Unable to create partition from unallocated space

[Rifky_1]

Hello, i just bought a new ssd and moved my OS(Win 10 x64) to my new ssd by fresh installation. I formatted and deleted the C: partition (now become unallocated) which was the partition for the old Windows OS.
Image :

I want to merge this unallocated space to one of the HDD partition by extend volume,but unfortunately failed.

 

[RealBeast]

Since it is a dynamic disk, you can extend one of the other volumes on the disk into that space. With basic disks the space must be contiguous but that is not true for dynamic disks. It is quite straightforward and you can do it several ways that are outlined HERE.

 

[ArtPog]

1. Is there any data contained in the E: partition?
If so, how much, and do you need or want this data?
If you want or need any of the data, how much do you want or need?

2. Is there any data contained in the F: partition?
If so, how much, and do you need or want this data?
If you want or need any of the data, how much do you want or need?

3. If you disconnect the 1 TB drive from the system and boot to your Toshiba SSD boot drive as the ONLY drive connected in the system, does the system boot and function without any problems?

4. Is there any data in the 450 MB partition on your boot drive?

5. I assume your boot drive has been GPT-partitioned, yes?

6. What OS are you running?

 

[Rifky_1]

Since it is a dynamic disk, you can extend one of the other volumes on the disk into that space. With basic disks the space must be contiguous but that is not true for dynamic disks. It is quite straightforward and you can do it several ways that are outlined HERE.

i have tried the method you give, the problem is that when i try to extend volume "HDD 3 (F" it does show the free storage at Extend Volume Wizard, but at the end it shows error just like the picture above. The other problem is i can't even create new simple volume from that unallocated space and it gives the same error message. Note : i try to adjust the size at the extent volume/new simple volume wizard but still no luck.

i installed Mini Partition Wizard Software,but when it comes to right click menu of that unallocated space, it only shows this

Same problem happened to other software such as Easeus, does this happen because windows recognize this as 'important' drive, thus i cant make any change to it?

Sorry for the English

 

[Rifky_1]

1. Is there any data contained in the E: partition?
If so, how much, and do you need or want this data?
If you want or need any of the data, how much do you want or need?

2. Is there any data contained in the F: partition?
If so, how much, and do you need or want this data?
If you want or need any of the data, how much do you want or need?

3. If you disconnect the 1 TB drive from the system and boot to your Toshiba SSD boot drive as the ONLY drive connected in the system, does the system boot and function without any problems?

4. Is there any data in the 450 MB partition on your boot drive?

5. I assume your boot drive has been GPT-partitioned, yes?

6. What OS are you running?

1. Yes, 13 GB available. And this drive contains all my important data
2. Yes, 4.6 GB available. Data on this drive are not really important but i dont want to delete it.
3. Actually my device is a Laptop. I replace the CD-ROM slot with my Hard Drive, in order to disconnect it i need to open the case and its quite hard to do since i have never done it before. Is there any other way to disconnect it through OS?
4. No, its a recovery partition and i never store anything there.
5. Yes
6. Windows 10 pro 64-bit

 

[RolandJS]

You are doing this good stuff via a usb or dvd boot, correct? I hope so, because I just spent a day restoring my OS and Data partitions from full image backups onto a HD just freshly unallocated/reVolumed/NTFS-4096 formatted -- because I interrupted an "on-the-fly withinWindows" merge attempt.

 

[ArtPog]

What I'm about to suggest to you involves a significant re:configuration of your drives which I believe should result in a sensible configuration rather than the mish-mash that now exists. But since the changes I'm suggesting involve a considerable re:configuration of the two drives and their contents, I would feel more comfortable if before you undertook what I'm about to suggest, you FIRST clone the contents of your 240 GB SSD to another drive - presumably a USB external HDD. Unfortunately I have the uneasy feeling that you do not have a USBEHD to undertake this operation so that's a problem.

WE ALWAYS - ALWAYS - suggest that before making major changes in one's system, the boot drive (as well as any other drive with important data) be cloned to another drive BEFORE undertaking the changes. So in the event the changes/re:configuration goes awry it's a simple matter to recover the system to its pre-existing status. Capiche?

So that's my warning/recommendation to you before I go ahead with my recommendations, OK?

1. I'm going to proceed on the basis that your 240 GB SSD drive boots to the OS if it's the ONLY drive connected in the system, i.e., it's unnecessary that the 1 TB secondary drive be connected in order for the SSD to boot.

2. Assuming there's no data contained on the 795 MB partition of your boot drive, use Disk Management to delete the partition so that the disk-space will become unallocated. I assume you know how to delete a volume; you may first have to assign a drive letter to the partition.

The result will be that there will be about 23 GB of unallocated disk-space following the C: partition. Use DM to extend the C: partition so that it encompasses all the unallocated disk-space following its partition.

3. Following the above exercise boot the system to determine all is well. I'll assume the C: partition of approx. 223 GB now has at least 20 GB of UNUSED disk-space available. If that is incorrect, let me know.

4. With the secondary 1 TB HDD now connected, move the 13 GB of data from its E: partition to the C: partition of your boot drive. I recognize this volume of data will take some time to transfer but it's worth doing.

5. Ditto for the 4.6 GB of data on the dynamic disk's F: partition.

6. Delete the 450 MB partition on the drive. As a result of moving all the data from the E: & F: partitions of the 1 TB dynamic drive, that disk will be essentially empty of data. You can then convert the disk from a Dynamic to a Basic disk.

7. Dynamic disks are a curse for the great majority of PC users. While there are some environments where they can play a useful role, in today's PC environment, for a variety of reasons, they cause more problems & headaches for the typical PC user.

8. With your 1 TB HDD serving as a Basic disk you can utilize its disk-space for whatever purpose(s) you want, e.g., storage, backups, whatever.

Anyway, the above are my recommendations. Give it some thought.

 

[RolandJS]

ArtPog, you write very thorough posts! I will learn from you.

 

[Rifky_1]

What I'm about to suggest to you involves a significant re:configuration of your drives which I believe should result in a sensible configuration rather than the mish-mash that now exists. But since the changes I'm suggesting involve a considerable re:configuration of the two drives and their contents, I would feel more comfortable if before you undertook what I'm about to suggest, you FIRST clone the contents of your 240 GB SSD to another drive - presumably a USB external HDD. Unfortunately I have the uneasy feeling that you do not have a USBEHD to undertake this operation so that's a problem.

WE ALWAYS - ALWAYS - suggest that before making major changes in one's system, the boot drive (as well as any other drive with important data) be cloned to another drive BEFORE undertaking the changes. So in the event the changes/re:configuration goes awry it's a simple matter to recover the system to its pre-existing status. Capiche?

So that's my warning/recommendation to you before I go ahead with my recommendations, OK?

1. I'm going to proceed on the basis that your 240 GB SSD drive boots to the OS if it's the ONLY drive connected in the system, i.e., it's unnecessary that the 1 TB secondary drive be connected in order for the SSD to boot.

2. Assuming there's no data contained on the 795 MB partition of your boot drive, use Disk Management to delete the partition so that the disk-space will become unallocated. I assume you know how to delete a volume; you may first have to assign a drive letter to the partition.

The result will be that there will be about 23 GB of unallocated disk-space following the C: partition. Use DM to extend the C: partition so that it encompasses all the unallocated disk-space following its partition.

3. Following the above exercise boot the system to determine all is well. I'll assume the C: partition of approx. 223 GB now has at least 20 GB of UNUSED disk-space available. If that is incorrect, let me know.

4. With the secondary 1 TB HDD now connected, move the 13 GB of data from its E: partition to the C: partition of your boot drive. I recognize this volume of data will take some time to transfer but it's worth doing.

5. Ditto for the 4.6 GB of data on the dynamic disk's F: partition.

6. Delete the 450 MB partition on the drive. As a result of moving all the data from the E: & F: partitions of the 1 TB dynamic drive, that disk will be essentially empty of data. You can then convert the disk from a Dynamic to a Basic disk.

7. Dynamic disks are a curse for the great majority of PC users. While there are some environments where they can play a useful role, in today's PC environment, for a variety of reasons, they cause more problems & headaches for the typical PC user.

8. With your 1 TB HDD serving as a Basic disk you can utilize its disk-space for whatever purpose(s) you want, e.g., storage, backups, whatever.

Anyway, the above are my recommendations. Give it some thought.

Firstly, thanks for your very detailed explanation,i really appreciate your answer. After reading some details above i could draw a conclusion that i should re:configure the hard drive by formatting it and assigning new empty partition,am i right?.

Actually i have thought about this as my final solution, but i tend to avoid this method since cloning data from both partition on the hard drive requires external hard drive (800 GB atleast) which i dont have. (On your previous reply you asked me about data contained in both E: and F: partition, my answer was actually the FREE space that available in both partition, sorry for that misinformation). And since my SSD has only 80 GB of free space available, its impossible to clone all of the data to this drive.
Therefore i started this thread hoping that is another easy method ; i.e using 3rd party software to fix this problem. But since you have clarified on how to do the 're:configure' method, i will give it a try someday.

oh ya, i assume you are storage expert , so i have another question about my SSD, the 22 GB of unallocated space (about 10 % of its capacity) on my SSD is the space i made for overprovisioning, is that good thing to do? or it only gives less or no benefit at all ?

 

[Rifky_1]

You are doing this good stuff via a usb or dvd boot, correct? I hope so, because I just spent a day restoring my OS and Data partitions from full image backups onto a HD just freshly unallocated/reVolumed/NTFS-4096 formatted -- because I interrupted an "on-the-fly withinWindows" merge attempt.

Yes, via usb boot. Im sorry I dont really get the point of your answer, but could you give any recommendation or what i should do based on your experience?

 

[RolandJS]

Rifky, I was distracted while typing earlier; I was simply posting that using usb or dvd boot is much safer using disk management merging from within Windows

 

[ArtPog]

Rifky_1 says...
"Firstly, thanks for your very detailed explanation,i really appreciate your answer. After reading some details above i could draw a conclusion that i should re:configure the hard drive by formatting it and assigning new empty partition,am i right?.

Actually i have thought about this as my final solution, but i tend to avoid this method since cloning data from both partition on the hard drive requires external hard drive (800 GB atleast) which i dont have. (On your previous reply you asked me about data contained in both E: and F: partition, my answer was actually the FREE space that available in both partition, sorry for that misinformation). And since my SSD has only 80 GB of free space available, its impossible to clone all of the data to this drive.
Therefore i started this thread hoping that is another easy method ; i.e using 3rd party software to fix this problem. But since you have clarified on how to do the 're:configure' method, i will give it a try someday.

oh ya, i assume you are storage expert , so i have another question about my SSD, the 22 GB of unallocated space (about 10 % of its capacity) on my SSD is the space i made for overprovisioning, is that good thing to do? or it only gives less or no benefit at all ?"


1. Insofar as your query re "overprovisioning" your 240 GB SSD...I believe it's unnecessary and more times than not counterproductive as a general propostition. We never "overprovision" our SSDs and have never found a need to do so. But do some Google research on the subject and come to your own conclusions.

2. If it appears to you that based on your present configuration involving the volume of data existing in your current system warrants a third-party partition management program to straighten out your drives' configurations, so be it.

Bear in mind that my caveat still stands re FIRST cloning the contents of any drive that you intend to manipulate (either manually or via a third-party program) to another drive as a "safety valve" in the event the process goes awry.

 

[RolandJS]

I'm learning new things today -- what is SSD over-provisioning? I mean in your experience wording

 

[ArtPog]

I'm learning new things today -- what is SSD over-provisioning? I mean in your experience wording

Do a Google search on "SSD over-provisioning". You'll find lots of good info on that subject.

 

[Rifky_1]

To ArtPog : Thanks for your clarification and recommendation, i will do some research in each specific 3rd party software forum, otherwise i will just commence re:configure the hard drive

To RolandJS : hmm, seems good to me, i will give it a shot