Many friends will encounter a situation when using computers. They did not plan well when dividing the area, causing the C drive space to continue to shrink. From time to time, it will show that it takes up too much space and alarm, but the D drive or E drive next to it has a lot of remaining space.
At this time, merging the two partitions into one became a natural idea.
Especially in the case of Win10 system, merging hard disk partitions is not as complicated as imagined.
Today, I will take the Honor MagicBook 16 Pro as an example, combined with the tools provided by the system and third-party software such as MiniTool Partition Wizard, to tell you how to safely merge hard disk partitions together. By the way, I will also explain the partition management issue thoroughly.
Why merge hard drive partitions
When many people first partition their hard disk, they prefer to clearly distinguish the system, software, and data, thinking that it is more convenient to manage them this way.
However, as you continue to use it, you will realize that the reason why the C drive fills up quickly is due to system updates and the continuous accumulation of cache files and desktop files.
Other partitions have a lot of idle space because they are rarely used.
In this case, if you can allocate part of the space of the D drive or the E drive to the C drive, or directly merge the two adjacent partitions, you can solve the problem of lack of space very properly.
In addition, some users, after purchasing a large-capacity hard drive, find that too many partitions will bring a lot of inconvenience. When looking for a file, they need to repeatedly search through multiple disks, so they prefer to merge partitions to simplify the storage structure.
Preparations before merging partitions
Before performing any hard disk operation, the most important step is to Back up important data .
Even if the act of merging partitions does not result in data loss under normal circumstances, as long as it involves changing the underlying hard disk, there are unexpected risks, such as sudden power outages, software stuck in a stuck state, operation errors, etc.
For the key files in the two partitions that need to be merged, it is recommended to copy them to a mobile hard disk or cloud disk first.
Also, if the hard disk itself has bad sectors or other physical problems, the merge operation will most likely fail, or even cause data corruption.
Therefore, before proceeding, it is best to use the disk check tool provided by the system itself to scan the hard disk to determine its health before proceeding.
Win10 comes with disk management to merge partitions
In fact, the disk management tool that comes with Win10 cannot directly "merge" two partitions. Its logic is as follows: first delete one partition and convert it into unallocated space, and then extend this space to another partition.
If things become like this, all the data in the deleted partition will be lost, so be sure to make a backup in advance.
The specific operation situation is: use the index finger and middle finger of the right hand to click "This Computer" in a more special way, and then select "Manage" from it to enter "Disk Management".
In the disk icon below, find the two adjacent partitions you want to merge.
Right-click the partition on the right and select "Delete Volume" and it will transform into a black unallocated area.
Then, right-click the area on the left called the partition, select the "Extend Volume" option, and follow the wizard to add the unallocated and space-like part.
This method is simple and straightforward, but the disadvantage is that you have to delete a partition, which is not suitable for situations where critical data is stored and you are unwilling to mess with it.
Merge partitions using MiniTool Partition Wizard
If you do not plan to delete the data in any partition, then third-party tools are undoubtedly a better choice.
For example, MiniTool Partition Wizard 12.6 is extremely intuitive when performing related operations.
After the installation opens, you will see the partition layout of all hard drives.
If you plan to merge the D drive and the E drive, then directly select one of the partitions and find the "Merge Partitions" function in the left operation panel.
The software will pop up a window that allows you to check the two partitions to be merged, and you can also specify the folder in which the merged data will be saved.
After confirming, click the "Apply" button located in the upper left corner of the main interface, so that the software will begin to perform the operation.
The whole process does not require deleting the partition in advance, and the data will not be lost, which is very convenient.
There is a similar tool called EaseUS Partition Master, and its operation logic is roughly similar.
Things to note when merging partitions
There is a hard condition for merging partitions: the two partitions must be adjacent.
For example, there is a situation where disk C and disk D are adjacent, and disk D and disk E are also adjacent. However, disk C and disk E are separated by disk D. In this case, direct merging cannot be performed.
In addition, the system partition, also known as the C drive, has many restrictions when performing merge operations. Especially if you want to expand the space to the left side of the C drive, this is almost impossible because there is usually a hidden recovery partition or EFI partition in front of the C drive.
At this time, you need to use the "move partition" function of third-party tools to first move the smaller partitions aside to free up the corresponding space, and then expand them. This operation will be slightly more complicated.
Another point that is easily overlooked is that when performing a merge operation, the file systems of the partitions involved must be consistent. If one of them is in NTFS format and the other is in exFAT format, the best practice is to unify them into NTFS format in advance to prevent compatibility issues after the merge operation is completed.
Merging hard disk partitions is neither difficult nor easy.
The key is to choose the appropriate method based on your actual situation.
If you are very concerned about data security, be sure to back it up before operating.
Usually when planning the partitions of the computer, you can reserve some space, such as allocating 150GB to 200GB to the system disk. Don't limit it too rigidly, so that you don't need to go back and forth frequently to merge partitions in the future.
