In Windows 8.1 this cannot be done, at least not in my set-up, which is Acer. I sort of regret it, with hind-sight, even if the HW is supposed to be good, by individual components.

I searched advice and tips, and had no issue getting into "disk management" under "computer management" eventually.

Only, I cannot "expand" my C: - or just brutally "delete" my D: to merge it with my primary drive. I click, but the menu option is greyed out.

From a TERAbyte hard-drive, my C-drive is bluaady 372.60 BG. That is tiny!

I do not know if this limitation has to do with the OS being fragile, or patronizing the end users against inflicting purported self-harm. Or Acer "gaming features" being piss-poor.

Like Imoen, I care not - just would prefer to install all my games into my self-managed "C:" that is maxed per my preference. Think most would.

Any advice? I have not leaped into Windows 10, but can one at least merge disk partitions with internal tools with it?

Have you checked this out?

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/resize-a-partition-for-free-in-windows-vista/

Your C: and D: drives must be on the same physical drive of course. If they are, then in theory, you should be able to shrink D: then increase C:

If I understand correctly, you have 2 partitions on the same 1TB hard drive? If so, you should be able to do this in Disk Management. Just go there and select the D: partition and delete it. Then select (right click) your C: partition and chose 'Extend Volume'. Follow the prompts to extend it to the whole disk.

Wait, is this an off-the-shelf rig? If so, you may have a hidden recovery parttition that is interfering with this.

Edit qwixter posted what you needed , I just tried this and reversed it and it worked on my 7 and 10 machine.

I have the following stated repartitions in the disk management tool:

- unnamed EFI system partition
- unnamed recovery partition
- another unnamed recovery partition
- Data (D:) - now srunk because I could not delete it ("delete volume" is greyed out)
- OS (C:) - tiny as it was before, could not be extended when D: was shrunk. ("extend volume" greyed out, despite free volume to allocate)

- and now (F:) - partitioned from shrunk (D:) in extremis

I suspect the issue may have something to do with this: I build my own rigs, so don't know for sure, but these unnamed hidden partitions may be what's blocking your attempts to resize and expand.

Well, I cannot see why I cannot just have a terabyte C: per the physical capacity - I am in that utility window, but "extend volume" remains greyed out even after I shrunk the D: drive.

I do not know if this is Acer or Windows - but either way, I should like to decide how much space I allocate to my C-drive.

Those cannot be deleted or changed, I checked, as I had read your post.

I do take a warm and admiring stance on HW impassionate - those whom enjoy pimping their rig are privileged, because they have both sophistication and control.

I am one of those whom are lukewarm about technology - it should enable, not be felt, or agonized over.

Either way, I really do not see any rationale why any unsophisticated user should not be able to transparently decide the size of their C: partition. If they get that far, and know what they want.

And, to me, 372.60 GB of primary drive from a terabyte total is ... arbitrary in its smallness. I'd expect at least 70% or so. To me, it makes no sense!

Is it too much for you to just wipe everything and start fresh??? maybe that might be a better option cause if this is from acer then I believe you can't do anything cause they f around with the os so you cant change shit half the time... my parents laptop had problems like this before with other stuff due to restrictions they place on the buyers.

On 8.1 not. On Acer gaming laptop at least.

Maybe this is, as trying to smuggle Win 10 into routine system updates, a way to encourage the upgrade on users bit forcefully.

I did follow suggestions such as this before I posted here:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-performance/how-to-merge-the-existing-c-d-drive-in-one/4821e01d-86f5-4925-9e0e-13c287b17baf?auth=1

Only the "delete volume" on D: it is grayed out.

It obviously makes no sense, but there it is. And it stopped me from installing a game due to lack of space of my 37% C-drive.

They don't even need to be on the same disc. There are multi disk volumes available when partitioning drives if you need to merge two physical disks into one larger partition, called a volume. This has been around for ages.

Yeah so at this point maybe deleting and installing a new windows might be the option for you if you can't get that space :( but hey! that's the fun in pc's re install and start fresh with a fast clean os, I love doing it

Thanks for the info. It's something I never bothered with. I usually keep it simple these days since drives are much cheaper. One drive, one partition, unless it's for a special purpose like intel RST.

Why would you be so unkind, DreamedArtist? It is not amusing or charming, or a matter of a flimsy re-install, when one cannot decide what c-drive partition should be.

It is quite awful, and frustrating.

Windows 8.1 is within the scope of current maintenance from Microsoft, even if they would prefer everyone on Windows 10. With my questionable rig, I paid for Windows 8.1. I think I have right to this OS at proper functionality - as with games, in flux of digital distribution.