Extend hard drive in Windows Server 2008/2012/2016/2019

Many server administrator are wondering if it is possible to extend hard drive partition for Windows 2008 server after running several years. If yes, is it safe to repartition hard drive? The answer is yes and there are 3 common safe tools: diskpart (command line), Disk Management and NIUBI Partition Editor. This article introduces how to extend hard drive in Windows Server 2008/2012/2016/2019 without losing data.

How to extend hard drive with diskpart command

Diskpart works via command prompt and it has set of commands to disk and partition. The extend command can increase partition size without losing data but under restricted condition.

Only after deleting the contiguous partition on the right, you can extend with diskpart. In addition, the partition that you want to extend must be NTFS, any other types of partitions are not supported.

Diskpart has shrink command, is it possible to shrink D drive rather than deleting? No, you'll receive error - The size of the extent is less than the minimum. I'll explain with Disk Management.

Extend hard drive with Server 2008 Disk Management

Disk Management has graphical interface and works in different way. It has Shrink and Extend Volume function to resize hard drive partition, but the same with diskpart, it cannot extend a partition by shrinking other one.

As you see in the screenshots, no matter you want to extend hard drive C or D, it is impossible. Extend Volume is always greyed out after shrinking other volumes. This is because:

• Both diskpart shrink command and Disk Management Shrink Volume function can only make unallocated space on the right while shrinking.
• Both diskpart extend command and Disk Management Extend Volume function can only expand partition when there is contiguous unallocated space on the right.

If these tools can make unallocated space on the left while shrinking, there is no such issue.

Steps to extend hard drive partition in Server 2008 R2/2012/2016/2019:

1. Transfer all files in the right contiguous partition (such as D:) to other place.
2. Press Windows and R key together on the keyboard, type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter to open Disk Management.
3. Right click D: drive and select Delete Volume.
4. Right click C: drive and select Extend Volume.
5. Follow the instructions in pop-up Extend Volume Wizard window via several clicks.

If there is no or you cannot delete the right contiguous partition, both diskpart and Disk Management are useless.

Better way to extend hard drive with NIUBI Partition Editor

Comparing with Windows native tools, NIUBI Partition Editor is much more powerful.

• Both NTFS and FAT32 partitions can be shrunk and extended without losing data.
• Unallocated space can be made on either left or right when shrinking a hard drive partition.
• Unallocated space can be combined to either contiguous partition by 1 step.
• Unallocated space can be moved and combined to any non-adjacent partition on the same disk.
• Copy, merge, convert, defrag, hide, wipe, scan partition and much more.

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

If you use any types of hardware RAID arrays or VMware/Hyper-V virtual disk, simply follow steps above to resize hard drive with NIUBI Partition Editor, there is no difference.