The same with previous versions, in Windows Server 2019/2022 system C drive runs out of space. In some servers, even the whole disk becomes full. Many server administrators ask whether it's possible to increase disk space of C drive or extend disk size without losing data. If you want to increase C drive disk space in Windows server, it is easy. But if you want to expand disk size in Windows server, it depends on the type of your disk. In this article, I'll introduce how to increase disk space of C drive and the whole disk in Windows Server 2019/2022.
How to increase disk space of C drive in Windows server
When system C drive is getting full in Windows Server 2019/2022, firstly check if there's free space in other volumes on the same disk. If yes, this problem can be solved easily.
There's potential system and partition damage risk while resizing partitions, because the parameters of associated disk, partition and files must be modified absolutely correct. Therefore, you'd better back up first and run safe partition software.
Better than other tools, NIUBI Partition Editor is much safer and faster because of the advanced technologies:
- Virtual Mode - all operations will be listed as pending for preview, real disk partitions won't be modified until you click "Apply" to confirm.
- Cancel-at-will - if you applied wrong operations, you can cancel the ongoing operations without damage partitions.
- 1 Second Rollback - if any error is detected while resizing partitions, it automatically reverts server to original status in a flash.
- Hot Clone - clone disk partition without server interruption and boot from the clone disk immediately if needed.
- Advanced file-moving algorithm - move and extend partition 30% to 300% faster.
In most cases, there's other data partition(s) on the same disk with plenty of free space. You can shrink this partition with NIUBI Partition Editor, part of free space will be released and changed to be "Unallocated". Add this Unallocated space to C drive, then there will be plenty of free space in C drive again. In this way, your Operating System, programs and associated settings, as well as anything else keep the same with before.
How to increase disk space of C drive on Windows Server 2019/2022:
- Download NIUBI Partition Editor, right click drive D (the contiguous partition on the right) 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. Then part of free space in drive D will be changed to Unallocated on the left side.
- Right click C: drive and select "Resize/Move Volume" again, drag right border towards right to merge this Unallocated space, then C drive will be extended.
- Click Apply on top left to execute, done.
- If you want to take free space from a nonadjacent partition, there's an additional step to move Unallocated space before adding to C drive. Follow the steps in the video.
- NIUBI is designed to work in virtual mode first, real disk partitions won't be changed until click Apply to confirm. If you did something wrong, simply click Undo to cancel.
- When there's available free space on the same disk, there's no difference to increase disk space of system C drive, no matter you use physical disk for local server, any types of hardware RAID with any RAID controller, or run Server 2019/2022 as guest virtual machine in VMware/Hyper-V.
How to increase disk size in Windows Server 2019/2022
If entire system disk is getting full, no software can add space to C drive from another separate disk. In that case, there are several options, select the corresponding method according to your own disk partition configuration.
To single physical hard disk (HDD or SSD):
The size of a physical disk is fixed, a 500GB disk can't be decreased to 400GB or increased to 600GB. When it's getting full, follow the steps to clone disk to a larger one and extend partition with extra disk space.
To hardware RAID 1:
RAID 1 is built with 2 hard disks with same size, you cannot increase RAID 1 array by replacing with larger disks one by one. If you do like that, you'll get another RAID 1 with same size. You won't see the remaining space in Disk Management or any partitioning software. The remaining space will be wasted or used to create another separate virtual disk.
You need to build another RAID 1 with larger disks, and then copy from original RAID 1 to the new one. If you cannot connect 2 RAID 1 to the server at the same, follow the steps:
- Insert a single hard disk to this server.
- Clone original RAID 1 to this disk (there's no difference to copy between RAID array and single disk).
- Build a new RAID 1 with larger disks.
- Change BIOS settings and boot from the single hard disk, copy it to the new RAID 1.
- Boot from the new RAID 1.
To hardware RAID 5 and other:
About hardware RAID 5 and any other types of RAID array, when it is full, firstly check if your RAID controller can expand RAID array by replacing with larger disks without losing data. If yes, follow the instructions in the manual or ask help from your RAID card/controller manufacturer.
After adding or replacing disk and rebuilding RAID array, additional disk space will be shown as Unallocated at the end. Then follow the steps to move and merge Unallocated space to other partition(s).
How to increase virtual disk space for Server 2019/2022 VM
When a virtual disk is getting full, it is very easy to solve this problem. You can expand virtual disk size without copying to other device. Follow the steps below:
After expanding virtual disk, additional space will be shown as Unallocated at the end, then follow the steps to add Unallocated space to C drive (and other volumes).
Besides shrinking, extending, copying and moving disk partitions, NIUBI Partition Editor helps do many other disk partition management operations.
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