When a partition, especially the C: drive, is running out of space, it would be ideal if the partition could be extended by moving free space from another partition. No one wants to waste time recreating partitions and restoring everything from a backup. To extend partition in Windows Server 2012 R2, there are two options: the native Windows tools and third-party software. Similar to previous versions, Server 2012 includes two native tools: the Diskpart command and Disk Management with a GUI. This article explains how to extend volume in Windows Server 2012 R2 using these tools.
1. Extend partition with Server 2012 Diskpart command tool
Diskpart is a command prompt tool that is integrated from Windows XP with set of commands. It is able to expand a partition fast and without losing data. However, not all partitions can be extended, the major disadvantages include:
- This partition must be formatted with NTFS filesystem or unformatted (RAW).
- There must be adjacent unallocated space on the right of the partition that you want to expand.
Diskpart has shrink command, but it cannot make required unallocated space to extend other partition. For example, if you shrink D drive with Diskpart, unallocated space is made on the right of D. This space is nonadjacent to C and is on the left of E drive, therefore, it can't be extended to other partition with Diskpart extend command. If you want to extend C drive partition with diskpart command, you must delete the contiguous partition D in advance.
To extend partition in Windows Server 2012 r2 with Diskpart command:
- Press Windows and R on the keyboard, type diskpart and press "Enter".
- Input list volume and press Enter in diskpart command prompt window, then you'll see all single partitions in a list.
- Input select volume D and press Enter. (D is drive letter or number of the adjacent partition)
- Input delete volume and press Enter.
- Input select volume C and press Enter. (C is drive letter or number of the left contiguous partition, the right contiguous E drive can't be extended with this tool.)
- Input extend and press Enter.
Make sure there are no programs or Windows services installed in D drive, otherwise, do not delete it .
2. Extend partition in Windows Server 2012 with Disk Management
Different with Diskpart that runs via command prompt, Disk Management has graphic interface. You can see all storage devices with partition layout visually. In addition, you'll see detailed information of each partition as well as unallocated space. From Windows Server 2008, advanced "Shrink Volume" and "Extend Volume" functions are added to help resize partition without losing data.
Disk Management is easier to use, but the same with Diskpart command, it cannot extend a partition by shrinking another one. That means, you also need to delete the contiguous volume on the right. Otherwise, Extend Volume is grayed out.
How to extend volume in Server 2012 R2 with Disk Management:
- Back up or transfer files in D: drive (adjacent partition on the right).
- Press Windows and X together, then click Disk Management in the list.
- Right click D: drive and select "Delete Volume".
- Right click C: drive (adjacent partition on the left) and click "Extend Volume".
- Click Next till Finish in the pop-up "Extend Volume Wizard" window.
If D is a logical drive, you cannot extend C drive even if you delete D in Disk Management.
To server partition software, it doesn't matter the partitions are primary or logical. There's no need to delete any partition.
3. Extend volume in Server 2012 r2 with safe partition software
To extend volume in Windows Server 2012 R2, NIUBI Partition Editor is better choice. Comparing with Windows native tools, it has more advantages.
- It can resize both NTFS and FAT32 partitions.
- It can make unallocated space on either left or right when shrinking partition.
- It can combine unallocated space to either contiguous partition by 1 step.
- It can move and merge unallocated space to non adjacent partition on the same disk.
- It is able to merge two adjacent partitions by 1 step.
- It can clone, convert, defrag, hide, wipe, scan partition and much more.
Better than other tools, NIUBI Partition Editor offers powerful technology to resize partitions more safely and efficiently.
- Virtual Mode: To prevent mistakes, all operations are listed as pending for preview. Real disk partitions are not changed until you click "Apply" to confirm.
- Cancel-at-will: If you apply incorrect operations, you can cancel ongoing tasks without worrying about partition damage.
- 1 Second Rollback: If any error is detected while resizing partitions, the software can automatically revert the server to its original state in an instant.
- Hot Clone: Clone disk partitions without interrupting the server. You can clone the system disk before making changes or as part of a regular backup routine.
- Advanced File-Moving Algorithm: Resize and move partitions 30% to 300% faster, saving significant time, especially when handling a large number of files.
Download NIUBI Partition Editor and follow the steps in the video to extend partition in Windows Server 2012 R2.
How to extend partition C by shrinking other volumes:
How to extend partition D by shrinking other volumes:
In this way, Operating System, programs and associated settings, as well as anything else keep the same with before. You won't see any difference except partition size.
If you want to extend RAID 1/5/6/10 partition in Windows 2012 server, do not break array or do any operations to RAID controller, simply follow the steps in the video. If you want to extend Server 2012 virtual partition in VMware/Hyper-V, install NIUBI Partition Editor to the virtual machine and follow the same methods.
Extend volume for Windows 2012 server with another disk
When there's no other partition or no available free space on the same disk, no software can transfer space from a separate disk. Because the size of a physical disk is fixed. A 500GB disk can't be decreased to 300GB or increased to 1TB. In this situation, there are 2 options for you to extend Server 2012 volume with another disk:
- Clone disk to a larger one and extend partition with extra disk space.
- Move a partition to another disk, delete it and add its space to another volume.
Select corresponding method above according to your own disk partition configuration. Besides shrinking and extending partition in Windows Server 2012/2016/2019/2022/2025 and previous Server 2003/2008, NIUBI Partition Editor helps you do many other disk partition management operations.
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