Merge C and D drive in Windows Server 2019
All disk partitions are allocated while installing Windows Operating System or obtained from server manufacturers. With right management tool, you can create, delete, resize, move and merge partitions, etc. When system C: drive is getting full, many people ask whether it is possible to merge C and D drive, so free space in drive D will be transferred into C drive.
Actually, yes you can combine C and D drive together, but if you want to extend system C drive, you’d better resize partition instead of merging volumes.
In this article, I’ll show you how to merge C and D drive in Windows Server 2019 with built-in Disk Management and partitioning software, as well as the method to resize drive C and D.
How to combine C and D drive
Merge partitions with Disk Management
Windows Server 2019 native Disk Management utility has no “Merge Volume” functionality, but there is still a way to merge C: and D: drive without third party software.
Note: drive D will be deleted, so all programs and some Windows services in it will be lost.
As I said above, if you want to extend C drive, there is better way by resizing partition, so drive D won’t be deleted. However, if you insist on merging C and D drive, follow the steps below:
- Transfer or back up the files in drive D.
- Right click
on bottom left corner and select Disk Management. - Right click drive D and select Delete Volume.
- Right click drive C and select Extend Volume.
- Finish Extend Volume Wizard by simply clicking Next.
on bottom left corner and select Disk Management.Merge volumes with partition software
1. Download NIUBI Partition Editor, right click either drive C or D and then select Merge Volume.
2. In the pop-up window, click the check-box in front of both C and D drive, and then click the drop-down box to select C: drive.
3. Click OK and back to the main window, press Apply on top left to proceed.
Drive D is merged into C.
As C drive is system partition, you cannot merge C into D drive, otherwise, the server could not boot. In the selection window, you cannot select D as destination.
After drives merging complete, open C: drive in File Explorer and you’ll see a folder named as D to C(date_time). All files in original drive D will be moved to this folder automatically.
Better method than merging partitions
You can combine C and D drive in Windows Server 2019 with either built-in Disk Management or NIUBI Partition Editor, but drive D will be deleted, so this destructive way is not suggested.
With NIUBI Partition Editor, you can shrink D to extend C drive with Resize Volume feature, so you won’t lose any drive and everything keeps the same after resizing.
Step 1: Right click drive D and select Resize/Move Volume.
In the pop-up window, drag left border rightwards to shrink it.
Unallocated space is generated on the left side of D drive.
C drive is extended to 59.40GB by merging the Unallocated space.
Better than other tools, NIUBI Partition Editor Server is integrated with unique and innovative 1 Second Rollback technology, which can ensure system and data intact while resizing, moving and merging disk partitions on Windows Server 2019 and other servers.