Simple Guide to Extend a Basic Volume on Windows 11

Storage disks are often cluttered with unnecessary partitions that can be challenging to track. Some disk drives might also hit the maximum storage capacity ceiling. These situations might push you to seek options to extend basic volumes by using unallocated disk spaces.

So, we’ve tested a few built-in and third-party tool-based methods to change a drive’s capacity quickly.

How to Extend a Basic Volume on Windows 11?​

1. Use the Disk Management Tool​

1. On your PC, press the Windows + X keys in order to launch the Power User context menu in the bottom left corner.
2. There, find and click on the Disk Management tool.

1. Let the Disk Management app open and load all drives and partitions.
2. Now, select the basic volume you want to extend from the list of partitions for individual HDDs or SSDs.
3. Windows 11 will list the HDDs or SSDs as Disk 0 for the first storage drive, Disk 1 for the second storage drive, and so on.
4. Here, I selected Disk 0, and inside Disk 0, I clicked on the New Volume (F partition I wanted to extend.
5. After selecting the source partition, right-click and select Extend Volume from the context menu.

1. The Extend Volume Wizard will open. Click Next.
2. If the PC has just one disk, it will automatically select it in the Selected list on the right side of the Extend Volume tool.
3. In the same dialog box, you’ll see the maximum available storage space you can allocate to extend the basic volume.
4. Enter the storage space requirement in MBs in the Select the amount of space in MB field. Click Next to proceed, then click Finish.

In the above screenshot, you can see that Windows 11 has removed 5 GB of storage space from the Unallocated partition. The same amount was added to the New Volume (F to increase its storage ceiling.

2. Use the Settings App​

1. Press the Windows + I keys together to launch the Settings app.
2. Click System on the left-side navigation panel and select Storage from the right-side menu.

1. On the next screen, scroll down to the Storage management section and click on Advanced storage settings.
2. More tools will become available on the menu. Click on the Disks & volume option.

1. Find the partition you want to extend in the Disks & volume menu and click Properties next to it.

1. You should now see the details window for the selected basic volume. Here, click on Change size.
2. The Change size dialog will pop up. In it, enter the new storage space you want, such as 25,000 for 25 GB.

1. Click OK, and Windows will instantly allocate new storage space to the basic partition.

Following these methods can effectively extend a Basic Volume on Windows 11.