Easily Resize Partition in Windows Server 2016 without Data Loss

About Partition Resizing on Windows Server 2016

To resize a partition for Windows Server 2016 is to extend or shrink a partition for it. When installing the Windows Server 2016 operating system for the computer, you might have partitioned your hard disk.

While using your computer, suddenly you found the C: drive or other drives’ space is too small after installing some programs and creating files on it. You may also want to create a new partition for special use. Therefore, you want to resize partition in Windows Server 2016, either extend or shrink partition. Actually, there are two methods you can apply for resizing Server 2016 partition.

Resize Partition with Windows 2016 Disk Management

Disk Management in Windows Server 2016 is a built-in utility, designed to manage your hard disks and the partitions or volumes. You need to log in as an administrator to be able to resize partition or volume. You can shrink a partition or volume, and use the new created unallocated disk space to extend partition or create a new partition.

1. Launch Disk Management by clicking Server Manager>Storage>Disk Management

2. Right-click the partition you want to shrink, and click Shrink Volume.

3. On this screen, you need to enter the amount to shrink as the instruction statement.

4. Extend a partition. In Disk Management, right-click the partition you want to extend, and click Extend Volume.

5. In the extend dialog, enter the amount size that you want to extend, and click Next to process.

Using Windows Server 2016 resize partition tool, Disk Management, has some restrictions. You can only shrink a partition or volume up to half of its free space, and you can only extend a partition having contiguous unallocated space to the right of it. Disk management cannot extend a basic partition using an unallocated space to its left. Fortunately, you can use AOMEI Partition Assistant to lift the restrictions.

Resize Partition in Server 2016 via AOMEI Partition Assistant

AOMEI Partition Assistant Server is powerful third party software for Windows Server that allows you to extend partition for Server 2016 even with non-contiguous unallocated space on the same disk. And it can shrink partition beyond its half if there is enough free space.

With its concise interface, you can easily resize or move partitions without needing anyone’s help. In addition, resizing BitLocker partition is also permitted. Now, check out the following steps.

1. Launch AOMEI Partition Assistant Server, right click the partition you want to shrink and click Resize/Move Partition.

2. In this screen, you can drag the slider bar on both sides to make unallocated space or enter the specific amount you want to shrink. Then click OK to continue. If you just want shrink a partition, you can click Apply to process and forget the rest.

3. Now you have unallocated space, so you can extend any partition on this hard disk. Right-click the partition you want to extend and select Resize Partition. If the unallocated space is not adjacent behind the partition that you want to extend, you can move partition to make it adjacent.

4. In the Move and Resize Partition dialog, drag the slider bar rightwards to extend the partition. You can also enter the specific amount you want to extend. Then click OK to continue.

5. You can see how it looks like after the process. If all is well set, click the Apply to start the process.

★Tips:

Its "Split Partition" can directly divide one partition into two smaller one without data loss; while the "Merge Partitions" can combine two adjacent partitions into one, or merge unallocated space into another existing partition.

"Allocate Free Space" allows to directly transfer free space from one partition to another.

Besides that, AOMEI Partition Assistant Server has many other useful features, such as Migrate OS to SSD, Disk Clone, Make Bootable CD, and more.

It can not only support Windows Server 2016, but also almost Windows OS, like Windows Server 2003, 2008 (R2), 2012 (R2), 2019, 2022 and Windows PC system.