Diskpart Extend Volume: Using Diskpart to Resize Partition

If you’re running low on space in a partition on your Windows computer, you may be considering using a third-party tool to extend it. However, you don’t have to use a third-party tool, whether paid or free. You can use the built-in Diskpart tool to extend any volume or partition.

For instance, I save all my virtual machines in a dedicated partition. Recently, I had to extend it because it is getting low on disk space. So, I used the Windows Diskpart tool to extend the partition to increase the available space.

In this article, I’ll walk you through extending a partition with Diskpart.

Table of contents:

1. Requirements
2. How to extend volume with diskpart
3. What is diskpart?
4. Conclusion

Requirements & A Few Things You Should Know

Before using Diskpart to extend a volume, there are a few things you need to know and a couple of requirements that should be met. They are as follows:

1. You need administrator rights to use diskpart to extend volumes on Windows.
2. Backup data in the drive you are trying to extend. That way, you will have access to the data even when something goes wrong.
3. You cannot extend the boot partition, a.k.a, Windows installation drive using the diskpart method shown below.
4. Diskpart can only extend partitions with the NTFS file system. So, check the file system before proceeding. If needed, you can convert FAT32 to NTFS with just a couple of clicks.
5. The drive you are trying to extend should have an unallocated space right next to it. If not, you cannot extend the partition.

How To Extend Volume With Diskpart

Being a built-in command-line tool, you can use Diskpart from the Command Prompt or terminal. Here are the steps:

1. Right-click on the start icon.
2. Select the “Terminal (Admin)” option.
3. Type “diskpart” and press Enter.
4. Type “list disk” and press Enter.
5. Take note of the disk number of the disk with the volume you want to extend.
6. Run the “select disk number” command while replacing “number” with the actual disk number.
7. Run the “list partition” command.
8. Take note of the volume number you want to extend.
9. Run the “select partition number” command while replacing “number” with the actual volume number.
10. Run the “extend size=SizeInMB” while replacing the actual size in MB.
11. Diskpart will start to extend the partition; wait till is completed.
12. Once done, you will see the “Diskpart successfully extended the volume” success message.
13. Type “exit” and press Enter.
14. Close the Terminal window.
15. With that, you extended the partition with Diskpart.

Steps with more details:

First, open Windows Terminal as admin. For that, right-click the Start icon on the taskbar and select “Terminal (Admin).” Alternatively, search for “Command Prompt” in the start menu, right-click on the result and select the “Run as administrator” option.

In the elevated command window opens, run the below command to initialize the Diskpart tool.

 diskpart

Now, execute the below command to list all disks in your system. If your system only has one disk, you will see only one entry in the response.

 list disk

Each disk has a number associated with it. For example, I have three hard drives in the system, numbered from 0 to 2. Use the below command to select the disk in which the partition you want to extend is located. Replace <number> with the actual disk number.

 select disk <number>

After selecting the disk, use the below command to list all the partitions in that specific disk drive.

 list partition

Just like disks, partitions are indexed and have numbers associated with them. Find the partition you want to extend and use the below command while replacing <number> with the actual partition index number.

 select partition <number>

After selecting the partition, you want to extend, use the below command while replacing <SizeInMB> with the actual size you want to extend in MB (Megabytes). For example, if you want to extend the partition by 1 GB, type 1024. You can use below online tool to convert GBs to MBs.

Note: As I said above, this command will only work if there is sufficient unallocated space right next to the partition you are extending.

 extend size=<SizeInMB>

Depending on the partition size, it will take some time to complete the process. Once done, you will see the “Diskpart successfully extended the volume” message.

Once you see this message, you are done, and the partition is extended. Use the exit command to get out of the Diskpart tool. Next, close the Terminal/Command Prompt, and you are good to go.

What is Diskpart?

Diskpart is a built-in command-line tool that lets you create partitions, delete partitions, extend partitions, change drive letters, hide partitions, format disks, and more in Windows.

If you are wondering, almost all disk management programs, including the built-in Windows disk manager, use Diskpart in the background to extend volumes in Windows.

Quickly Diskpart Extend Volume —Wrapping UP

As you can see, it is pretty simple to extend your partition using Diskpart! By following the simple steps outlined in this guide, you’ve learned how to use the Diskpart command-line tool to extend a partition in Windows without the need for any third-party software.

Though the entire process is easy, always remember to be cautious when using Diskpart, as it’s a powerful tool that can cause irreversible damage if not used correctly. With that said, you can now confidently manage your partitions like a pro.

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I hope this simple and easy guide helped you extend the volume using Diskpart on Windows.

I hope this simple and easy Windows how-to guide helped you.

If you are stuck or need help, email me, and I will try to help as much as possible.

If you like this article, check out what is PortableBaseLayer partition and how to create a recovery partition on Windows.