Reason/Solution - Cannot Extend Volume in Windows Server 2022

When a partition especially C: drive is getting full, the most effective way is extending partition by moving free space from other ones. The same with previous versions, there's "Extend Volume" option in inbuilt Disk Management. Many people tried but feedback that they cannot extend volume in Windows Server 2022, because "Extend Volume" is aways grayed out. This article explains why Disk Management cannot extend partition in Server 2022 and how to solve this problem easily.

Reasons why you cannot extend volume in Windows Server 2022

There are 4 common reasons why you can't extend volume in Windows Server 2022 with Disk Management:

1. The partition to be extended is not formatted with NTFS file system.
2. There's no adjacent Unallocated space on the right.
3. When you delete a partition to extend another one, the type of them are different.
4. The partition to be extended is on MBR disk is already 2TB.

I'll explain the reasons more clearly one by one. To better understand, you may press Windows + X to open your own Disk Management.

Reason 1: Partition is not NTFS

This is easy to understand. NTFS and FAT32 are common partitions in Windows computers, but only NTFS partition can be shrunk and extended by Disk Management (and another diskpart command tool). If the partition to be extended is not formatted with NTFS file system, "Extend Volume" is grayed out with no doubt.

Reason 2: No adjacent Unallocated space on the right

This is the most common reason why you can't extend volume in Windows Server 2022. There 3 points you should know:

1. There should be Unallocated space on the same disk. Unlike free space in a partition, Unallocated space is not allocated to any partition. To get this kind of space, you may either shrink or extend a partition.
2. This Unallocated space must be adjacent to the NTFS partition that you want to extend.
3. This Unallocated space must be on the right of the partition to be extended.

When you shrinking a volume such as D: drive with Disk Management (or diskpart command), Unallocated space is made on the right of this volume. It is nonadjacent to C drive and is on the left of D drive. Therefore, when you right click these 2 partitions in Disk Management, "Extend Volume" is disabled.

Reason 3: Different partition type

When some people cannot extend C drive in Server 2022 after shrinking D drive, they try to delete this partition, but still failed to extend. Unlike GPT style disk, there could be both Primary and Logical drive on a MBR disk. When you delete a partition to extend the left contiguous one, both partitions must be the same Primary or Logical drives.

C drive is Primary partition in almost all computers. That means, if you want to delete D to extend C, D drive must be Primary partition, too. Otherwise, "Extend Volume" is still grayed out after deleting D.

Caution: do not delete this partition if you installed programs or there are Windows services running from it.

Reason 4: 2TB restriction on MBR disk

Another shortage of MBR disk is that it can only handle maximum 2TB partition. If the size of one or all partitions on the MBR disk is already 2TB, you cannot extend partition to be larger, even if there's Unallocated space adjacent and on the right side.

What to do when you cannot extend partition in Server 2022

When you are unable to extend volume in Windows Server 2022 with inbuilt tools, NIUBI Partition Editor can solve this problem no matter which reason it is. However, the methods are different. Open your own Disk Management and find out associated reason and follow corresponding method.  

Methods when you cannot extend volume in Windows Server 2022:

1. Shrink adjacent partition to make Unallocated space on either side.
2. Move nonadjacent Unallocated space to be adjacent on either side.
3. Convert MBR disk to GPT before extending partition.

The same as above, I'll explain the methods more clearly one by one.

Method 1: Shrink partition to make Unallocated space

When there's free space in other partition on the same disk, run NIUBI Partition Editor to shrink partition, then part of free space will be changed to Unallocated. All files in that partition keeps intact.

Download NIUBI Partition Editor and follow the steps in the video:

Method 2: Move Unallocated space to be adjacent

If you've shrunk D drive and made Unallocated space with Disk Management or diskpart command, as I explained above, this Unallocated space can't be combined to other partition without third-party software.

What to do when you cannot extend volume in Server 2022 after shrinking partition:

1. Right click D: drive in NIUBI Partition Editor and select "Resize/Move Volume", drag middle of D drive towards right in the pop-up window, then Unallocated space will be moved to the left.
2. Right click C: drive and run "Resize/Move Volume", drag right border towards right to combine this Unallocated space.
3. Click "Apply" on top left to take effect.

If you want to extend E drive after shrinking D, you can accomplish without moving Unallocated space. To do this, right click E: drive and click "Resize/Move Volume", drag left border towards left in the pop-up window.

Watch the video how to move partition D to extend C drive:

Method 3: Convert MBR to GPT

You'll overcome the 2TB restriction and extend partition much larger after converting MBR to GPT. Follow the steps in the video to convert MBR to GPT in Server 2022:

In summary: when you cannot extend partition in Windows Server 2022, open your own Disk Management and find out the associated reason, then follow corresponding method above.

Besides shrinking, moving, extending and converting disk partition, NIUBI Partition Editor helps you do many other disk partition management operations for Windows Server 2022/2019/2016/2012/2008/2003.

Download