C drive is getting full in Windows 2022 server sooner or later. When it happens, you can increase C drive free space without recreating partitions and restoring everything from backup. To increase C drive space in Windows Server 2022, you may try the native Disk Management if your disk partition configuration meet the requriements. Otherwise, run safe disk partition software. This article introduces 3 ways to increase C drive space in Server 2022 with both native and safest tool.
Increase C drive space in Server 2022 without software
The same with previous versions, there are 2 native tools to help extend partition. Diskpart runs via command prompt, another Disk Management tool has graphical interface. Although these tools work in different way, they have same shortages. Only when your disk partition configration meet the requirements below, you can extend C drive without third party software.
- C drive is formatted with NTFS file system.
- There's adjacent Unallocated space on the right of C drive.
How to increase C drive space in Windows Server 2022 without software:
- Press Windows + X and click Disk Management in the list.
- Right click the adjacent partition D and select "Delete Volume".
- Right click C: drive and select "Extend Volume", simply click Next till Finish.
If you shrink D drive with Disk Management (or diskpart command), Unallocated space is made on the right of D. Without adjacent Unallocated space, "Extend Volume" is grayed out for C drive. This is the reason why you must delete D drive to get contiguous Unallocated space on the right of C drive.
If you can delete D drive with Disk Management, there's another issue. D drive must be Primary partition, otherwise, Disk Management cannot extend C drive even after deleting D. If you don't want to delete any partition or the adjacent partition is Logical, you should run third party software.
Increase C drive space from D/E on the same disk
With disk partition software, you can shrink D (or other partition) and make Unallocated space on the left, then C drive can be extended easily with the contiguous Unallocated space. To increase C drive space in Windows Server 2022 from D or other partition, you'd better run safe software. Otherwise, there's potential system and partition damage risk. Better than other tools, NIUBI Partition Editor has advanced technology to protect your system and data.
- Virtual Mode - real disk partition won't be changed until you click "Apply" to confirm.
- Cancel-at-will - you can cancel the ongoing wrong operations without destroying the partitions.
- 1-Second Rollback - if the program detects any error while modify disk partition, it reverts server to original status in a flash automatically.
- Hot-Clone - it is able to clone disk partition without server interruption. So you can clone system disk regularly and boot from the clone disk immediately when system disk is down.
The size of a disk (except virtual disk) is fixed. To increase C drive space in Server 2022, there must be free space on the same disk. If there's no available free space on system disk, jump to the next section. D drive here means the adjacent partition on the right of C, E drive means a nonadjacent partition to C.
1. Increase C drive free space from D
To NIUBI Partition Editor, it doesn't matter if D is Primary or Logical, NTFS or FAT32. You just need to shrink it and make Unallocated space on the left, finaly combine this Unallocated space to C drive.
Download this tool, you'll see all all storage devices with partition layout and other information in the main window. In my test server, C, D and E are on Disk 0, there's plenty of free space in both D and E drive.
How to increase C drive space in Windows Server 2022 from D drive:
- Right click D: drive and select "Resize/Move Volume". In the pop-up window, drag left border towards right, or enter an amount in the box of "Unallocated space before".
![Shrink D drive]()
- Right click C: drive and select "Resize/Move Volume", drag right border towards right to combine this Unallocated space.
![Extend C drive]()
- Click "Apply" on top left to take effect, done.
![C drive extended]()
2. Increase C drive free space from E
When there's not plenty of free space in contiguous D drive, you can move free space from nonadjacent partition. The steps are similar, but there's an additional step to move middle partition D to the right and make Unallocated space contiguous to C drive. Follow the steps in the video to increase C drive space in Server 2022 from D/E without losing data.
In some servers, there's an EFI, Recovery or other small partition between C and D drive. In that case, you need continue to move this small partition to the right. Only when the Unallocated space in next to C drive, you can extend this partition.
If you want to increase C drive space in VMware/Hyper-V/Virtualbox running Server 2022, follow the same steps above.
Increase C drive free space with a larger disk
When there's no available free space on the same disk, no software can transfer space from a different disk. In that case, you can clone disk to a larger one and extend C drive with extra disk space. With the help of Hot-Clone technology, NIUBI Partition Editor can clone disk in Windows without rebooting.
How to increase C drive space in Server 2022 with a larger disk:
- Connect a larger disk to this server. If your system disk is SSD, you'd better clone to a larger SSD.
- Right click the front of system disk and select "Clone Disk".
- Select the larger disk and click Next.
- Edit partition size and location. Drag the middle of this partition, you can move it. If you drag the border, you can shrink or extend this partition. Remember to start from the last partition.
If you don't understand how to operate, follow the steps of third method in the video above.
Besides shrinking partition and increasing C drive in Windows Server 2022/2019/2016/2012/2008/2003,, NIUBI Partition Editor helps you do many other disk partition management operations.
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