It is very common to shrink and extend allocated partitions after running a server for a period of time. Some people need to shrink the D drive and create more partitions. Some people want to decrease the D drive to extend the system partition C. Both Windows' built-in Disk Management and third-party tools have the ability to shrink a volume in Windows Server. This article introduces how to shrink the D drive in Windows Server 2012/2016/2019/2022 without losing data.
Shrink D Drive with Disk Management
From Windows Server 2008, there is a new "Shrink Volume" function in the Disk Management console. It is easy to shrink the system partition and data volumes without rebooting the server. In most cases, it is able to shrink a partition without losing data.
How to shrink partition D in Windows Server 2012/2016/2019/2022:
- Press Windows and X on the keyboard, then click "Disk Management" in the list.
- Right-click the D: drive and select "Shrink Volume".
- Disk Management will calculate and give you the available shrink space by default. Enter an amount of space or click the Shrink button directly.
In general, this partition will be shrunk shortly and unallocated space will be created on the right.
Restrictions of Disk Management to Shrink Volume D
Disk Management is easy and works well in most cases; however, you may encounter issues while shrinking a partition because of its restrictions.
1. Cannot Shrink D Beyond the Limit
There is a notice in the middle of the shrinking window - You cannot shrink a volume beyond the point where any unmovable files are located.
Unmovable files include Paging files, Hibernation files, and other large files. If any type of unmovable files are located in the 3rd block, you cannot shrink this partition to the 2nd or 1st block, although there is free space there.
This is a common issue. For example, in the screenshot below, the D drive is blank with 50GB of free space, but Disk Management shows only 19417MB (18.96GB) of available shrink space.
2. Cannot Shrink FAT32 Partitions
In Windows PCs and Servers, both NTFS and FAT32 are common partition types, but Disk Management only supports NTFS partitions to shrink or extend. When you right-click a FAT32 partition, "Shrink Volume" is disabled.
3. Cannot Shrink to Expand Another Drive
On many servers, the system C drive runs out of space after running for a period of time. The ideal solution is to shrink D to expand C without losing data. Otherwise, it costs a long time to recreate partitions and restore from a backup.
There are both "Shrink Volume" and "Extend Volume" functions in Disk Management, but it cannot extend the C drive and other partitions by shrinking D.
When you right-click the C: and E: drives after shrinking D, "Extend Volume" is grayed out. As mentioned above, Disk Management can only shrink a partition to the left and create unallocated space on the right side.
Besides this restriction, "Extend Volume" can only merge unallocated space into the left adjacent partition. The C drive is non-adjacent, and E is on the right side of the unallocated space, so "Extend Volume" is disabled.
Shrink D with NIUBI Partition Editor
Compared with Disk Management, NIUBI Partition Editor offers several advantages:
- Both NTFS and FAT32 partitions are supported.
- Unallocated space can be created on either the left or right when shrinking a partition.
- It can move "unmovable" files, allowing you to shrink a volume to a minimum size.
- Unallocated space can be moved and merged into any contiguous or non-adjacent partition on the same disk.
- Besides shrinking and extending volumes, it helps you merge, convert, clone, defrag, wipe, hide, and scan partitions, etc.
Download NIUBI Partition Editor and you'll see all disk partitions with structure and other information in the main window.
How to shrink the D drive in Server 2012/2016/2019/2022 with NIUBI:
Right-click drive D: and select "Resize/Move Volume"; you have two options in the pop-up window.
Option 1: If you drag the left border to the right:
Unallocated space will be created on the left of D.
Option 2: If you drag the right border to the left:
Unallocated space will be created on the right of D.
Shrink Volume D to Expand C and E
To extend other partitions, you just need to drag and drop on the disk map. Watch the video on how to shrink the D drive to extend C/E in Windows Server 2012 and other versions:
Compared with other tools, NIUBI Partition Editor features Virtual Mode, Cancel-at-will, 1-Second Rollback, and Hot Clone technologies to protect your system and data. Besides shrinking and extending partitions, it helps you perform many other disk and partition management operations.
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