Can't expand encrypted partition using VeraCryptExpander

[Qula]

Greetings

I have a HDD with two partitions. First is not encrypted and empty (~20GB NTFS) and is no longer needed. Second is encrypted and occupies rest of the free space (~3.9TB NTFS).
What I want to do is to expand second partition by the space occupied by the first one. I have selected second partition with "select device" than entered password. After few seconds
there is a popup window with "Not enough free space to expand the volume". Deleting first partition also doesn't help. Since there are very few options in the VeraCryptExpander
I don't know what to do next and why it is't working.

[Philip Smith]

There are a few threads where people are having problems with the expanding option.

If the 1st partition is only 20GB what about just encrypting it as a seperate 20GB use same password.

for 20GB it would not take long to do it, it would also be safer.

Make sure you have a backup.

[Qula]

Thanks for answer. Is it possible to just expand encrypted partition with some partitioning tool like gparted without damaging it?

[Philip Smith]

I have never done that or know anyone who has, if you have important data on it and no backup the risk of doing it are too great.

If you have 100% verified backup you could as an experiment try it,