How to Move Partition in Windows Server 2012 without Data Loss?

Need to move partition in Server 2012

“I have a hard drive with Windows Server 2012 installed and two partitions allocated: C drive and D drive. C drive is almost running out of space but D drive has plenty of space. After I shrank D drive, I found that the unallocated space is not behind Partition D and I am unable to extend Partition C. So, I need to move D drive to the end of the disk to make the unallocated space contiguous behind the C drive. Is there software recommended for moving partition in Windows Server 2012”

Moving partition, as its name implies, is a process of changing the location of the selected partition. That’s very useful when you want to extend partition but the available unallocated space is not right after it. Like the user above, you might get an unallocated space from shrinking a partition in Server 2012 Disk Management, but you cannot use the unallocated space to extend another partition since it is not right after the target volume, but after the shrunk volume. In this case, to move the shrunk partition between the to-be-extended partition and the unallocated space is exactly what you need to do.

A great partition tool: move partition in Server 2012 easily

How to move partition in Windows Server 2012 (R2)? In Windows Server 2012 Disk Management, extending and shrinking volume functions are available to manage disk partitions. But it does not offer moving volume feature.

Therefore, when it comes to moving partition and making the unallocated space adjacent behind the partition that you need to extend, you have to turn to a third-party tool. AOMEI Partition Assistant Server is highly recommended. It is a powerful and reliable disk partition manager, you can use it to move partition to the left or right side within a few clicks. It is rather easy to use and can work well with Windows Server 2012 (R2) and Windows Server 2025/2022/2019/2016.

It's available to download the demo version of AOMEI Partition Assistant to have a try.

Move partition in Windows Server 2012 step by step

Now, install AOMEI Partition Assistant Server on your machine. Detailed steps to change the position of partition in Windows Server 2012 will be introduced next.

Attention: "Move Partition" can only work when there is unallocated space on either side of the target partition, otherwise, you need to shrink the partition before moving it.

Step 1. Run the software. In the main interface, the basic sate of partitions will be displayed. Here supposed that there is unallocated space behind partition D.

Step 2. If you’ll move partition D to the right side of the unallocated space, you should right-click partition D and choose “Resize/Move Partition”.

Step 3. In this window, put the mouse on partition D and drag it to the right side till it cannot move. Then, click "OK" button.

Step 4. Back to the main interface, you can see that the unallocated space is adjacent behind partition D. To commit operation, click "Apply" and "Proceed".

• After moving partition to the desired location

After you move the partition after the unallocated space via AOMEI Partition Assistant Server, now you can right-click the partition (ex:C drive) in Disk Management, select “Extend Volume” , and follow the wizard to extend partition C. Or you can use AOMEI Partition Assistant to extend the partition as well.

Step 1. Right-click the target partition, select “Resize/Move Partition”.

Step 2. In this window, drag the bar to the right side to add the unallocated space into it. Then click “OK”.

Step 3. Click “Apply” and “Proceed” to commit the pending operation.

Till now, moving and extending partition are all done easily via AOMEI Partition Assistant Server. Besides, this software can do more than you expected. For example, it is able to directly merge unallocated space into another partition no matter where the unallocated free space locates on the disk with its “Merge Partition” function. That is to say, you don’t need to spend extra time to move the middle partition.

Actually, you can assign free space from one partition to another more easily using the feature "allocate free space" if extending partition is your final purpose.

Conclusion

With AOMEI Partition Assistant Server, you can easily move partition in Windows Server 2012 without data loss. Then you can successfully extend another partition with the unallocated space. Moreover, AOMEI Partition Assistant Server enjoys many other features, such as moving Windows Server 2012 to new hard drive, converting file system between NTFS and FAT32 without data loss, extending NTFS system partition, etc,.