Need to move partition in Windows 2008 for expanding another partition? This post will teach you how to do it easily and safely.
“I am running Server 2008 with system installed on C: partition (24GB). Drive C has ran out of disk space and needed to be expanded. So i shrunk D drive and created unallocated space, but when i right clicked the C drive and tried to extend it with the unallocated space, the “Extend Volume” option is disabled. Why cannot i add the unallocated space into system drive? What should i do next? Thanks!”
When the system drive is running out of disk space, most users will shrink D partition and then extend the system partition. But when extending the system partition with the unallocated space in Disk Management, they may find the “Extend Volume” is unclickable. That’s because the Disk Management only allows to extend the drive with right adjacent Unallocated space. However, after shrinking D drive, the unallocated space is right after the D, not the C drive, so you cannot add the space into C partition.
In this case, it is necessary to move the D to the right to make unallocated space right adjacent to drive C, and then the “Extend Volume" will be enabled.
Although Windows Server 2008 Disk Management has added the “Shrink Volume” and “Extend Volume” features, compared to the previous Server editions, it does not offer such features to move a partition. Therefore, you need to run 3rd party software. Then AOMEI Partition Assistant Server is a great choice. (PS.: There is a demo for a free trial.)
This Server partition manager is compatible with Windows Server 2003/2008(R2)/2012 (R2)/2016/ 2019/2022. And it allows you to move a partition to the left or right side within 3 steps. Let’s see how it works.
Supposed that you are in the condition described as follows: There are a partition (Partition E) behind the partition that you are going to extend (Partition C). and a block of unallocated space in the hard drive is behind Partition E.
Notes: ①There should be an unallocated space adjacent to the partition that you want to move; otherwise, it wouldn’t be moved. ②Moving system partition will lead to reboot computer (computer reboot).
Step 1. Install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant Server. In the main console, right-click partition E and select "Resize Partition".
Step 2. In the pop-up window, you can drag the partition rightward and click "OK".
Step 3. Here you can see that the unallocated space has been moved before partition E and contiguous behind partition C. Next, you can add the unallocated space into C drive in Disk Management, or directly use the AOMEI Partition Assistant Server:
①Right-click the C drive and choose “Resize Partition”.
②In the pop-up window, drag the bar to the right side and click “OK”.
③Preview the result and click “Apply” to commit the pending operation.
Besides the "Move Partition" feature, AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard also offers the following two methods to extend C drive more flexibly: 1. Merge partition: it is able to merge nonadjacent unallocated space into another partition directly. 2. Allocate free space: it can directly assign some free space from one partiton to another, without needing to create unallocated space first of all.
The above content is about how to move partition to the right or left side on one disk. However, we find some users are looking for a way to move partition to another disk in Server 2008 with the purpose of transferring data quickly, so here we would like to tell how to accomplish this task.
We can also make use of AOMEI Partition Assistant Server. Its “Clone Partition” feature can help move a partition from one disk to another by cloning method. You just need to right-click the target partition in the main windows, and select “Clone Partition”.
So, when you need to move partition in Windows 2008 (R2) for either extending another drive successfully or transferring mass data, and even resize BitLocker partition, AOMEI Partition Assistant Server can help you a lot. Besides, it has many other useful functions. For example, it has “Split Partition” function, allowing you to split one big partition into two smaller ones without obstacles; it is with ”Partition Alignment” feature, able to accelerate the reading and writing speed of your hard disk.