Windows 10 Pro 64 bit

Previous SSD was 500 gig
created system image

Purchased a 1 TB SSD WD Blue
powered down and installed new drive
Booted with Repair disk and restored system image, but...

the repair disk formatted in NTFS and restored system image.

So how come the new 1 TB SSD ended up being 500 Gig?

Something is rotten here!

I think you cloned it, which included partition sizes. In this case, I'd just start Disk Management, right-click on the current partition and extend the volume. That should bring it back up to 930GB.

The extend option is grayed out

I can't remember which utility I used. I think it was the AOMEI Partition Assistant to move my partitions around since you need to have mydisk (C:) adjacent to the unallocated space to extend the volume. You have to register an email account to download the freeware, so I also used a disposable email address to get through the email barrier.

https://www.aomeitech.com/download.html
https://temp-mail.org/en/

After installing the software, save your work, move the partitions, confirm your changes, and apply the changes. Your PC should restart a couple times where the AOMEI software will move your partitions before starting up Windows. When it's done, then you can go into Disk Management, extend the volume, and then remove AOMEI from your programs.

Maybe, but right now I'm a bit uneasy. Will the extend option keep my current windows installation?

Yes, it just merges that unallocated space with your current partition.

You can also create a new volume out of that unallocated space too if this is all too tedious until your next reformat. Though I think it's worth it to just do the AOMEI from the get-go.

O K !

That was rather painless.

MANY MANY THANKS

IT'S NOW AT 929 GIG

Try right-clicking mydisk (C:) and merging partitions with the unallocated space.

If that doesn't work, you have to right-click on mydisk (C:) and move it so it's right besides that unallocated space. Or move the other two partitions to the left of mydisk. The issue is that you can only merge partitions that are beside each other.

If you still have issues, might want to pay a tech-saavy person to help you with this. Or back up your files and reformat everything.

Because filesystems tend to be using contiguous chunks. In theory you could format a new filesystem and then mount it to a particular directory that is going to be heavily used, like C:/users, or something. I do something similar with a second drive attached as my Downloads folder.

Though two 800+Mb 'recovery' partitions, could be deleted and then merge all the empty space together...

Or do some raw copies to move the partitions around. I remember Partition Magik, which was useful pre NTFS days, letting you move around partitions, change block sizes, expand/retract space, etc... I miss that tool. Though a linux Live CD and some copying or dd tools can do the same thing.

With a virtual driver to remap the spacing you could have multiple partition areas go to a drive easily enough, as it's just a mapping (and would be a fairly easy one at that), but that overhead of what you can do isn't as likely in Windows environment.

But seeing as you've already 'copied' the drive, experiment and don't touch the original until you're happy.

Any particular reason why your two 2TB portable backup hard drives are using exFAT, and not e.g. NTFS?

I think exFAT is mainly meant for flash drives etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExFAT

I guess it may have wider compatibility with non-Windows devices (Macs, gaming consoles etc., in case you need to use those USB drives also with such systems), but at least I have no issues using NTFS-formatted USB hard drives in e.g. Linux...

I haven't used exFat for all that much; But it's mostly a variation of FAT...

Using ramdrives i've had some issues with exFat while Fat16/32 i haven't. Though that was some time ago and maybe the ramdrive (imdisk) and less the filesystem.

But seeing it's support increase may make it more viable in the coming years...

You can use Macrium Reflect, as explained in this guide around minute 8.

I've used only exFAT for ramdrives made with ImDisk Toolkit, for about 8 years now, with no issues.

There is a good chance that the other half of your 1TB drive is unformatted space, that needs formatting and merging.

In the Run box, type "diskmgmt.msc" and press "Enter" key to open the Disk Management. That Windows tool will allow you to format the unused portion of your SSD, but BE CAREFUL, don't format the OS partition. Once formatted the option you mentioned will no longer be grayed out.

A bot/slave necroed the thread in order to advertise a website. No idea if that is a good product or not.

Gawd, I fell for it, what a gotcha. ha ha ha ha

Probably because Keith turned up again at the forum recently and I focused on that and missed the thread date. LOL