Move hard drive partition on Windows Server 2012
This article shows how to move partition on Windows Server 2012 (R2). Move hard drive location and transfer partition volume to another disk without data loss.
Cannot move partition in Disk Management
The same with previous version, Windows Server 2012 provides Disk Management to do some basic operations such as create, delete and format partition. Although it provides advanced Shrink Volume and Extend Volume feature, it is useless if you want to extend a volume by shrinking another one, because:
- Disk Management can’t shrink volume in some situations.
- Shrink Volume can only shrink a volume towards left and generate Unallocated space on the right side.
- Extend Volume can only expand the drive with adjacent Unallocated space, furthermore, Unallocated space must be on the right side.
- Disk space deleted from a Logical partition cannot be extended to Primary partition, and vice versa.
- Both Shrink and Extend Volume support NTFS partition only, another common FAT32 partition is not supported.
As you see, Extend Volume greyed out for both drive C and E after shrinking D, because the 20GB Unallocated space is non-adjacent to C and is on the left side of E.
To extend C: drive, you must move partition D to the right and move the 20GB Unallocated space next to C drive, then Extend Volume will be enabled. When you right click drive D, there is no “Move Volume” functionality, so you need 3rd party software to accomplish this task.
How to move volume to the left or right
Before starting to move partition on Windows Server 2012, you’d better make backup and select safe disk partition software.
When resizing and moving hard drive partition, the start and end position as well as other parameters should be modified correctly, in addition, all files in the partitions should be moved, too. Thus, any slight error could cause system damage and/or data loss. This is the reason why some unreliable partition tools are called as “data killer” by the people who have experienced disaster.
Better than other server partition manager, NIUBI Partition Editor provides unique 1 Second Rollback technology to ensure system and data intact. If any software error or hardware issue occur, it is able to automatically reverts the server to original status in a flash. If it happens, server could back online without damage immediately. Furthermore, it provides other Cancel-at-will, Virtual Mode and Hot-Resize technologies as well as faster File-moving algorithm to enhance the resizing and moving ability.
Download NIUBI Partition Editor, you’ll see all disk partitions on the right and available operations on the left in the main window.
Steps to move partition on Windows Server 2012:
Right click drive D and select “Resize/Move Volume”, drag the middle position rightwards in the pop-up window.
Partition D is moved to the right and Unallocated space is moved to the left at the same time.
If you want to add Unallocated space to C drive, right click C drive and select “Resize/Move Volume” again, drag right border rightwards in the pop-up window.
Unallocated space is combined into C drive.
How to move partition to the left:
If you want to extend drive E, you can merge the Unallocated space directly without moving it to the right side. Right click drive E and select “Resize/Move Volume”, drag left border leftwards in the pop-up window.
Unallocated space is combine to drive E.
However, if there is another drive F on the right and you want to extend it with the Unallocated space, you need to move partition E and the Unallocated space.
Similarly, right click drive E and select “Resize/Move Volume”, drag middle position leftwards in the pop-up window.
Partition E is moved to the left and Unallocated space is moved to the right.
How to move partition to another disk
If partition D is running out of space but you can’t get free space from other drives in the same disk, you can move it to another disk, follow the steps:
- (optional) Shrink a large volume in another disk to get Unallocated space.
- Right click drive D and select “Copy Volume”.
- Select the Unallocated space in the pop-up window.
- Change letter of original drive D to other one.
- Change letter of cloned drive to D.
Watch the video how to move partition to another disk on Server 2012:
If you want to move system reserved partition and system partition C, you need to run Clone Disk Wizard to copy all partitions in this disk.
To move hard drive partition on Windows Server 2012 (R2), NIUBI Partition Editor helps you accomplish safely and easily, it is able to move disk partition to the left or right, and move partition from one disk to another.
