Extend disk partition on Windows Server 2016
To many server administrators, it is not an easy task to extend allocated partition on Server 2016. Windows native Disk Management has Extend Volume functionality, but it only works when there is adjacent Unallocated space on the right side. Considering data safety, it is important to select a reliable disk partition software for Windows server. In this article, I’ll show you how to extend disk partition on Windows Server 2016 without reinstalling OS or losing data.
Notes before extending partition
Before extending a drive partition on Server 2016, there are several notes you should know.
Use safe partition software
Use safe partition softwareTo a server, data safety is most important, but there is potential data loss risk when shrinking and extending disk partition with 3rd-party software. Some unreliable partition software is called as “data killer” by the people who have experienced such disaster.
When change size of allocated partitions, all parameters must be modified absolutely correct. Furthermore, all files in the partition that you are shrinking should be moved to new locations, parameters of these files must be updated in files list and File System, too.
Any software error or hardware issue (such as power outage) causes part of the parameters failed to modified or files failed to moved. If it happens, you cannot open the partitions or lose all files in it.
Better than other partition utilities, NIUBI Partition Editor is equipped with innovative 1 Second Rollback technology to protect system and data. It creates snapshot of disk partitions, monitor the whole process, automatically reverts the server to original status in a flash if anything goes wrong, then server could back online in a short time without damage like nothing happened.
Same hard disk
Same hard diskAny existing Unallocated space or free space inside of a partition can be used to extend another drive, but the Unallocated space or the partitions that you want to shrink and extend should be in the same hard disk drive, NO partitioning software can extend a partition by taking free space from another disk.
About hardware RAID
About hardware RAIDAll types of hardware RAID arrays such as RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 are all supported by NIUBI, and there is no difference to shrink and extend RAID virtual drives. Don’t do any operations on your RAID controller.
How to extend partition C
Windows native Disk Management provides Shrink and Extend Volume feature to change partition size, but you cannot extend partition C by shrinking D. In addition, programs and part of Windows services are running from D, so you cannot delete it to get adjacent Unallocated space. As the safest partition software, NIUBI Partition Editor helps you accomplish this task well. To shrink and extend partition drives, you just need to drag and drop on the disk map.
Steps to extend partition C on Windows Server 2016:
Download NIUBI Partition Editor and you’ll see all disk partitions as well as the available operations. Right click drive D and select “Resize/Move Volume”.
Drag the left border rightwards in the pop-up window.
Drive D is shrank to 30GB and 20GB Unallocated space is produced on the left side.
Right click drive C and select “Resize/Move Volume” again. Drag the right border rightwards to combine the Unallocated space.
Click OK, partition C is extended to 50GB.
Click Apply on top left to execute, done.
NIUBI is designed to work in virtual mode, the operations you do will be listed as pending on bottom left. You can click Undo to cancel the unwanted operations, real disk partition won’t be modified until click Apply to confirm. The pending operations marked as 
can be done in desktop on the fly.
How to extend data partition
If you don’t want to extend partition C, you can extend other partitions E or F with the Unallocated space that is shrank from D. To extend partition E, Windows Disk Management still cannot help you, because the Unallocated space is on the left side of E, so Extend Volume functionality is disabled.
How to extend partition E on Server 2016 with NIUBI:
Right click E and select “Resize/Move Volume”, drag the left border leftwards to merge the Unallocated space.
If you want to extend partition F, you just 1 additional step to move Unallocated space to the right side of drive E.
In Summary
To extend partition on Windows Server 2016, Disk Management cannot help you, so you need third party partition software. Because of the powerful data protection ability and unique file-moving algorithm, NIUBI Partition Editor can help you shrink and extend partition in Server 2016 fast and safely.
You can extend a partition by shrinking the adjacent partition on either side. If there is not plenty of free space, you can shrink any nonadjacent partition and then move Unallocated space to either side. All that you need to do is dragging and dropping on the disk map. Operating System, programs and anything else keep the same after shrinking and extending disk partition.
