In most of Windows servers, system C: drive is getting full after running the server for a period of time. When it happens, many people ask whether it's possible to change partition size without losing data or starting over? The answer is yes. With safe disk partition tools, you can increase partition size of C drive with free space in other partitions. In this article, I'll show you how to adjust/increase partition size in Windows Server 2019 with its native tool and safe partition software.
Change partition size with Server 2019 Disk Management
The same with other versions, there's a native Disk Management tool in Windows Server 2019 to help change partition size. "Shrink Volume" function can decrease NTFS partition size to release free space and convert to "Unallocated". "Extend Volume" can increase NTFS partition size when there is adjacent Unallocated space on the right . However, Disk Management cannot extend a partition by shrinking another one. Learn how to shrink partition in Server 2019 with Disk Management and what to do if it cannot decrease partition under particular environment.
Before increasing size of a partition in Server 2019 with Disk Management, you must delete or shrink another drive to get Unallocated space. To increase C drive space with "Extend Volume" function in Disk Management, Unallocated space must be adjacent and on the left of D drive. But when you shrinking partition with Disk Management, Unallocated space can only be made on the right side. This is the reason why Extend Volume greyed out for both C and E drive after shrinking D.
The only way to increase partition size in Windows Server 2019 Disk Management is by deleting the contiguous partition on the right. In addition, the partitions to be extended and deleted must be the same Primary or Logical drive. If your disk partition layout doesn't meet the requirements, you must run third party software.
There are many disk partition software for Windows Server 2019, but you'd better back up first and run the safest tool, because there's potential system damage and data loss risk while resizing disk partitions. Because all parameters of associated disk, partition and files must be modified correctly. In addition, all files in some partition must be moved to new locations. Therefore, any software error or hardware issue could damage system and 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 before clicking "Apply" to take effect.
- Cancel-at-will - if you applied wrong operations, you can cancel the ongoing operations at any progress.
- 1 Second Rollback - if it detects any error while resizing partitions, it automatically reverts server to original status in a flash.
- Hot Clone - clone system disk without rebooting server and boot from the clone disk immediatly whenever system disk is down.
Increase server partition size with safe partition software
To decrease and increase partition size in Server 2019/2022, it is very easy to achieve with NIUBI Partition Editor, you just need to drag and drop on the disk map.
How to decrease partition size in Windows Server 2019/2022:
Download NIUBI Partition Editor, right click a NTFS or FAT32 partition (here is D:) and select "Resize/Move Volume".
Option 1: If you drag left border towards right or enter an amount in the box of "Unallocated space before", then Unallocated space will be made on the left.
Option 2: If you drag right border towards left or enter an amount in the box of "Unallocated space after", then Unallocated space will be made on the right.
How to increase partition size in Windows Server 2019 without losing data:
- Follow Option 1 to shrink D: drive and make Unallocated space on the left.
- Right click C: drive and select "Resize/Move Volume" again, drag right border towards right to combine this Unallocated space.
- Click Apply on top left to execute.
If you want to increase E: drive, make Unallocated space on the right when shrinking D drive. Then drag left border of E drive towards left to combine Unallocated space.
- If you want to shrink E: drive to expand C, there's an additional step to move Unallocated space before adding to C drive.
- Follow the steps in the video if you want to increase D drive space for Server 2019.
- If there's not plenty of free space on the same disk, follow the steps to copy disk to a larger one and extend partition with extra disk space.
- 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 1/5/10, do not break array or do any operation to RAID controller, follow the same steps above.
Adjust partition size in VMware/Hyper-V virtual machine
To change partition size in VMware/Hyper-V running Windows Server 2019/2022, there's no difference when there's available free space on the same virtual disk.
When the whole disk is full, unlike physical disk, virtual disk can be extended directly. Follow the steps to increase virtual disk size in VMware or Hyper-V. After expanding disk, additional space is shown as Unallocated at the end of original disk. Then follow the steps to add Unallocated space to C drive.
Besides decrease and increase partition size in Windows Server 2019/2022 and previous Server 2003/2008/2012/2016, NIUBI Partition Editor helps do many other disk partition management operations.
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