Resize Dynamic Disk: Extend or Shrink Dynamic Disk Easily in Windows

User Case

I have a Windows 2003 R2 server with a dynamic disk that has 70 GB free space. So i want to extend the dynamic disk system C: volume with that space. But they are not next to each other. And i get the error message saying “The selected volume is a system or boot disk or was created on a basic disk in an earlier version of Windows and cannot be extended” Are there any utilities that will help resize dynamic disk?

When need to resize dynamic disk in Server?

Dynamic disks are disks that have been initialized for dynamic storage. A dynamic disk contains dynamic volumes, such as simple volumes, spanned volumes, striped volumes, mirrored volumes, and RAID-5 volumes. Such disks help users better maximize data storage performance than basic disks, especially for small business companies.

In some cases, users also want to resize the dynamic disk like using the basic disk. For example, when the dynamic volume, especially the system volume, is almost full and needs more space for new data storage, it is necessary to extend it with available unallocated space. Or when there is no unallocated space for extending dynamic volumes, the workaround is to shrink another dynamic disk volume to get some free space.

Cannot resize dynamic disk in Disk Management?

No matter you want to extend or shrink dynamic disk volume, the most important is finding out a way to get it done. For most users, their prior choice would be Windows snap-in Disk Management. However, things might not go smoothly as expected in most situations. For instance, users cannot resize dynamic disk volumes, especially the system volume when the volume is created on a basic disk in an earlier Windows version (like the screenshot in the first section).

Additionally, only the Simple dynamic volume and Spanned volume have the “Extend Volume” and “Shrink Volume” options while the Stripped, Mirrored, and Raid volume do not have such features but only the “Delete Volume” option. That is to say, you can only extend or shrink Simple and Spanned dynamic disk volume in Disk Management. To resize the other three types of dynamic volumes, you have to delete them first and create a new one with your desired size.

Best way to shrink or extend dynamic disk in Server 2025/2022/2019/2016/2012

Given that you can only extend certain types of dynamic volume in Disk Management, so here we would like to share you with a powerful disk partition manager: AOMEI Partition Assistant Server. It provides the professional dynamic disk manager, allowing you to resize all types of dynamic volumes, move volume slice, extend dynamic system volume, add drive to RAID, remove drive from RAID and convert dynamic disk to basic disk without losing data. Here we will take how to extend dynamic system volume step by step.

PS.: you can download the demo version and have a try first.

Step 1. Install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant Server. Click “Dynamic Disk Manager” in the right menu.

Step 2. Right-click another volume with free space and choose “Resize/Move Volume”.

Step 3. In the pop-up window, drag the slider rightwards to generate some unallocated space for extending the dynamic system volume. Then, click "OK".

Note:✎...

if there is already unallocated space on the dynamic disk, just skip step 2 and step 3 and directly go to step 4.

Step 4. Then right-click the system volume and select “Resize/Move Volume”. Drag the slider rightward to merge the unallocated space into it.

Step 5. Click on “Commit” on the main interface to execute the pending operation.

If there is no volume that can be shrunk to make redundant free space on the same disk for extending another volume, the “Move Volume Slice” feature is a nice workaround. It can move volume slices from one disk to another so as to make unallocated space. Below is the guide:

Step1. Launch AOMEI Partition Assistant Server and the Dynamic Disk Manager.

Step 2. Click "Move Volume Slice Wizard" on the left side and hit on "Next" to continue on the pop-up Wizard window.

Step 3.Select the volume you want to move to another disk.

Step 4. Specify the slices that need to be moved. Then, click "Next". 

Step 5. Select the destination disk where the volume slice will be moved onto.

Step 6. Then you will find the volume has been moved to another disk and some unallocated space appears on its original disk. Then, click "Commit" to apply the changes.

At last, you can use the “Resize/Move Volume” option to extend the dynamic disk volume. To shrink dynamic disk volume, just drag the slider leftwards.

Summary

So, when Disk Management lets you down in the process of extending or shrinking dynamic disk volume in Server 2003, 2008 (R2), 2012 (R2), 2016, 2019 or Windows 10, 8, 7, the AOMEI Partition Assistant Server can help you resize dynamic disk in Server 2025/2022/2019/2016/2012 with the most ease. Besides, it also enables you to easily manage the basic disk partitions, such as moving/merging/cloning/splitting partitions, transferring OS to SSD, converting MBR and GPT without deleting partitions, etc.