When system partition C runs out of space, it costs such a long time if you recreate partitions and restore everything from backup, so many people want to increase C drive free space directly. Then is it possible to increase C drive space in Server 2012 R2 without losing data, if yes, which is the best tool to accomplish this task?
- Server 2012 has native "Extend Volume" function in Disk Management to help increase partition size, but you must delete another partition.
- Third party software is more powerful, but some unreliable software could cause system damage and data loss.
It is always suggested to back up in advance and run safe partitioning software. This article introduces how to increase C drive space in Windows Server 2012 R2 with both native tool and safe disk partition software.
1. Increase C drive space in Server 2012 with native tool
To increase C drive space in Server 2012 R2, there's a native Disk Management tool to help you when your disk partition configuration meet the requirements below:
- C drive must be NTFS. (No problem to most of servers)
- There must be another partition on the right of C drive.
- The right adjacent drive (such as D:) must be primary partition.
- There are no programs or Windows services installed in D drive, so you can delete it to get unallocated space.
Although there is Shrink Volume in Disk Management to help decrease partition size, but it can only makeunallocated space on the right side. As you see in my server, Extend Volume is disabled for both C: and E: drive after shrinking D. This is because "Extend Volume" cannot combine unallocated space to the right contiguous volume or any nonadjacent partitions.
How to increase C drive space in Server 2012 R2 via Disk Management:
- Back up D or transfer all files in it to other place.
- Press Windows + X on the keyboard and click Disk Management in the list.
- Right click D and select Delete Volume, then its disk space will be changed to unallocated.
- Right click C and select Extend Volume, click Next till Finish in next pop-up dialog box.
- D means the contiguous partition on the right of C drive, it is E in some servers.
- If D is Logical drive, Disk Management cannot extend C drive even after deleting D.
2. Increase C drive free space in Server 2012 R2 with NIUBI
Obviously, Disk Management is not the best tool to help increase C drive free space in Windows 2012 Server. With server partition software, there are no such limitations. You can shrink a partition and make unallocated space on either left or right. This unallocated space can be combined to either contiguous partition or extended to any nonadjacent volumes.
Better than other tools, NIUBI Partition Editor has innovative 1 Second Rollback technology, which is able to automatically revert server to original status in a flash if any error is detected. It has other powerful technologies to protect data and save time, for example:
- Virtual Mode - all operations will be listed as pending for preview, real partitions won't be changed until click Apply to confirm.
- Cancel-at-will - if you applied incorrect operations, you can cancel the ongoing operations without damaging partition.
- Hot-Clone - clone disk partition without rebooting server. You can clone system disk as backup easily and boot from the clone disk immediately if needed.
How to increase C: drive space in Windows Server 2012 r2 with NIUBI:
- Download this program, right click the contiguous partition D and select "Resize/Move Volume", drag left border towards right in the pop-up window (or enter an amount in the box behind unallocated space before).
- Right click C: drive and select "Resize/Move Volume" again, drag right border towards right to combine unallocated space.
- Click Apply on the top left to confirm and execute.
If you use any type of hardware RAID array such as RAID 1/5/6/10 or run Server 2012 in VMware/Hyper-V, there's no difference, simply follow the steps in the video.
In following cases, you need to move partition D before adding unallocated space to C drive:
- You've shrunk D drive with Disk Management, so unallocated space was made on the right.
- There's not enough free space in the contiguous partition D, so you have to shrink a nonadjacent drive on this disk.
3. Increase size of C drive with another disk
Some people feedback that there is no other partition on the system disk. In that case, no partitioning software can add free space to C drive from another separate disk. To solve this problem, you need to clone disk to a larger one and increase size of C drive with extra disk space.
Follow the steps in the video to increase size of C drive in Windows Server 2012 R2 with another disk:
In Summary
Windows native Disk Management cannot extend a partition by shrinking another one, so it is useless in most cases. You'd better back up the server and use safe software to resize partition. Select corresponding method accroding to your own disk partition configuration. Besides decrease and increase partition size, NIUBI Partition Editor helps you do many other disk and partition management operations.
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