How to Merge Partition in Windows 10 - A Complete Guide

Keeping partitions of a hard disk is useful if multiple users share the same device. What if you want to merge the partition in Windows 10 into a single hard disk unit but don’t want to lose any data in the process. This article will give you an in-depth understanding of how you can combine all Windows partitions into a single hard disk in Windows 10 without any data loss.

Merging Partitions into a Single Unit in Windows 10

You can either use the Disk Management utility (Windows 10 built-in disk management tool), command prompt, or third-party software to merge the partition in Windows 10. Each method has its benefits and disadvantages. This article will list the three Windows partition methods and suggest which one is more efficient.

Option 1: Disk Management Utility
The Disk Management utility is a Windows built-in option used for advanced storage purposes like setting up a new drive, extend or shrink a volume, etc. If not used right, this utility can result in inadvertent data loss from your system. If you want to opt for this method, you must take full backup of Windows 10 before merging the hard disk partitions.

Perform the following steps to merge the partition in Windows 10.

Navigate to Start > Control Panel. Go to the search bar and type Disk Management.

Under Administrative Tools, select Create and format hard disk partitions. Note: Alternatively, you can go to Start > Run and type “diskmgmt.msc” to launch the Disk Management window.

A pop-up appears on the screen. Select Yes to confirm that you want to make changes to your device.

Under the Volume tab, locate the partitions that you want to merge. The partition that you want to extend is the source partition, and the other one is the target partition. For example, if you wish to combine the D: and E: drive in your device, then D: drive would be the source partition, and E: drive the target partition. To merge both the drives, you must delete the target partition E: drive. Note: Disk Management utility deletes the target partition to create unallocated space. It then extends the source partition with that unallocated space.

Right-click the target partition and select the Delete Volume… option. If you have more than two Windows partitions to merge, delete all the target partitions one by one. A pop-up appears on the screen that states that this action will result in erasing all the data on this drive.

Click Yes to confirm. You have successfully deleted the target partition.

Right-click the source partition and select the Extend Volume… option. An Extend Volume Wizard dialog box appears on the screen. The Extend Volume Wizard helps you increase the size of the source partition.

Click Next to start the volume expand process.

Type the amount of space that you want to allocate to the source partition. The size must not exceed the maximum available space in the disk.

Click Next to proceed.

Click Finish and wait for some time until Windows 10 processes the request. You have successfully merged the partition in Windows 10 into a single unit.

Option 2: Third-party Software
There are tons of third-party software available that allows you to merge the partition in Windows 10. This article uses the AOMEI Partition Assistant software for the demo purpose.

Perform the following steps to merge the partition in Windows 10.

Go to the AOMEI Partition Assistant website and download the software.

Launch the software. The software displays all the partitions that are available on your device.

Right-click the source partition (the one you want to expand) and select the Merge Partitions option.

Select the checkbox next to the target partition (the one you want to merge with the source partition).

From the drive drop-down list, select the source partition drive and click OK. You have successfully merged all the partitions into a single drive without any data loss.

Option 3: Command-Line Interface or Terminal
Perform the following steps to merge the partition in Windows 10.

Go to Start > Run. Type diskpart.exe and click OK.

A pop-up appears on the screen. Select Yes to confirm that you want to make changes to your device.

In the Terminal panel, type list volume and hit Enter. The terminal displays the list of partitions available on your device.

Type select volume and press Enter. Note: drive_name is the letter displayed next to the name of the target partition drive you want to merge with the source partition. For example, if you want to delete the E drive, then type “select volume E.”

Type delete volume to delete the target partition.

The terminal displays a message that the respective target partition is deleted successfully.

Type select volume and press Enter. Note: drive_name is the letter displayed next to the name of the source partition you want to expand. For example, if you want to expand the D drive, then type “select volume D.”

Type “extend” to expand the source partition. The terminal displays a message that the respective source partition is expanded successfully.

Which Option Is More Efficient?

You can use any of the options described above to merge the partition in Windows 10. Option 1 and Option 3 (disk management and terminal) result in the loss of data. You must take data back up before performing the merge operation if you choose one of these options.
Option 2 using third-party software is the most efficient solution. It does not result in any data loss. Moreover, third-party software are easy-to-use and have a simple and intuitive application interface.

Conclusion

Data loss crisis is common and can happen anytime to anyone. It is crucial to understand how one can come out of this situation. If you choose options 1 and 3 stated in this article, you may face serious data loss. To overcome this situation, download professional data recovery software that helps in data recovery. Stellar Data Recovery recovers all the lost or deleted data from Windows and recovers data from deleted disk partitions in Windows 10.