How to increase partition size in Windows Server 2008 R2

Windows 2008 server has running for so many years and most of C: drive are getting full. Even if you build a new server, you’ll be amazed how quickly applications, Windows updates, browser caches, and temporary files eating up free space in C drive. In this situation, you can increase C drive space with by moving free space from other partition on the same disk. In this way, you can solve this problem in a short time. Nobody likes to recreate partitions and restore everything from backup. In this article, I’ll introduce how to increase partition size in Windows Server 2008 r2 without losing data, fast and easily.

Which tool to increase partition size in Server 2008 r2?

There are two kinds of tools to help you change partition size in Windows 2008 server: Windows built-in Disk Management and 3rd-party partition software.

1. Disk Management snap-in

Better than previous Windows Server 2003, Server 2008 Disk Management has new “Shrink Volume” and “Extend Volume” functions added. “Shrink Volume” can reduce NTFS partition to release free space. “Extend Volume” can extend NTFS partition when there’s contiguous Unallocated space on the right. However, because of many restrictions, Disk Management is not the best tool to help increase volume size for Server 2008 r2. If you want to extend partition in Server 2008 with this tool, you must delete the contiguous volume on the right. If you want to increase partition size by shrinking another one, you have to use third party software.

2. 3rd-party partition software

The task to change partition size becomes much easier if you use 3rd party software such as NIUBI Partition Editor. It is compatible with Windows Server 2022/2019/2016/2012/2008/2003 (R2). All types of SSD/HDD, USB flash drive, memory cards, VMware/Hyper-V and all kinds of hardware RAID are supported.

Comparing with Disk Management, NIUBI Partition Editor can shrink both NTFS and FAT32 partition. It is able to shrink partition and make Unallocated space on either left or right. It is able to move and merge Unallocated space to any partition on the same disk. If there’s not enough free space on a disk, it is able to clone disk to a larger one and increase partition size with extra disk space.

Better than other partition software, it has Virtual Mode, Cancel-at-well and 1-Second Rollback technology to protect your system and data. In addition, the special file-moving algorithm helps you shrink, move, extend and copy partition must faster.

How to extend partition with Disk Management

As I said above, Disk Management “Extend Volume” function only works when there’s contiguous Unallocated space on the right. If you want to increase partition size in Server 2008 r2 without any software, you must delete the adjacent partition on the right in advance. Furthermore, the partitions to be deleted and extended must be the same Primary or Logical drive. If your partition layout meet the requirements and you can delete partition, you may the method below. Otherwise, jump to the next section.

Steps to increase partition size in Server 2008 r2 with Disk Management:

Step 1: Move all files in the right partition such as D: to other place.

Step 2: Right click this partition and select “Delete Volume”.

Step 3: Right click the left partition such as C: and select “Extend Volume…”

Increase partition sizeStep 4: In the pop-up window, select the available disk and free space, click Next.

Add space

Step 5: Confirm the operation and click “Finish” to proceed.

Confirm extending

If you want to extend a partition by shrinking another one, Disk Management cannot help you. As the screenshot in my test server, after shrinking E: drive and I get 20GB Unallocated space. Because this space is nonadjacent to C drive, when right click C drive, Extend Volume is grayed out.

Extend unavailiable

Better way to extend partition with safe partition software

With safe partition software, you can make Unallocated space on the left when shrinking D or E drive. Then C drive can be extended easily. To decrease and increase partition size in Windows Server 2008/2012/2016/2019/2022, NIUBI Partition Editor is recommended by many professionals. Better than other tools, it has powerful 1-Second Rollback, Virtual Mode and Cancel-at-well technologies to protect server system and data. In addition, it is much faster because of the advanced file-moving algorithm.

How to increase partition size in Windows Server 2008 r2 with NIUBI:

Step 1: Download and install this tool, right click drive D: and click “Resize/Move Volume“.

Extend volume

Step 2: In the pop-up window, drag the left border rightwards to shrink this partition.

Shrink d drive

Drag to resize

Click OK, Unallocated space is made on the left side (behind C: drive).

Volume shrank

Step 3: Right click C drive and select “Resize/Move Volume” again, in the pop-up window, drag the right border rightwards to merge this Unallocated space.

Extend C drive

Extend volume

Click Apply on top left to take effect, done!

Volume extended

If you want to extend E: drive, shrink D drive and make Unallocated space on the right. If you want to shrink E to extend C drive, there’s an additional step to move partition D to the right and make Unallocated space next to C drive.

Besides decrease and increase partition size in Windows Server 2008/2012/2016/2019/2022, NIUBI Partition Editor helps you do many other disk partition management operations.

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