How to Adjust/Resize Partition in Windows Server 2022

by John, Published on: November 26, 2022

Many people ask whether it's possible to resize Server 2022 partition without losing data, because C drive is getting full. Yes, it's can't be better if you can adjust partition size without recreating partitions and restoring everything from backup. Nobody likes such as boring and time-consuming solution. To resize partition in Windows Server 2022, you may try either its native tool or third party software. Because of some limitations, Windows native tool cannot help you in many cases. The best way to resize partition in Server 2022 is running the safest disk partition software.

Resize Server 2022 partition

Adjust partition size in Server 2022 without software

There are 2 kinds of native tools to help change partition size in Windows 2022 server. Diskpart is a command prompt tool, Disk Management has similar ability with graphic interface. Although these 2 native tools work in different way, they have the same shortages while resizing partition in Server 2022.

Limitations to resize Server 2022 partition with native tools:

  1. They can only resize NTFS partition, any other types of partitions are not supported.
  2. They can only shrink NTFS partition towards left and make Unallocated space on the right.
  3. They cannot move partition or files, so they can only shrink partition with little space if there are "unmovable" files in this partition.
  4. They can only extend NTFS partition when there's adjacent Unallocated space on the right.

If you just want to resize NTFS partition in Windows 2022 server and don't want to use third party software, you may try either native tool. Better than diskpart command, Disk Management displays disk partition layout and more information. Here I only introduce how to resize partition with Disk Management.

How to shrink partition in Windows Server 2022:

  1. Press Windows + X on the keyboard and click Disk Management in the list.
  2. Right click a NTFS partition and select "Shrink Volume".
  3. Enter an amount of space and click Shrink. If you do not enter an amount, the maximum available space will be used by default. 

How to extend partition in Windows Server 2022:

  1. Right click the right adjacent partition and select "Delete Volume".
  2. Right click the left adjacent NTFS partition and select "Extend Volume".
  3. Simply click Next till Finish in the pop-up "Extend Volume Wizard".

If you want to shrink a partition to extend another one, neither native tool can help you. If you want to delete the right contiguous partition to extend the left one, both partitions must be the same Primary or Logical. If you want to delete a partition to extend the right contiguous one or extend nonadjacent partition, you must run third party software.

Resize partition in Windows Server 2022 with safest tool

There's potential system and partition damage risk when you resize partition with native and third party tool. Some people think that Windows native tool has the best compatibility. It's not at least when resizing server partitions. Disk Management damaged my partitions several times when I shrunk Logical partition on MBR disk.

It's easy to understand, when you resize partition in Windows 2022 server, the parameters of partitions will be changed, files in partition(s) will be moved in some cases. Any slight error could cause damage. Therefore, you'd better make backup in advance and run the safest tool. Better than other tools, NIUBI Partition Editor has advanced Virtual Mode, Cancel-at-will, 1-Second Rollback and Hot-Clone technologies to protect server system and partition.

Download this program to your server, you'll see the main window with disk partition layout and other information. Availiable operations to selected disk or partition are listed on the left and after right clicking.

NIUBI Partition Editor

How to resize partition in Windows Server 2022 without losing data:

  1. Right click a FAT32 or NTFS partition and select "Resize/Move Volume". In the pop-up window, drag either border towards the other one to shrink this partition.
  2. If you want to create new volume, right click the Unallocated space that you just made and select "Create Volume".
  3. If you want to extend a partition, right click it and select "Resize/Move Volume". In the pop-up window, drag the border towards the Unallocated space and combine it.

These operations are listed as pending at first. To change real disk partition, click "Apply" on top left to take effect. If you want to resize Server 2022 partition in VMware/Hyper-V, the steps are the same. Watch the video to extend C drive in Windows Server 2022:

Video Server 2019

Besides resizing partition 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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