The format/delete/shrink/extend option is greyed out in Disk Management? Why it happens? We will troubleshoot the causes and provide several ways to repair in Windows 10/8/7.
By Ailsa / Last Updated May 29, 2020
Disk Management is a system program in Windows developed by Microsoft, which allows you to perform advanced storage tasks, like create new partition, extend a volume, shrink a partition, change drive letter or assign a new drive letter, etc. How to get into Disk Management to resize, create, format partitions in Windows 7/8/10? There are three ways to approach to Disk Management:
Way 1: Right click on the Start at the bottom left of desk; choose Disk Management.
Way 2: right click on the Computer icon; choose Manage to open Computer Management; select Disk Management.
Way 3: Use CMD tool. Execute diskmgmt.msc.
As far as I know, Disk Management has some limitations to manage your hard drive:
Disk Management can only extend the volume with the adjacent unallocated space to the right, if the unallocated space is not behind the target volume, the extend volume is greyed out in Disk Management.
Disk Management could not allow you to move partitions.
Thus, you may meet the disk management all options greyed out problems.
There are some error messages you might encounter in Disk Management in Windows 7/8/10 PC:
1. Extend/shrink volume greyed out in Disk Management;
2. Shrink volume option greyed out;
3. Format volume is greyed out ;
4. Delete volume greyed out;
Today, we will describe the reason why you got this Windows 10/8/7 disk management greyed out error and guide you to fix it easily and securely step by step.
The cause to extend volume is greyed out: sometimes, you need to extend a partition with an unallocated space/free space to fix low disk space problem in Windows 7/8/10. If the continuous unallocated space/free space is not behind the volume you want to operate and you will be prompted by the Disk Management extend volume greyed out error in Windows 10/8/7; that is to say, you can only extend volume to the adjacent space in Disk Management ; or the partition you are going to operate is not NTFS partition when you find out the extend option greyed out in Disk Management. Because the Extend volume feature only works for a RAW or NTFS partition in Disk Management.
The cause to shrink volume greyed out: The shrink option will be greyed out if the selected partition does not have enough free space. Or the partition you operated is not NTFS file system. Because shrink volume is allowed to a NTFS partition in Disk Management. Thus, you could make sure you have enough contiguous free space to operate, or convert the partition to NTFS file system. You could delete some useless files or uninstall the unnecessary program to free up space, or shrink other partitions to get a free space.
1. Type diskpart to open the diskpart command prompt at the search box which next to the start button.
2. Then type the commands to extend/shrink volume in Windows 7/8/10.
list volume
select volume n (the "n" is the drive letter of the partition you want to shrink)
extend/shrink desired=size
And you will extend/shrink volume successfully with Diskpart.
This extend/shrink option greyed out issue in Disk Management will be fixed by the powerful third-party disk partitioning software, like AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. It will overcome the limitations of Disk Management. This freeware is a comprehensive tool for managing disk partitions. You could download the free disk partitioning software. AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard combines the Extend and shrink volume functions into the Resize Partition. You could enjoy it now to fix "Disk Management all options greyed out" problem. The steps of extend/shrink volume are listed as follows:
1. Execute the program, choose the partition you want to spare free space from, choose Resize Partition at the combobox.
2. Move the double-sided arrow to the left to locate the proper location. hit OK.
3. Click Apply to repair Disk Management shrink option greyed out issue. Then you will get an unallocated space.
4. Now you could use Merge Partitions/Resize Partition (here is Merge Partitions) to extend the partition you wanted with the unallocated space:
5. Choose the partition you want to extend and the unallocated space to merge, press OK.
6. Press Apply to fix Disk Management extend option greyed out problem.
In addition, AOMEI Partition Assistant provides many amazing functions like allocate free space, migrate OS to SSD, command line partitioning, convert MBR to GPT without losing data, which provided by the professional version of the software. For server users, you could enjoy all the functions with AOMEI Partition Assistant Server on Windows server computers.
The cause: you format a system partition; or the selected partition corrupted or has bad sectors. If you format the system partition (typically the C drive) would not be successful due to the system files, pagefiles, etc which is not allowed to delete in Windows 7/8/10. However, you could fix Windows cannot not format the system partition on this disk error.
Solution: Format hard drive partition by CMD
Click Start and type cmd > Right-click on cmd.exe and select Run as Administrator; then type the following commands and execute one by one:
diskpart
list volume
select volume n
format fs=ntfs
exit
The cause: delete an extended partition which has logical on it, you may get the delete volume greyed out error message; Delete a system/boot partition will cause the delete volume greyed out error.
Solution: You could delete the extended partition after removing the logical partition on it in Disk Management. For deleting system/boot partition, you could try to make bootable media and boot from it, then delete system/boot volume under Windows PE with AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. Remember that backup your hard drive before deleting system/boot partition to fix the Disk management delete option greyed out issue.
Boot your computer from the bootable media, then AOMEI Partition Assistant will automatically run on your Windows 7/8/10 PC, then Delete system/boot volume on your HDD.
Furthermore, the bad sector on your hard drive will deny you to extend/shrink/format/delete volume in Disk Management. Therefore, you should check the partition errors to make sure whether there is bad sector or not. Now, you can refer to below words to fix all options greyed out in Disk Management problem.
1. Open AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, choose the hard disk you want to operate.
2. Select Surface Test.
3. Choose Start to check errors.
After all of these solutions, you could have fixed Disk Management all options greyed out problem. If you have any problems, please comments below.
Download.com Rating
Have your problem been solved? If not, please input query in the search box below.
