If the scheduled disk partitions are too small or big, it can't be better if you can resize partition in Windows 2019 server without losing data. Otherwise, you have to waste a long time to recreate partitions and restore everything from backup. To resize Server 2019 partition, there are 2 kinds of tools - inbuilt Disk Management and third party software. Although there are "Shrink Volume" and "Extend Volume" functions in Disk Management to help change partition size, it is not the best choice because of many restrictions. In this article, I'll introduce how to resize partition in Windows Server 2019 with native and the safest tools.
Resize Windows Server 2019 partition with Disk Management
It is not difficult to adjust partition size in Windows Server 2019 via Disk Management, but as I said above, it has many restrictions. To be short, it can only help you shrink NTFS partition to create new volume, and extend a NTFS partition after deleting the adjacent volume on the right. If you want to extend a partition by shrinking another one or resize FAT32 partitions, server partition software is needed.
Restrictions to resize Server 2019 partition with Disk Management:
- Only NTFS partition can be resized, FAT32 and any other types of partitions are not supported.
- It can only shrink a partition towards left and make unallocated space on the right.
- It can only shrink little space when there are unmovable files located in this partition.
- It can only extend a partition when there's contiguous unallocated space on the right.
When resizing partition in Server 2019 via Disk Management tool, it cannot change the start position of this volume. This is the reason why it can only shrink a volume from right to the left, and extend a partition by merging contiguous unallocated space on the right.
How to resize partition in Windows Server 2019 with Disk Management:
① How to shrink partition:
- Press Windows + X on the keyboard and click Disk Management in the list.
- Right click a NTFS partition and select "Shrink Volume".
- Enter an amount of space and click "Shrink" button. If you do not enter an amount manually, maximum available space will be used by default.
② How to extend partition (such as C:):
- Right click the adjacent partition D: in Disk Management and select "Delete Volume", then its disk space will be changed to Unallocated.
- Right click C: drive and select "Extend Volume".
- Click "Next" till "Finish" in the pop-up Extend Volume Wizard window.
Caution: do not delete D if you installed programs or any Windows services in it.
Some people ask why not shrinking D to extend C drive. Because to extend C drive in Server 2019 Disk Management, there must be adjacent unallocated space on the right side. As I explained above, Disk Management can only shrink partition towards left and make unallocated space on the right. As the screenshot in my server, unallocated space that shrunk from D is nonadjacent to C drive, and is on the left of E: drive. Therefore, Extend Volume greyed out for both partitions.
To resize partition in Windows Server 2019/2022 and previous versions, third party software is better choice, because there are no such restrictions. Unallocated space can be made on either left or right when shrinking partition, and combined to either contiguous or nonadjacent partition on the same disk. There are many partition software for Server 2019 in the market, the GUI and functions are similar, but you'd better make a backup in advance and run safe disk partition software.
Take care of data while resizing Server 2019 partitions
While resizing partition in Windows 2019 server, there's potential system damage and data loss risk. Because the start or end position will be changed, all parameters of associated partitions/files must be modified correct. Sometimes all files in a partition must be moved to new locations. Therefore, any software error or hardware issue could cause part of parameters failed to be modified.
- If system related parameters failed to be updated, server cannot boot or there's black screeen or error message when booting.
- If partition related parameters failed to updated, Windows reports this partition is inaccessible and ask for reformatting.
- If files related parameters failed to modified or files failed to be moved, these files will be damaged, too.
Better than other tools, NIUBI Partition Editor has advanced technologies to protect your system and data:
- 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 at any progress before finish.
- 1 Second Rollback - if any known error is detected while resizing partitions, it automatically reverts server to original status in a flash.
- Hot Clone - clone system disk without server interruption, you can clone it regularly as backup and boot from the clone disk immediately whenever system disk is down.
When you shrinking a partitioin towards right and moving a partition, all files in it will be moved, too. The more files in this partition, the longer time to move. With the help of advanced file-moving algorithm, NIUBI Partition Editor is 30% to 300% faster.
Change partition size with safe partition software
Download NIUBI Partition Editor and you'll see the main window with disk partition structure and other information on the right. Available operations to selected disk or partition are listed on the left and by right clicking. Unavailable operations are hidden automatically to keep the interface clean.
To resize partition in Windows Server 2019 without losing data: right click a NTFS or FAT32 partition and select "Resize/Move Volume", you have 2 options in the pop-up window.
Option 1: If you drag left border towards right or enter an amount in the box of Unallocated space before, then Unallocated space is made on the left.
Option 2: If you drag right border towards left or enter an amount in the box of Unallocated space after, then Unallocated space is made on the right.
After shrinking a partition to get Unallocated space, you can create new volume or extend to another volume.
How to resize D and extend partition C in Windows Server 2019/2022:
- Follow Option 1 to shrink D: drive and make Unallocated space on the left.
- Right click C: drive and select "Resize/Move Volume" again, drag right border towards right to combine this Unallocated space.
- Click Apply on top left to execute.
Follow the steps in the video.
- If you want to resize nonadjacent partition (here is E:) to expand C drive, there's an additional step to move Unallocated space to the left before adding to C drive.
- Follow the steps if you want to resize partition and increase D drive space for Server 2019.
- No software can extend partition by moving free space from another separate disk. If there's unavailable free space on this disk, follow the steps to copy disk to a larger one.
- If you want to resize RAID partition in Windows Server 2019/2022, do not break array or do any operations to raid controller, simply follow the same steps in the videos.
Besides resizing partition in Windows Server 2019/2022/2025 and previous Server 2016/2012/2008/2003, NIUBI Partition Editor helps you clone disk partition to back up or migrate data. Convert disk partition type and do many other disk and partition management operations.
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