How to resize C drive in Windows Server 2012 R2
Many people ask whether it’s possible to resize C partition in Server 2012 without losing data. Some people want to shrink C drive to extend system reserved partition or create more volumes. Some people want to shrink partition and extend C drive. Windows native Disk Management tool has part of ability to resize partition, because it has “Shrink Volume” and “Extend Volume” functions.
If you want to decrease C drive to create new volume, Disk Management can help you in most cases. But if you want to shrink C drive to extend other partition. Disk Management cannot help you.
Why cannot resize C drive to extend other volume?
“Extend Volume” function can only extend NTFS partition when there’s adjacent Unallocated space on the right. When shrinking C drive with Disk Management, Unallocated space can only be made on the right of C drive. This space is on the left or non adjacent to other partition. Therefore, “Extend Volume” option is always grayed out.
To accomplish this task, you need server partition software. Comparing with Disk Management, NIUBI Partition Editor has more advantages:
- It can shrink C drive to minimum size even if there are “unmovable” files in it.
- It can make Unallocated space on either left or right when shrinking C drive.
- It can extend Unallocated space to other partition on the same disk, no matter this partition is on the left or right, contiguous or not.
Resize C partition in Server 2012 with safest software
There’s potential partition damage risk when resizing partitions. C drive is where operating system located, system may be destroyed when resizing it. Therefore, you should pay more attention. To ensure 100% safety, you’d better back up server in advance. However, it is not enough. If damage happens, it costs a long time to restore and verify data.
Better than other tools, NIUBI Partition Editor has 1-Second Rollback technology. If it detects any error while resizing partitions, it is able to revert server to original status in a flash automatically. Furthermore, with the help of Virtual Mode and Cancel-at-well technology, you can cancel any wrong operations at any progress.
To resize C: drive in Windows Server 2012 R2 with NIUBI, you just need to drag and drop on the disk map.
How to shrink C drive to extend other partitions
For example: there’s system reserved partition, C drive and partition D on system disk. If you want to decrease C drive to extend system reserved partition, follow the steps:
- Download NIUBI Partition Editor, right click C: drive and select “Resize/Move Volume”. Drag left border towards right in the pop-up window, then Unallocated space will be made on the left.
- Right click system reserved partition and run “Resize/Move Volume”, drag right border towards right to combine this Unallocated space.
- Click Apply on top left to take effect.
Steps to resize C drive smaller in Server 2012 and extend partition D:
- Run “Resize/Move Volume” for C drive, drag right border towards left to shrink it and make Unallocated space on the right.
- Run “Resize/Move Volume” for D drive, drag left border towards left to merge this Unallocated space.
- Click Apply to take effect.
How to extend C drive by shrinking other partitions
If you want to resize C drive larger in Windows Server 2012 (r2), shrink D drive and make Unallocated space on the left, then combine this Unallocated space to C drive. Follow the steps in the video:
Besides resizing partition C in Windows Server 2012/2016/2019/2022/2003/2008, NIUBI Partition Editor helps you do many other operations.