Resize GPT disk partition of Windows 8

by Jane / Wed Jan 17 2018 / UPDATED in Partition Magic Server

There are many reasons to resize GPT partition on Windows 8 or Windows 10

  • GPT disk only shows 2TB in Disk management
  • Some partition on GPT disk is running out of space
  • Need to create more than 4 partitions on the disk

Hard drives with a large capacity are now in common and with affordable price, 2TB hard drive is no longer considered as a large disk anymore, 4TB ones, however, is on its way to becoming popular. And problems like the above listed are likely to happen especially when disks have defaulted to MBR in hard drive factory.

How to fix those problems?

#1 GPT disk only shows 2TB

This is the common problem on a new large hard drive with more than 2TB in size but only shows 2TB in Windows Disk management and the rest of the space is showed unallocated space or free space.

The main reason is that the new disk you installed in the MBR disk, which allows only 2TB at most to be usable.

To make full of use this disk and get the rest of the free space allocated method is to convert MBR to GPT, on a new disk you can do in Disk Management:

  • Right-click on the new disk
  • Choose Convert to GPT

And follow the wizard to complete the conversion.

However, if you have used the previous 2TB for data, performing the conversion with the above steps will just delete all data on it, that’s why it the solution for new disk; For users who would like to keep data, you shall do the following:

  • Download Partition Expert, install and Run
  • Click on the MBR disk and choose Convert to GPT
  • Click OK and Commit

And you can use the rest of the free space by clicking Create volume to create a new partition or you can move this space to other partition running out of space.

#2 Partitions running out of space

Although it’s a large-sized disk you’re using, some partition, especially C: Drive the system partition may run out of space as time goes by. You might have tried the Disk management tool to increase C Drive size, only to find that the option Extend Volume is grayed out in the right-click menu; and when you decide to move some free space at the end of the disk to the C Drive, you found Disk management has no such feature like ‘Move’.

How to move unallocated space to low-disk-spaced drive?

  1. In Partition Expert click on a large partition with much free space
  2. Click Resize/Move volume and shrink the partition and click OK
  3. Click on any partition that ahead of the unallocated space and use Resize/Move volume again to move it next to C Drive
  4. Click on C Drive and Resize/Move it, extend unallocated space to the system partition and click OK > Commit

If the GPT disk is just converted from MBR disk, then you can see the unallocated space is at the very end of the disk, if you don’t want to create new partitions with it, you can move them to C Drive and have that partition extended.

Steps of moving unallocated space are much like the step 3 from the above-mentioned step, or you can check the guide on how to move unallocated space from other posts.

#3 Create more than 4 partitions

Since the MBR disk can only be created to 4 primary partitions at most, we have to convert one primary partition to logical disk or we can convert MBR disk to GPT to avoid this limitation.

Here’s how to convert MBR to GPT disk:

  • Click on the disk you want to convert and click Convert to GPT
  • Confirm and click OK and Commit

And then click OK when the prompt message asks, then click Commit will take effect. Then shrink a large partition to create a new partition or just click Create volume directly when unallocated space is available after the conversion.

Final words

It’s easy to fix disk and partition within Partition Expert, in fact, it can do more. Its unique disaster-recovery technology will ensure data when emergency situations happen, which may not happen, but in any case, such thing occurs, this program will protect the data even when you’re resizing the partition or moving data from one disk to another.

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