How to Extend Primary Partition in Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP/2003

Overview of primary partition

A primary partition contains one file system. In MS-DOS and earlier versions of Microsoft Windows systems, the first partition (C :) must be a primary partition. Some operating systems are not limited in this way.

However, this also depends on other factors, such as a PC's BIOS (see Boot sequence on standard PC for more information).

The partition type code for a primary partition can either correspond to a file system contained within (e.g. 0x07 means either an NTFS or an OS/2 HPFS file system) or indicate the partition has a special usage (e.g. code 0x82 usually indicates a Linux swap partition).

The FAT16 and FAT32 file systems have made use of quite a number of partition type codes over time due to the limits of various DOS and Windows OS versions. Though a Linux operating system may recognize a number of different file systems (ext2, ext3, ReiserFS, etc.), they have all consistently used the same partition type code: 0x83 (Linux native file system).

How to extend primary partition

"I am using Windows Vista Home Professional. I want to extend my existing C Drive (primary partition). I have tried some tools like Partition Magic and others which give me that they are not compatible with Vista. Can anyone suggest me any better option to extend my primary partition?"

"I have a laptop running XP Pro SP2 which were provided pre-partitioned with the primary partition in NTFS and the second partition as FAT32, C: and D: respectively. The C drive is out of space, how to extend primary partition?"

A magic partition manager, EaseUS Partition Master is recommended to easily extend primary partition without data loss under Windows.

Extend primary partition with EaseUS Partition Master

EaseUS Partition Master can extend primary partition with simple operations by its "Resize/Move partition" feature.

EaseUS Partition Master also provides Partition Recovery and Disk/Partition Copy, migrate OS to HDD/SSD features to resolve major partition problems. If you are Windows Server users, EaseUS Partition Master Server Edition will be your best choice.

Before applying EaseUS Partition Master to extend primary partition, do remember to backup system and data with free backup software to ensure 100% data security.

 

Step 1: Launch EaseUS Partition Master

Step 2: Free up space to extend partition

If the hard drive has enough unallocated space to extend the target partition, jump to Step 3 and continue.

If not, free up space first:
1. Right-click on a partition next to the target partition and select "Resize/Move".
2. Drag the partition ends to free up space, leaving enough unallocated space behind the target partition, click "OK".

Step 3: Extend partition

1. Right-click on the target partition and select "Resize/Move".

2. Drag the target partition handle into the unallocated space to extend partition.

Step 4: Keep all changes

Click the "Execute Operation" button and click "Apply" to keep all changes.