Both the unallocated space and free space hold a portion of the computer storage. They are identical in some cases while in others not. Read on and you will know all about it.
This is a detailed data recovery tutorial for EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. Libraries, or Documents or you may select a hard drive, partition, or external. Cara Partisi Hardisk Menggunakan EASEUS Partition Master,Easeus Partition Master adalah software yang dapat digunakan untuk mempartisi hardisk menjadi beberapa partisi.
Unallocated space is the space on a hard drive or external storage device that hasn't been partitioned yet. Thus, it's unusable, which means you can not use it for data storage and no program can write data to this part of disk storage.
You may get unallocated space in the following situations:
After initializing a disk, you will see the whole disk shown as unallocated in Disk Management.
When you create a partition on a storage device, the space left will be marked as unallocated.
If you delete/shrink a partition, Windows will label the unused portion of space as unallocated.
A hard drive, USB, or SD card may become unallocated suddenly due to misoperations or virus attacks.
Free space may refer to the unusable space shown in Disk Management or the usable but unused space on an existing partition. The former is identical to the unallocated space mentioned above and you may get it after shrinking a logical partition on the computer. While the latter is the target which you want to convert the unallocated space to.
2 Ways to Convert Unallocated Space to Free Space
You don't want to waste the storage on a hard drive or external storage device by leaving the space as unallocated. To utilize the unallocated space, you can either create a new partition or add it to an existing partition. By doing so, you convert the unusable unallocated space to the usable free space and make it ready for data storage.
Method 1. Create a New Partition
You can get it done using Disk Management or free partition manager like EaseUS Partition Master.
Option 1. Use Disk Management
Step 1. Go to 'This PC', right-click it and choose 'Manage' > 'Disk Management'.
Step 2. Right-click the unallocated space and choose 'New Simple Volume'.
Step 3. Follow the wizard to finish the remaining process.
Option 2. Use EaseUS Partition Master
You may think it's needless to use the free partition manager - EaseUS Partition Master since Disk Management can complete the task. For your information, this software can do much more than Disk Management. You can apply it whenever you want to create a partition, format a partition/disk, resize/move a partition, migrate OS, or convert a disk from GPT to MBR, basic to dynamic, and vice versa.
In a word, EaseUS Partition Master is not only helpful in this case of converting unallocated space to free space but also in other situations related to disk/partition management.
To create a new volume:
Step 1: Launch EaseUS Partition Master
On the main window, right-click on the unallocated space on your hard drive or external storage device and select 'Create'.
Step 2: Adjust the new partition size, file system, label, etc.
Set the size, partition label, drive letter, file system, etc. for the new partition and click 'OK' to continue.
Step 3: Confirm to create a new partition
Click on the 'Execute Operation' button and confirm to create a new partition by clicking 'Apply'.
Method 2. Extend an Existing Partition
Similarly, both Disk Management and EaseUS Partition Master allow you to extend a partition to get more free space using the unallocated space.
Option 1. Use Disk Management
Step 1. Right-click on 'This PC' and choose 'Manage' > 'Disk Management'.
Step 2. Right-click the target partition and choose 'Delete Volume'. In the prompt, click 'Yes'.
Step 3. Right-click the source partition and choose 'Extend Volume'.
Step 4. In Extend Volume Wizard, click 'Next'.
Step 5. Set the amount of space and click 'Next'. (You may feel confused in the 'Select Disks' window. To your information, the maximum available space means the total size of the unallocated space in the current disk.)
Step 6. Click 'Next' > 'Finish' and wait for the process to complete.
Option 2. Use EaseUS Partition Master
EaseUS disk manager provides you with a more visualized experience while extending a volume.
Step 1: Launch EaseUS Partition Master
Step 2: Free up space to extend partition
If the hard drive has enough unallocated space to extend the target partition, jump to Step 3 and continue.
If not, free up space first: 1. Right-click on a partition next to the target partition and select 'Resize/Move'. 2. Drag the partition ends to free up space, leaving enough unallocated space behind the target partition, click 'OK'.
Step 3: Extend partition
1. Right-click on the target partition and select 'Resize/Move'.
2. Drag the target partition handle into the unallocated space to extend partition.
Step 4: Keep all changes
Click the 'Execute Operation' button and click 'Apply' to keep all changes.
There are slight differences between these two options while converting unallocated space to free space. However, when it comes to merging partitions or resizing partitions, the differences are remarkable and you will realize the convenience of using EaseUS Partition Master.
Knowledge Base: Is Unallocated Space Really Useless
Actually, unallocated space is not totally useless. It is required when you attempt to clone a disk/partition/system. For example, If you have an experience of using the Windows backup software - EaseUS Todo Backup to clone a system or disk, you are asked to make sure the target disk is shown as unallocated space before the cloning. Besides, if the unallocated space is insufficient, you will receive the prompt saying 'not enough unallocated space on the target disk'. To deal with it, you can either delete the existing partition on the target disk or switch to a bigger one instead.
The Bottom Line
In conclusion, to make unallocated space usable, converting it to free space is necessary. To change unallocated space to free space, both partition creation and extending are practical solutions. Depending on your needs, you can either use Disk Management or software like EaseUS Partition Master to achieve the goal.
In cases like system clone and disk clone, enough unallocated space on the target disk is one of the requirements for a successful clone.
Hope this guide is useful to you.
This feature allows you to convert a dynamic disk containing simple volumes or mirrored volumes into a basic one while keeping its content intact.
To convert a dynamic disk to basic disk: 1. Select the dynamic disk. 2. Click the Convert to basic in Feature List. 3. The operation will be pended until applied in Pending Operation List. Click Execute Operation when you are ready to proceed.
Generally, after converting the dynamic disk, all of the dynamic volumes will be converted to logic partitions except the following situations: 1. If there is no enough space for exchanging temporary data on the volume (less than 5% unused space in the volume and no adjacent unallocated space), this volume will be converted to primary partition. However, the MBR basic disk has the limitation that there can be 4 primary partitions at most, if the number of the volumes on a disk with less than 5% unused space and no adjacent unallocated space is over 4, the conversion operation cannot be implemented. 2. If the file system of the volume is NOT FAT or NTFS, and there is no unallocated space next to the volume, it will be converted to primary partition. If the volumes which fit this situation are more than 4, the dynamic disk cannot be converted to basic disk.
Tips: ◆ This feature can only process dynamic disk with simple and mirrored volumes. The other types of dynamic disk like spanned volume, striped volume is not supported. ◆ To convert a dynamic disk containing mirrored volumes to a basic disk, please break the mirrored volumes before converting. ◆ Converting dynamic disk to basic will not cause data loss, however, to avoid data loss caused by other uncertain computer factors, we recommend you back up the disk before any operation!