Resize partition means change the size of allocated partition without losing data. To resize partition in Windows 2016 server, there are 2 options: run native Disk Management tool or third party software. Disk Management is safe to adjust partition size in most cases but it has many limitations. Disk partition software is much more powerful but they may cause system/partition damage. This article introduces how to resize Server 2016 partition with Disk Management and safe partition software. Follow corresponding method according to your own disk partition configuration.
1. Resize Windows Server 2016 partition with Disk Management
To help change partition size in Windows 2016 server, Microsoft provides Shrink Volume and Extend Volume functions in native Disk Management tool. "Shrink Volume" is used to decrease partition without losing data. "Extend Volume" is used to increase partition size when there's contiguous unallocated space on the right. Both functions support NTFS partition only. It is easy to resize Server 2016 partition with Disk Management, but the problem is that it cannot extend partition by shrinking another one.
To shrink Server 2016 partition:
- Press Windows + X together on the keyboard and click Disk Management in the list.
- Right click the NTFS drive that you want to decrease and select Shrink Volume.
- Enter the amount of space in MB and then click Shrink to execute.
In some cases, for example: there are unmovable files in this partition or it has file system error, Disk Management cannot shrink partition.
To extend Server 2016 partition:
- Open Disk Management.
- Right click the partition that has adjacent unallocated space and then click Extend Volume.
- In Extend Volume Wizard window, simply click Next till Finish.
Shrink Volume function can only shrink a partition towards left and make unallocated space on the right. If you want to shrink D to expand C drive with Disk Management, it is impossible. Because the unallocated space that shrunk from D is always non-adjacent to C drive. This is the reason why many people feedback that Extend Volume is greyed out for C drive.
2. How to resize Server 2016 partition on SSD/HDD
Disk partition software has no such limitations, and it's much easier to resize server partition. However, not all software can accomplish this task safely.
There's potential data loss and system damage risk while resizing Server 2016 partition, because all associated parameters must be modified, files must be moved, system boot record must be updated correctly. Any slight error could cause boot failure and data loss. If it happens, it costs a long time to restore everything.
Better than other tools, NIUBI Partition Editor has powerful technologies to protect system and data, for example:
- Virtual Mode - all operations will be listed as pending and real disk partitions won't be changed until click "Apply" to confirm.
- Cancel-at-will - if you applied incorrect operations, you can cancel the ongoing operations without damaging partitions.
- 1-Second Rollback - if any error is detected while resizing partitions, it automatically reverts server to original status in a flash.
- Hot Clone - it can clone disk partition without rebooting. Therefore, you can clone system disk before resizing partition or regularly as backup. Whenever the system disk is down, you can boot from the clone disk directly without wasting a long time to restore.
In addition, it is 30% to 300% faster because of the advanced file-moving algorithm.
Download NIUBI Partition Editor, you'll see all disks with graphical partition structure on the right side. Available operations to the selected disk or partition are listed on the left and after right clicking.
How to resize partition in Windows Server 2016 without losing data:
- Right click a NTFS or FAT32 partition (such as D:) and select "Resize/Move Volume", drag either border towards the other side in the pop-up window. If you drag left border towards right, unallocated space is made on the left of this partition.
- If you want to create new partitions, right click this unallocated space and select "Create Volume". If you want to extend other partition (such as C:), right click it and select "Resize/Move Volume" again, drag right border towards right to combine this unallocated space.
- Click Apply on top left to execute. (Any operations before this step only work in virtual mode.)
Video guide to resize Server 2016 partitions:
- While shrinking a partition, besides dragging the border, you may enter an accurate amount by yourself.
- If you want to extend a non-adjacent partition, there's an additional step to move unallocated space.
- If there's no available free space on the same disk, you can copy disk to a larger one and extend partition(s) with extra disk space.
3. How to resize Server 2016 RAID 1/5/6/10 partition
It is common to use hardware RAID arrays in a server. If you want to resize RAID partition in Windows 2016 server, do not break array or do any operations to RAID controller, just check if there's free space in the same RAID array. The same array means Disk 0, 1, etc that are shown by NIUBI Partition Editor.
To Operating System and NIUBI Partition Editor, there's no difference if you use physical hard disks or RAID arrays. It doesn't matter if you use RAID 1, 5, 6 or 10 with any brand of RAID controller.
How to resize Server 2016 partition in VMware/Hyper-V
If you want to resize partition in VMware/Hyper-V running Windows Server 2016, you just need to install NIUBI Partition Editor to this virtual server and follow the steps above.
The only difference is, if there's no available free space on a disk, you can expand VMware and Hyper-V virtual disk directly. Additional space will be shown as unallocated at the end of original virtual disk. Then merge this unallocated space to the partition(s) that you want to extend. So, you don't need to clone disk to a larger one.
In Summary
To resize partition in Windows Server 2016/2019/2022/2025, the native Disk Management is not the best tool because of many limitations. Back up the server and run safe partition software. Because of the powerful data protection technologies, faster file-moving algorithm and other benefits, NIUBI Partition Editor is recommended as the best tool to help you accomplish this task. To resize Server 2016 partition, you just need to click, drag and drop on the disk map. Besides shrinking and extending partition, it helps do many other disk and partition management operations.
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