Partition E:

2. Right click boot partition C: and select "Resize/Move partition", drag the partition handle rightwards to extend system partition (C: drive).

3. Apply all opending operations.

Resizing boot partition will be applied after you reboot the computer. If the file system of boot (system) partition is NTFS, EaseUS Partition Master can extend NTFS boot (system) partition without reboot.

After reading the tutorial to extend boot (system) partition, I believe you could easily handle it. Why not have a try if you want to resize/extend boot (system) partition?

Note:

If your boot (system) partition is dynamic volume, please see: How to copy dynamic volume to basic disk and resize the basic disk?

If you plan to dual boot Windows 7 and Windows 8, please see: How to dual boot Windows 7 and Windows 8 with EaseUS Partition Master Free?

Besides Partition Manager, EaseUS Partition Master provides Partition Recovery Wizard and Disk and Partition Copy Wizard features. It is a complete solution to solve your disk and partition problem.

 

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