The same with previous versions, Windows Server 2019 has native Disk Management tool. It is able to create, delete and format partition. It also has the ability to decrease and increase partition size without losing data. When C drive or the partition for exchange, database, etc. are getting full, many people want to extend these partitions without starting over. However, many server administrators feedback that they cannot extend volume in Windows Server 2019 via Disk Management, because "Extend Volume" option is grayed out. This article introduces why Disk Management is unable to extend volume in Windows Server 2019 and how to solve this problem easily.
Why cannot extend volume in Server 2019 Disk Management
There are 4 common reasons why you cannot extend volume in Windows Server 2019 with Disk Management, I'll introduce one by one. Press Windows + X keys together to open your own Disk Management.
1. No adjacent Unallocated space on the right
The size of a physical hard disk is fixed, before extending a partition, there must be unallocated space on the same disk. To get such disk space, you may either delete or shrink partition. You won't lose data by shrinking a partition in Server 2019 Disk Management (in most cases), so it is much better than deleting. The problem is, you still cannot extend Server 2019 partition after shrinking another one via Disk Management. As you see in the screenshot, I cannot extend C drive and E after shrinking D in my test server.
This is because:
Disk Management can only make Unallocated space on the right while shrinking a partition, but Extend Volume function can only extend unallocated space to the left contiguous partition.
Unallocated space that shrunk from D drive is nonadjacent to C drive and is on the left of E drive, this is the reason why Extend Volume doesn't work.
2. File System is not supported
Disk Management can only extend the partitions that are formatted with NTFS file system or without file system (RAW). FAT32 and any other types of partitions can't be extended. As you see in the screenshot, I cannot extend volume D, although there's contiguous unallocated space on the right, because it is a FAT32 partition. This is the second common reason why can't extend volume in Server 2019 Disk Management.
3. Different partition type
Because Disk Management cannot extend C drive by shrinking other volume, some people try to delete the adjacent D drive. Does it work?
If D is a Primary partition, "Extend Volume" will be enabled for C drive after deleting D. But as the screenshot shows, if D is a Logical drive, you still cannot extend volume C after deleting D.
On a MBR disk, unallocated space that deleted from a primary partition can't be extended to any logical drives, Free space that deleted from a logical drive can't be extended to any primary partitions.
4. 2TB limit on MBR disk
Another limitation to MBR disk is that the maximum disk/partition size is 2TB. Disk Management cannot extend a volume pass 2 TB in Windows Server 2019. If you initialize a 4TB hard disk as MBR, you can only use 2TB space, the remaining space will be shown as unallocated. When you right click this space, all options are greyed out.
As you see in the screenshot, I cannot extend drive F although there's contiguous Unallocated space on its right side.
What to do if unable to extend partition in Windows Server 2019
Open your server Disk Management and find out the reason why it is unable to extend volume in your own server. Follow the corresponding solution below according to your own disk partition configuration.
1: Move partition and Unallocated space
If you already shrunk D drive and got unallocated space on the right via Disk Management, move partition D to the right, then unallocated space will be moved to the left at the same time.
If you want to expand another contiguous E: drive, you can combine unallocated space directly without moving partition. To do this, right click it in NIUBI and select "Resize/Move Volume", drag left border towards left in the pop-up window.
Download NIUBI Partition Editor and follow the steps in the video:
2: Shrink and extend partition with NIUBI
If you want to extend a FAT32 partition or if the type of partitions to be deleted and extended are different, resize with NIUBI Partition Editor. There's no difference while resizing NTFS and FAT32 partition, or resizing primary and logical partition. Follow the steps in the video:
3: Convert MBR disk to GPT in advance
If you cannot extend a partition pass 2TB in Windows Server 2019/2016/2012/2008, follow the steps in the video to convert MBR disk to GPT and then extend partition with Unallocated space:
Take care of system and data while resizing disk partition
It is not difficult to find out the reason when you cannot extend volume in Windows Server 2019 Disk Management. But it doesn't mean you can solve this problem safely. There's potential system damage and data loss risk while shrinking and moving partitions, so you'd better make a backup first and run safe partition software. Better than other tools, NIUBI Partition Editor has advanced technologies to protect your system and data.
- Virtual Mode - all operations will be listed as pending for preview, real disk partitions won't be modified until click "Apply" to confirm.
- Cancel-at-will - if you applied wrong operations, you can cancel the ongoing operations at any progress before finish.
- 1 Second Rollback - if any known error is detected while resizing partitions, it automatically reverts server to original status in a flash.
- Hot-Clone - clone disk partition in Windows without server interruption, you can boot from the clone disk at any time easily.
- Advanced file-moving algorithm - move and extend partition 30% to 300% faster.
Besides repartitioning hard drive and converting disk partition type, NIUBI Partition Editor helps you do many other disk partition management operations.
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