Can I increase EFI system partition? How big should EFI partition be? How to increase EFI system partition size on Windows 11/10? Now, this post from MiniTool Partition Wizard explores these questions in detail.
What Is EFI System Partition
EFI system partition (ESP) is a protective partition formatted with the FAT32 file system after you install Windows OS on a GPT disk. This partition stores many important files, including EFI boot loaders, driver files, BitLocker data, system utility programs, and more. It is usually stored on the primary hard drive and is managed by the operating system.
Sometimes the EFI partition may run out of space with time going by. So, lots of users want to increase EFI partition size. Here’s a user report from the answers.microsoft.com forum:
How to increase EFI and Recovery partition size? Hello, I need to be able to increase the size of EFI and Recovery partitions because there is not enough free space on them to allow creating System Image backup on an external disk. Please kindly suggest how to resize those partitions. Many thanks!https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-to-increase-efi-and-recovery-partitions-size/e27e3ca1-9f39-40ad-868d-5be54ebdf502
Can I Increase EFI System Partition
Can I increase EFI system partition? Of course, the answer is yes. However, there is no way to do that using the Windows built-in tools like Disk Management or DiskPart. This is because Disk Management can only extend partitions from the right contiguous unallocated space. When right-clicking the EFI partition, you will find the Extend Volume option is greyed out.
To increase EFI system partition size on Windows 10/11, you need to utilize a professional partition manager like MiniTool Partition Wizard.
How Big Should EFI Partition Be
How big should EFI partition be? It’s necessary before you increase EFI system partition size. According to the official information, the minimum EFI system partition size is 100 MB and must be formatted using the FAT32 file system on GPT drives.
The EFI partition usually doesn’t take up too much disk space. But sometimes it may run out of space if you want to store some important files like system image backup. In this case, you need to enlarge EFI system partition size manually. How to do that? Let’s keep reading the full guide below.
How to Increase EFI System Partition Size on Windows 11/10
How to resize EFI system partition size on Windows 11/10? Here we strongly recommend you use MiniTool Partition Wizard. It’s a trusted and multifunctional partition manager that can extend/resize/move/copy/format/wipe partitions, partition hard drive, change cluster size, convert FAT32 to NTFS without data loss, and more.
Besides, it’s a powerful disk management tool that can migrate OS to SSD, clone hard drive, rebuild MBR, convert MBR to GPT, check disk performance, check bad blocks, recover data/partitions, etc.
Since the EFI is a system partition, we recommend you use the MiniTool Partition Wizard Bootable Edition to avoid any boot issues. Here’s how to extend EFI partition size using the bootable version.
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Step 1. Launch the MiniTool program to enter its main interface and click on Bootable Media from the upper right corner.
Step 2. In the pop-up window, you will see 3 options to create bootable CD/DVD/USB drive using MiniTool Bootable Media Builder, including ISO file, USB drive, and CD/DVD. Choose one according to your situation.
Step 3. Once created, restart your computer and press F2 or Delete keys to enter BIOS. Then you can set the bootable media as the first boot location by changing the boot order. After that, your PC can reboot from the media.
Step 4. Follow the on-screen prompts to enter the main interface of the MiniTool program, and then select the EFI system partition from the disk map and click on Extend Partition from the left action panel. Alternatively, you can right-click the partition and select Extend.
Step 5. Select other partitions or unallocated spaces that you want to take free space from the drop-down menu, and then drag the blue slider bar to occupy the space. Then click on OK to confirm the change.
Step 6. Click on Apply to execute the extending operation.
Well, if you just want to resize EFI system partition size to smaller, you can use the Move/Resize Partition feature. Here’s a quick guide for you.
Step 1. In the main interface, right-click the EFI partition and select Move/Resize from the context menu.
Step 2. Drag the handle to resize the partition and click on OK to confirm the change. Also, you can input specific volume sizes in the box.
Step 3. Click on Apply to execute the resizing operation.
Have a Try Now
Here comes the end of this post. It focuses on how to increase EFI partition size on Windows 11/10. Besides, it also discusses some common questions about the EFI partition size. If you have any other opinions about this topic, please share them with us in the following comment zone.
In addition, if you encounter any problems with MiniTool Partition Wizard, contact us via [email protected] and we will give you a reply as soon as possible.
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Ariel has been working as a highly professional computer-relevant technology editor at MiniTool for many years. She has a strong passion for researching all knowledge related to the computer's disk, partition, and Windows OS. Up till now, she has finished thousands of articles covering a broad range of topics and helped lots of users fix various problems. She focuses on the fields of disk management, OS backup, and PDF editing and provides her readers with insightful and informative content.