Hard disk drive is an indispensable component of a server, no matter you use HDD, SSD or any types of RAID array. Operating System runs from the disk, many kinds of files read from and write to the disk continuously, too. To a server, the stability of both Operating System and hard disk are most important. Besides hardware stability, disk space usage could be an annoying problem. The typical example is that C drive running out of space at a certain time. Nobody likes to waste such a long time to recreate partitions and restore everything from backup. You need a reliable server partition manager to expand C drive. Besides shrinking and extending partition, you need to copy/convert disk partition and much more. In this article, I'll introduce free partition manager in Windows Server 2016 and best partition software for Windows Server 2016/2019/2022 and previous Server 2003/2008/2012.
Free partition manager in Windows Server 2016
The same with other versions, there's native free partition manager in Windows Server 2016 - Disk Management. It is able to initialize a brand new hard disk, create, delete and format partition, change drive letter and path. Besides the basic ability to manage disk partition, it has some advanced features such as:
- It is able to shrink and extend partition without losing data (in most cases). However, not all partitions can be resized. It can only shrink NTFS partition to make Unallocated space on the right and extend NTFS partition by deleting the contiguous volume on the right.
- It is able to convert disk between MBR and GPT, between basic and dynamic, but it's destructive, you must delete all partitions on the disk in advance.
- It can create and manage dynamic disk volumes. However, dynamic disk consumes much server resource. It has many disadvantages comparing with hardware RAID array.
If you want to resize partition without restriction or do other advanced operations such clone disk partition, convert MBR to GPT, convert disk between Primary and Logical, convert NTFS to FAT32 without losing data, etc. Third party software is better choice.
Safest partition software for Windows Server 2016
There are many disk partition software for Windows Server 2016 and they are much more powerful than Disk Management. The GUI and functions are all similar, but it doesn't mean any server partition software is okay. You'd better back up server in advance and run the safest partition software for Server 2016.
There is partition damage and data loss risk while resizing partition or do other modification. For example, when resizing volumes, server partitioning software will modify all parameters of associated disk, volume and files, any error could cause system/partition damage. Besides software error, some hardware issue such as power failure could cause disaster, too.
Better than other partition software for Windows 2016 server, NIUBI Partition Editor has advanced technologies to protect system and data. For example:
- Virtual Mode - all operations you do will be listed as pending for preview, real disk partitions won't be modified until click "Apply" to confirm.
- Cancel-at-will - if you applied wrong operations, it doesn't matter, you can cancel the ongoing operations without damaging partitions.
- 1 Second Rollback - if any error is detected while resizing partitions, it automatically reverts server to original status in a flash. In that case, your server could back online immediately. You don't have to waste a long time to restore everything.
Another way to do fast disaster recovery is cloning with NUIBI. Because it can clone disk partition in Windows without rebooting server, you can clone system disk regularly. Whenever the system disk is failed to boot, you just need to change BISO and boot from the clone disk. It can be done within several minutes, so it's much faster and easier than restoring from image backup.
Fastest disk partitioning software for Server 2016
To a server partitioning software, data protection ability is most important, then what is the second? Efficiency, it is much better if the program runs faster and complete the operations with less time, especially when the disk/partition modification requires server rebooting to proceed. Because of the advanced file-moving algorithm, NIUBI Partition Editor is 30% to 300% faster than any other tool.
If possible, you may compare it with other tools under the same condition with a timer.
Download partition editor for Windows Server 2016
Download this partition manager in Windows 2016 server (physical or virtual machine), you'll see the main window with 5 sections.
- All single partitions with detailed parameters.
- All physical and virtual disks (RAID array) with graphical structure.
- Available operations to a selected disk or partition. (You'll see the same options by right clicking.)
- Pending Operations, all operations you do won't be done immediately, instead, they'll be listed there as pending.
- Cancel, redo or apply the pending operations.
Unlike other Windows server disk partition software that list all options, NIUIBI only lists the available operations to keep interface clean, unavailable options are hidden automatically.
What does NIUBI Partition Editor do in Windows 2016 server
To Unallocated space:
- Create one or more volumes
- Wipe data in it
- Surface test (scan bad sectors)
- View properties (detailed parameters)
To whole disk:
- Initialize
- Change status to offline or online
- Set read-only attribute
- Wipe disk (cannot be recovered)
- Surface test
- View properties
- Clone disk to migrate data and OS
- Convert MBR disk to GPT
- Delete all partitions
- Cleanup disk
To single partition:
- Resize volume (shrink and extend)
- Move location
- Merge two adjacent volumes by 1 step
- Copy to Unallocated space
- Convert to Logical or Primary partition
- Convert NTFS to FAT32
- Optimize file system to repair error and improve performance
- Change drive letter (such as D:)
- Change label (partition name)
- Set as Active
- Check file system integrity
- Defrag to improve performance
- Hide from File Explorer
- Delete (files can be recovered)
- Format volume to use as new
- Wipe (erase data permanently)
- Surface test
- Explore (view files/folders with directory)
- View properties
Because of its powerful system/data protection and fast resizing ability, easy to use with neat interface, as well as plenty of disk/partition management features, NIUBI Partition Editor is recommended as the best disk partition software for Windows Server 2016/2019/2022 and previous Server 2003/2008/2012.
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