Question Unallocated drive space help?

[awkgem]

https://imgur.com/a/UgNGYKS

This is definitely a noob question but I don't have anyone irl to ask for advice.
So basically, I bought a bigger ssd as an upgrade for my laptop. I cloned my old one, plugged it in, all should be good. But nay, I should have known nothing is simple. So basically I could create a new simple volume but I'd prefer just expanding my C drive into the unallocated space. The software I'm using won't let me. I've got far enough to realise that you can only extend into the partition next to C. And I am not able to because of a recovery drive being there. So my question is: is there a way to delete/recreate or "move" the recovery drive so that I can extend my C drive? Or are there issues there? If this is super basic stuff I apologize, I'm just an average consumer and am naive when it comes to certain things. Thankyou!

 

[Lafong]

https://imgur.com/a/UgNGYKS

The software I'm using won't let me.

What software is that?

Minitool Partition Wizard can do what you want. Probably other methods too.

 

[awkgem]

Wow you're absolutely right! I feel a little silly for not trying different software to begin with, I'm not sure why the one I was using wouldn't allow me to. Thank you!

 

[hotaru.hino]

While the risk is tiny, moving around partitions like this could end up with data corruption if something goes wrong with the process. So as a precaution, you should back up whatever data on the drive that you cannot live without.

Another option, if the recovery partition is the factory reset partition, is to either clone that to somewhere else or just delete it. If you know how to resinstall Windows and grab the drivers for your computer, the factory reset partition is kind of useless to you. Plus said partition is frozen in time, so you're going to have to go through the rigamaroll of updating everything anyway.

 

[USAFRet]

And, cloning done right, with the right tool, can prevent that from happening.
Even with a target drive larger than the source.

Macrium Reflect has a function to change that, before you hit the Go button.

 

[Colif]

recovery is a standard windows partition, created when windows is installed
its created at end of drive behind C as its special in that it can steal space from the partition before it, unlike most other partitions who can only grow in the other direction.
Originally it used to be placed before the EFI partition as 1st partition on the drive, but the files MS put in there outgrew the space taken, so it is now generally the last partition on the drive, so it can steal off C if it needs to grow.

 

[Grobe]

Just to mention - Clonezilla is also able to clone a Windows system storage device to a bigger one and increase each partition by same percentage as the storage capacity of the larger drive to the smaller one.

 

[drtweak]

Yea the new Macrium Reflect 8, it has the ability to resize automatically so long as there is space

 

[USAFRet]

Yea the new Macrium Reflect 8, it has the ability to resize automatically so long as there is space

v7 did as well.
You can define the resulting size of any partition on the drive.

 

[drtweak]

v7 did as well.
You can define the resulting size of any partition on the drive.

yes but now with v8 its just a plain jane option to pick which is nice.