How to Resize a Partition for Free in Windows or Vista

Why need to resize a partition?

Resizing a partition generally means to extend a partition or shrink a partition. Both of them can enable you to make full use of your hard disk.

Extend a partition: Especially extend system partition to maximize computer performance as well as better manage hard disk usage.
Shrink a partition: Shrink partitions for different usage.

How to resize a partition?

There are many ways for partition resizing. Here shares you with a free disk manager, which enables you to resize partitions without any data loss. Let's resize NFTS or FAT partitions in Windows/Vista in steps as below.

Run this free disk manager on your computer, and choose the "Resize Partition Wizard".
Note: There are Wizard Mode and Expert Mode for your choice, and here let's try the Wizard Mode.

Extend a partition

Step1. Choose the partition for extension

Select the partition you want to extend, and click on "Next".

Note: To extend a partition, there must be unallocated space next to the partition. If not, you need to shrink other partitions to free up unallocated space, and then move the space beside the partition.

Step2. Set the partition size

Set the partition size by dragging the bar, or you can directly reset the size number.

Step3. Preview and extend

After setting the partition size, click on the "Next" to preview the resized partition.

If you want to set the partition size again, just go "Back". If not, click on "Resize" to extend your partition now.

Shrink a partition

To shrink a partition, it operates the same as to extend a partition. You just need to shrink the partition size as follow on the step2.

Then move forward to "Preview" and "Resize" your partition. It's very easy steps.