Full solution to move partition on Windows PC & Server
This article introduces how to move partition on Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP and Server 2019/2016/2012/2008/2003 R2. Move partition location to the left, to the right, to end of disk or move volume from one disk to another.
Cannot move partition in Disk Management
To manage storage device, Microsoft provides native Disk Management utility, which can create, delete, format partition, change drive letter and mark partition Active. From Windows 7 and Server 2008, Microsoft enhanced its ability by adding advanced Shrink and Extend Volume functionalities. However, there is still no “Merge Volume” and “Move Volume”.
In fact, the advanced Shrink and Extend Volume are semi-finished, because NOT all partitions can be shrank and extended. Other key limitations include:
- Shrink Volume can only decrease a partition and generate Unallocated space on the right side.
- Extend Volume can only extend the drive with right adjacent Unallocated space.
For example: after shrinking drive D, Unallocated space is non-adjacent to drive C and is on the left side of E, so Extend Volume greyed out for both C and E drives.
To extend C drive, you need to move partition D to the right, then Unallocated space will be right adjacent to drive C, so Extend Volume is enabled. Because Windows Disk Management can’t move partition volume, you need to run 3rd party software.
There is potential system damage and data loss risk while resizing and moving disk partition with 3rd party tool, remember to back up and use safe partitioning software. As the safest and fastest partition manager, NIUBI Partition Editor provides 1 Second Rollback, Virtual Mode and Cancel-at-will technologies to ensure system and data intact. In addition, its Hot-Resize technology and unique File-moving algorithm helps repartition hard drive without reboot and much faster.
How to move partition to the left
Note: no partition tool can exchange partition location or move partition over another one directly. I’ll show you how to do this later, firstly, I’ll introduce how to move partition and exchange location with Unallocated space.
Download NIUBI Partition Editor, you’ll see all disk partitions on the right which is similar with Windows Disk Management. Available operations to selected disk or partition are listed on the left side.
Right click drive E and select “Resize/Move Volume”, drag the middle position leftwards in the pop-up window.
Partition E is moved to the left and Unallocated space is move to the end of disk.
How to move partition to the right
Click Undo on top left and back to original status:
Right click drive D and select “Resize/Move Volume”, drag the middle position rightwards in the pop-up window.
Drive D is moved to the right and Unallocated space is moved to the left.
If you want to add Unallocated space to C drive, simply right click C drive and select “Resize/Move Volume” again, drag the right border rightwards in the pop-up window.
20GB Unallocated space is merged into C drive.
This software is designed to work in virtual mode, the operations will be listed as pending on bottom left. To modify real disk partitions, you should click Apply on top left to execute.
How to move volume to end of disk
Few people will do this operation, if the partitions are disordered such as C-E-D, you can correct by changing the drive letters to C-D-E. However, if you installed programs in drive D, or specified a folder in drive E for backup, do not simply change drive letter. Otherwise, it’ll cause the programs stop working, you’d better move partition by cloning.
For example: how to move partition D to end of disk over drive E:
- Shrink drive E to produce Unallocated space on the right.
- Copy drive D to this Unallocated space.
- Change drive letter of both D and the new volume.
Watch the video how to move partition D to the end:
If you want, you can delete original drive D and add Unallocated space to any other partitions.
- When change drive letter, you should first change original drive D to other one, and then assign D to the cloned volume.
- If you want to move partition E to the left side of D, you can shrink either drive C or D to get Unallocated space, and then follow the next steps above.
How to move partition to another disk
If drive D is getting full but there is not enough free space in C or other volumes in the same disk, NO partitioning software can extend D drive by taking free space from another disk, but you can clone D to another disk. No matter which reason, follow the steps to move partition to another disk:
- Shrink a large volume in another disk to get Unallocated space (optional).
- Right click drive D and select “Copy Volume”.
- Select the Unallocated space in another disk.
- Change drive letters of both volumes.
Watch the video how to move partition from one disk to another:
After clicking Apply to execute, partition D (or any other data volume) will be transferred to another disk, all programs in D keep working smoothly. Original drive D can be deleted to create new or expand other drives.
If you want to move System Reserved partition or system C: drive, you’d better clone entire disk to ensure bootable.
