How to Fix the Storage on the Huawei Matebook X Pro

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I have no idea why Huawei does this, but it’s super annoying.

For some reason, Huawei partitions their laptops into two separate sections: one for Windows and one for “Data” instead of the normal everything-is-in-one-place approach that we’re all used to.

Now, I can only assume the logic behind this decision is that its so your files are kept separate from your operating system files and while there might be benefits to this, it becomes a pain when Windows simply decides to install everything on the much smaller Windows partition instead of the majority of the Matebook X Pro’s storage located in the “data” partition.

Matebook X Pro Storage Paritions

For me, and other reviewers I know, it’s so much better to just have it all as one partition (and not worry about the low storage errors etc. that are caused by this dumb split method).

So for anyone else frustrated by this, I’m going to show you how to get your Matebook X Pro’s storage in order.

Matebook X Pro (2018) Storage Fix

For the older Matebook X Pro, all you had to do was:

  1. Backup anything you don’t want to lose to an external hard drive as this will erase the data partition.Backup to External
  2. Open the start menu search, search for “Create and format hard disk partitions”, and click on that.Search for partitions
  3. Right click on the D: Data drive and select Delete Volume.Delete Volume
  4. Right click on the C: Windows partition and select Extend Volume.Extend Volume
  5. Follow the prompts and select the full size allowed to extend it by.Follow Prompts
  6. You should no longer see D: in the partitions.No More D

Boom, after that, you have one partition that will function as the universe intended it to.

Check out my complete walkthrough of the Huawei Matebook X Pro (2019) video here.

Matebook X Pro (2019) Storage Fix

But, for yet another unknown reason, the new Matebook X Pro (2019) isn’t so easily convinced.

When you try to do this on the newer model, you’ll get to step 4 and be greeted by a greyed out Delete Volume and Windows refused to let you change that.

After hours messing with this, I figured out that the reason for this is the fact that Windows has decided (WHY, WINDOWS, WHY?!) to put the pagefile on this partition and because it’s there, won’t allow you to delete the volume.

So, the solution? We have to move that pagefile first (you don’t need to know what the pagefile does to do this tutorial but if you’re curious, here is a good explanation).

  1. Open the start menu search.
    Open Start Menu Search
  2. Type in System and click on it (the one that says Control Panel under it).
    Search for System
  3. Click on the Advanced System Settings option.Click Advanced System Settings
  4. Click on the Advanced tab.Click the Advanced Tab
  5. Click on Settings under Performance.Select Settings Under Performance
  6. Click on the Advanced tab.Click Advanced Tab
  7. Click Change under the Virtual Memory section.Click Change Under Virtual Memory
  8. Deselect Automatically manage paging file size of each drive.
  9. Leave the C: drive as it is and select the D: drive.Leave C and Select D
  10. Select the option for No paging file and click Set.Select No Paging File for D
  11. Click OK.Click OK
  12. It will tell you to restart the computer, click OK.Restart Computer

And now since there is no longer a pagefile.sys on that drive, we can then just do the steps we used to do on the Matebook X Pro:

  1. Backup anything you don’t want to lose to an external hard drive as this will erase the data partition.Backup to External
  2. Open the start menu search, search for “Create and format hard disk partitions”, and click on that.Search for partitions
  3. Right click on the D: Data drive and select Delete Volume.Delete Volume
  4. Right click on the C: Windows partition and select Extend Volume.Extend Volume
  5. Follow the prompts and select the full size allowed to extend it by.Follow Prompts
  6. You should no longer see D: in the partitions.No More D

You should now just have one C: Windows drive and can use the computer as normal (woo!).

One Drive to Rule Them All

Let me know if this was helpful or if you ran into any issues in the comments below and I’ll try and help out.

Also, don’t forget to subscribe to my weekly, not-annoying newsletter that goes out every Sunday with more tips, tricks, videos, and more. As always though, thanks for reading.

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43 thoughts on “How to Fix the Storage on the Huawei Matebook X Pro”

  1. Dani

    Thank you so much for this! I just got my Matebook yesterday and was at one point unable to transfer any more files to it, even though there were 400GB of free space. I kept getting a notification that storage was low and also couldn’t open Photoshop. I was getting kind of frustrated but then I found this 🙂

    Reply
  2. Dani

    Thank you so much for this! I just got my Matebook X Pro yesterday and was at one point unable to transfer more files to it, although there were 400GB of free space. Photoshop wouldn’t open either and I kept getting the notification that storage space was low. I was getting kind of frustrated but this was very helpful and everything works now 🙂

    Reply
  3. Jon

    Very helpful. (My 2019 Matebook pro did not have a pagefile on the D: partition so I was able to remove the partition directly.) Thanks

    Reply
  4. Steven Reeder

    Hi I need some help! I just got my matebook x pro 2018 i5 and I tried ur steps. I was able to delete the D drive no problem but it won’t let me expand the c drive. The option is greyed out! I don’t know what to do because now it’s saying that there’s like 400gb of unallocated space ??

    Reply
    1. David Cogen

      Means you didn’t do the steps with the pagefile. Right click the unallocated drive and format it so it turns back into a real drive then start this tutorial from the beginning again. Good luck!

      Reply
      1. Ben

        Hi, I have a 2018, i7 version and I followed the tutorial for both 2018 and 2019 for pagefile and restarted my computer, however after deleting the D drive partition the extend option is still greyed out.

        Reply
      1. sebastien lake

        I have the 2018 version it didn’t work so i tried the 2019 way, I moved the pagefile but still no option to delete the D drive..

        Reply
        1. David Cogen

          Only thing I can really suggest is just backing up everything to an external hard drive and resetting the laptop then using this tutorial from there. Sorry I can’t be of more help than that! Good luck!

          Reply
    2. Derek

      Line Bolt and I are having the same issues. The WinRE partition is in between the C and D drive so we are unable to extend the C drive into the unallocated space. I am looking at ways to get around this and will post insights if I get it to work.

      Reply
      2. thisnickistaken

        I am having the same issue. Able to delete the D partition but ‘extend’ option is greyed out when trying to extend the C partition. Were you able to resolve this ?

        Reply
  8. Derek

    I have the 2018 matebook pro and tried both steps to delete the D drive and expand the C drive but both times the extend C drive option is still grayed out. Wondering if you could help with this issue?

    Reply
      1. Derek

        Thanks for the quick response but I’ve followed the instructions step by step about 3 or 4 times now and I am still having issues with the grayed out extend volume option. After every attempt I recreate the D drive by generating a simple volume. Could their be an issue with the way I recreate the D drive that’s not allowing me to extend the C drive after setting to no-page filing and then re-deleting it? Thanks in advance for any insights!

        Reply
        1. David Cogen

          Unfortunately with out me being there I can’t tell what you did wrong first. I’d suggest maybe just backing up everything to an external hard drive and resetting the laptop then using this tutorial from there. Sorry I can’t be of more help than that! Good luck!

          Reply
  9. Layla AlKhour

    Hi. This worked on my 2019 model with the 2018 method. Yes the laptop is a 2019 for sure lol. Didn’t need to do the extra steps for 2019 (in fact, saw them after the fact) Thanks!

    Reply
  10. Heglout

    This didn’t work for me, but it was worth a shot. I got it with a different method, so here’s a fix for anyone else that couldn’t get it to work.

    I used EaseUS partition master to clone the Matebook’s hard drive to a flash drive. Then I booted the Matebook onto that flash drive, formatted the original SSD, and cloned the flash drive back to the Matebook with the same program. It worked great, but took some time and effort.

    Reply
  11. Logan

    If, like many of you, you were not able to get this to work for various reasons, I found going into Window’s Storage settings and clicking “Change where new content is saved” and just changing all the options to your other drive worked best. This way your Pictures, Documents, Music, Desktop etc. folders are in the D: Drive rather than the C: Drive.

    Hit Windows key > Type Storage > Hit Enter > Under “More Storage Settings” select “Change where new content is saved” > Click the drop down menu for each file type and choose the desired Drive.

    It’s always nice to have a seperate drive for your program files anyway so the C: Drive is a good place for that and the 80gb designated for it is a pretty good amount.

    Reply
  12. MateBook X Pro Owner

    Hey everyone!

    Does anyone know 2 things that happen once you merge System & Data partitions on MateBook X Pro:
    1) is it still possible to use Factory Reset;
    2) will Factory Reset separate disk C: back to System & Data partitions?

    And here’s a bonus question:
    3) will I be able to restore OS to Windows 10 Home Edition using Factory Reset if I format disk C: and install different OS (Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC)?

    Huawei Support responded “yes” to questions 1 & 2, but I’d like to double-check.

    Kind regards,

    MateBook X Pro Owner

    Reply
    1. David Cogen

      So I haven’t tried any of the above honestly, but it SHOULD technically all work the same. And honestly, even if it did recreate the partitions, you could easily just use this tutorial again to fix it (and if you’re doing all the above you’ve wiped the computer anyway so no harm in redoing the partition fix if necessary, no?)

      Reply
      1. MateBook X Pro Owner

        Good to know, David! You’re right on redoing partition manually if necessary. I did a full backup of factory partitions (except Data) using Macrium Reflect 7 (installed/launched from USB/WinPE via UEFI F12 boot) in case something goes wrong in the future. Thanks for your article and easy setup for comments.

        Reply
          1. MateBook X Pro Owner

            Hey Dave, I’m just reporting everything went smoothly with 2019 model. My D: disk even didn’t have pagefile.sys (Virtual Memory for Data disk was set to None). Anyway I’d like to suggest you adding a P.S. for anyone who feels it might be sketchy to mess with volumes – a quick and easy free way to make a carbon copy of all of your factory partitions:
            0) better use different PC or Virtual Machine to do steps 1-3,
            1) download and install free Macrium Reflect 7 Home,
            2) take any USB flash drive (1 GB is enough) and any empty USB HDD/SSD of 256+ GB or 512+ GB (same size as you MBXP drive or more),
            3) make recovery WinPE 10 drive with MBR/UEFI support using Macrium Reflect 7 > Options menu (it downloads 980 MB of WinPE image and does everything for you, no need to use Rufus app, etc.),
            4) leave USB flash drive in MBXP and restart MateBook Pro, press and hold F12 on boot and boot from USB flash drive,
            5) use Backup tab, select all volumes (or partially the ones you need), click Image Volume and follow 3 easy steps the screen says, select your empty USB HDD/SSD of 256+ GB or 512+ GB as backup destination.
            To make it really fast disable compression option in advanced settings of backup creation dialog (bottom left of the window). And to make it lightning fast you can uncheck Data partition to be backed up and use it as a destination for all other factory volumes (including your Windows volume) – with disabled compression the process takes 1–10 minutes depending on your Windows drive data size.
            Than you can do whatever you want with your MBXP – if anything goes wrong you can easily restore your partition images (any or all). Beware there’s an ongoing issue with Goodix fingerprint reader not working after installing any fresh Windows or reinstalling factory one using factory restore (F10 on boot). Fingerprint driver is installed but it reports Code 31 error and doesn’t work. Unfortunately no concrete solution as of today (maybe Dave figures it out, but mine didn’t work after wiping Windows 10.0.17763 Home Edition and installing Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019 same build 10.0.17763, same factory drivers (I backed them up from factory Home Edition using Double Driver 4.10 portable).

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