After running a server for a period of time, the system partition (the C drive) is likely to run out of space. In this situation, nobody wants to spend a long time recreating partitions and restoring everything from backups. It would be ideal if you could increase the partition size without losing data. Windows Server 2012's native Disk Management tool includes the "Extend Volume" function, which can help increase a volume's size. However, this feature only works with NTFS partitions and requires deleting the adjacent partition on the right. Disk partition software offers a much more powerful solution, but it's always recommended to back up your data first and use the safest tool available. This article explains how to increase partition size in Windows Server 2012 R2 using the inbuilt Disk Management tool and reliable partition software.
1. Increase Partition Size in Server 2012 Disk Management
As previously mentioned, before extending a partition with Disk Management, you must delete the contiguous volume on the right. Although there is a "Shrink Volume" function, some users may wonder why they cannot simply shrink a partition instead of deleting it.
As shown in the screenshot, the 20GB of unallocated space was shrunk from the D: drive, and Extend Volume is greyed out for both the C and E drives. This is because:
- "Shrink Volume" can only generate unallocated space on the right side when shrinking a partition.
- The "Extend Volume" function can only merge unallocated space into the left contiguous partition.
After shrinking the D drive, the unallocated space is on the left side of the E drive and is non-adjacent to the C drive, so Extend Volume is disabled for both partitions.
How to increase partition size in Windows Server 2012 R2 without software:
- Transfer all files in the right partition (such as D:) to another location.
- Right-click the D: drive and select "Delete Volume".
- Right-click the left partition C: and select "Extend Volume".
- Follow up the pop-up Extend Volume Wizard.
The partitions to be deleted and expanded must both be primary or both be logical. Otherwise, you still cannot extend the C: drive after deleting D. If you don't want to delete a partition or if the partitions are different, disk partition software is required.
2. Increase System Partition Size in Server 2012 R2 with Safe Tool
Compared with Disk Management, NIUBI Partition Editor has many more advantages, such as:
- It can decrease and increase both NTFS and FAT32 partitions.
- While shrinking a volume, unallocated space can be generated on either the left or right side.
- It can merge unallocated space into either a contiguous or non-adjacent partition on the same disk.
- It has the ability to merge, copy, convert, wipe, optimize, and hide partitions, as well as scan for bad sectors, etc.
Better than other tools, NIUBI Partition Editor has powerful data protection technology to help decrease and increase partition sizes in Windows Server 2012/2016/2019/2022 and previous Server 2003/2008.
- Hot Clone - Clone disk partitions in Windows for backup, migration, and fast disk swapping.
- Virtual Mode - All operations are listed as pending for preview, and real disk partitions won't be modified until you click "Apply" to confirm.
- Cancel-at-Will - If you applied incorrect operations, you can safely cancel the ongoing operations at any stage before completion.
- 1 Second Rollback - If any error is detected while resizing partitions, it can immediately and automatically revert the disk partitions to their previous state.
- 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 you will see all disk partitions with their structure and other information. In the test server, there are C, D, E, and system reserved partitions on Disk 0. The original C: drive is 40GB and D: is 70GB.
Steps to increase partition size in Windows Server 2012 R2 with NIUBI:
Step 1: Right-click the D: drive and select 'Resize/Move Volume', then drag the left border to the right in the pop-up window. (Or enter an amount in the box of 'Unallocated space before')
Then, the D: drive is shrunk and unallocated space is generated on its left side.
Step 2: Right-click the system partition C: and select 'Resize/Move Volume' again, then drag the right border to the right to combine this unallocated space.
Then, the C: drive is increased from 40GB to 60GB in virtual mode.
Step 3: Click 'Apply' to take effect on the real disk partitions.
How to increase system partition size in Windows Server 2012 R2:
- If you want to increase C drive space with a non-adjacent partition (such as the E drive in the test server), there is an additional step to move the unallocated space next to the C drive.
- If you use VMware, Hyper-V, or any type of hardware RAID arrays, the steps are the same. If you want to increase the size of the system reserved partition, follow the steps.
3. How to Increase Partition Size of D/E in Server 2012 R2
When expanding a data volume for Windows Server 2012, there are 2 options.
① When there is plenty of free space on the same disk, follow the steps in the video to shrink the C drive or another data volume:
② When there is not plenty of free space on the same disk, follow the steps in the video to move partition D to another disk:
4. How to Increase Volume Size with Another Disk
In some servers, the system partition C is full but there is no other partition on the same disk, or the entire disk is full. In that case, no software can increase partition size by adding space from a different disk. To solve the problem, you can copy this disk to a larger one and extend the partition with extra disk space.
Note: Unlike data volumes, the C: drive is where the Operating System runs from; copying the single C: drive cannot ensure Windows is bootable.
How to increase partition size by copying to a larger disk:
Besides decreasing and increasing partition sizes in Windows Server 2012/2016/2019/2022/2025 and previous Server 2003/2008, NIUBI Partition Editor helps you perform many other disk and partition management operations.
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