This article introduces how to add space to C drive in Windows Server 2019, add free disk space to system C drive from D or other partition without losing data.
It can't be better if you can add more free space to C drive when it is getting full, otherwise, you have to recreate partitions and restore everything from backup. In that case, server will be offline for such as long time. There are many tools and several ways to help add free disk space to C drive in Windows Server 2019. In this article, I'll show you how to add space to system partition C with Windows native Disk Management and the safest server partition software.
Add space to C drive for Server 2019 without any software
Windows native Disk Management and diskpart have the ability to add Unallocated space to C drive without losing data, however, they only work under particular condition. Because of some limitations, they are not the best tool. Disk Management has graphical interface, diskpart works via command prompt. Although they work in different way, they have same limitations while shrinking and extending partition. Here I only show you have to add disk space to C drive with Server 2019 Disk Management tool. If you are interested with diskpart, follow the steps below:
- How to shrink partition with diskpart in Windows Server 2019
- How to extend partition with diskpart in Windows Server 2019
To add space to system partition C, your disk partition configuration must meet all requires below:
- There's another partition on the right of C drive and on the same disk.
- You did not install programs to the right contiguous partition, so you can delete it.
- There's third partition to save all files in the partition that you should delete.
- The right contiguous partition (such as D:) should be Primary.
If your disk partition configuration meet the requirements, follow the steps to add more space to C drive in Windows Server 2019:
- Transfer all files in the right contiguous partition (D: in most cases) to other place.
- Press Windows and X on your keyboard to open Disk Management.
- Right click D: drive and select Delete Volume, then its disk space will be changed to Unallocated.
- Right click system C: drive and select Extend Volume.
- Simply click Next till Finish in the pop-up dialog box.
It is much easier to add disk space with partitioning software, you just need to drag and drop on the disk map. The most important, there are no such limitations.
Add free space to C drive from D or other data partition
Before starting, you'd better make a backup and select the safest tool, because there's potential system damage and data loss risk while resizing disk partition. Better than other disk partition tools, NIUBI Partition Editor has advanced technologies to protect system and data:
- Virtual Mode - all operations will be listed as pending for preview, real disk partitions won't be modified until click Apply to confirm.
- Cancel-at-well - if you applied wrong operations, it doesn't matter, you can cancel the ongoing operations without causing damage.
- 1 Second Rollback - if encounter any error while resizing partitions, it automatically reverts server to original status in a flash.
- Advanced file-moving algorithm - move and extend partition 30% to 300% faster.
How to add free space to C drive in Windows Server 2019 from other partitions:
- Download NIUBI Partition Editor, right click the contiguous partition D: (in some server it is E:) and select "Resize/Move Volume". In the pop-up window, you may either drag left border towards right or enter an amount in the box of Unallocated space before. Then drive D will be shrunk and some Unallocated will be generated on the left side.
- Right click system C: drive and select "Resize/Move Volume" again, drag right border towards right to merge this Unallocated space, then C drive will be extended.
- Click Apply on top left to execute, done.
- If you want to add free space from a nonadjacent partition, there's an additional step to move Unallocated space before merging into C drive.
- This software is designed to work in virtual mode, real disk partitions won't be changed until click Apply to confirm.
- If you use any types of hardware RAID arrays such as RAID 0/1/5/10, do not break array or do any operation to raid controller, simply follow the steps in the video.
Add space to system C drive from another disk
In some servers, there's no other data partition or unavailable free space on the same disk. In that case, no software can add free/Unallocated space to C drive from another separated/different disk, but you can add additional space to C drive in Windows Server 2019 by copying disk to a larger one. Follow the steps in the video:
Add disk space to C drive in Windows Server 2019 VM
If you run Windows Server 2019 as guest virtual machine in VMware or Hyper-V, firstly check if there's available free space on the same virtual disk. If yes, simply follow the steps in first video and there's no difference.
If there's unavailable free space on the same disk, unlike local server to copy physical disk, you can expand virtual disk directly.
After expanding this virtual disk, additional space is shown as Unallocated on the end, then follow the steps to move and merge Unallocated space to C drive.Besides shrinking, extending, moving and copying disk partition, NIUBI Partition Editor helps do many other disk partition management operations.