Extend Volume is greyed out in Windows Server 2022

by John, Published on: February 20, 2023

Low disk space is common issue in Windows 2022 server especially to C: drive. When it happens, it can't be better if you can extend C drive without wasting a long time to restore from backup. Besides C: drive, the partitions for database, exchange, backup many become full, too. The same with previous versions, there's "Extend Volume" function in inbuilt Disk Management tool. However, this tool is not well designed and it has many limitations. Many people feedback that Extend Volume is grayed out in Windows Server 2022 Disk Management. This article introduces why Extend Volume greyed out in Server 2022 and how to solve this problem easily.

Why Extend Volume greyed out in Windows Server 2022

There are 5 common reasons causing Extend Volume greyed out in Server 2022 Disk Managemene. I'll explain the reasons one by one.

1. No Unallocated space on the disk

Partitions on a disk can be resized but the size of a SSD/HDD is fixed. To extend a partition, there must be "Unallocated" space on the same disk. You may either delete or shrink a partition to make Unallocated space. If you did not make Unallocated space, of course you cannot extend partition.

2. Unallocated space is nonadjacent or on the left

With Disk Management tool, Unallocated space must be adjacent and on the right of the partition to be extended. This is because it cannot change start position of a volume. This is also the reason why it can only make Unallocated space on the right when shrinking a partition. After shrinking a partition such as D drive, Unallocated space is nonadjacent to C drive and is on the left of E drive. This is the most common reason why Extend Volume greyed out in Server 2022 Disk Management.

Extend Volume greyed out

3. Partition is FAT32

Only NTFS and ReFS partitions can be shrunk and extended in Server 2022 Disk Management. If the partition to be extended is FAT32, Extend Volume option is grayed out even if there's adjacent Unallocated space on the right.

4. Partition type are different

If you want to delete a partition to extend the left adjacent one with Disk Management, both partitions must be the same Primary or Logical drives. C drive is always Primary on MBR and GPT disk. Therefore, if you want to delete D to expand C, D must be Primary partition, too.

Extend Volume is disabled

This issue only exists on MBR disk, because all partitions on GPT disk are Primary. It is not suggested to delete any partition especially if this partition has programs or any Windows services.

5. 2TB restriction on MBR disk

MBR disk has another major shortage, it can only create maximum 2TB partition and manage 2TB space on the disk. That means, if you have a 2TB partition or several partitions with 2TB used space, Extend Volume is greyed out in Server 2022 Disk Management even if there's adjacent Unallocated space on the right side.

Extend Volume greyed out

What to do when Extend Volume option is grayed out

There are many reasons why "Extend Volume" greyed out in Windows Server 2022, but to solve this problem, you just need 1 tool. I'll introduce the corresponding solutions one by one.

Method 1: Shrink partition to make Unallocated space

When there's no Unallocated space, shrink any NTFS/FAT32 partition on this disk with NIUBI Partition Editor. It is able to make Unallocated space on either left or right. If you want to shrink a nonadjacent partition, this tool can move Unallocated space to be adjacent.

Download NIUBI Partition Editor and follow the steps in the video to shrink and extend partition:

Extend C drive

Method 2: Move Unallocated space

As I explained above, nonadjacent Unallocated space is the most common reason why Extend Volume is disabled in Server 2022 Disk Management. To solve this problem, you just need to run NIUBI Partition Editor and move Unallocated space adjacent to the partition to be extended. Follow the steps in the video:

Move partition

Method 3: Extend partition with NIUBI

To NIUBI Partition Editor, there's no difference to shrink, extend, move NTFS or FAT32 partitions. When you cannot shrink or extend FAT32 partition, simply follow the method in the first video above.

If the partitions to be deleted/shrunk and extended are different, it doesn't matter to NIUBI Partition Editor and the steps are the same to resize Primary and Logical partitions.  

Method 4: Convert MBR to GPT

When you cannot extend a partition to 2TB+ or use full space on MBR disk, convert MBR to GPT, then this problem can be solved easily.

Besides solving the problem of Extend Volume greyed out in Windows Server 2022/2019/2016/2012/2008/2003, NIUBI Partition Editor helps you do many other disk partition management operations such as convert, clone, defrag, hide, wipe, optimize partition and scan bad sectors.

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