3 Steps to Move Partition in Windows Server 2019

This article introduces how to move partition in Windows Server 2019 with the safest partition manager software. Move disk volume by dragging and dropping on the disk map without reinstalling everything or losing any data in Server 2019.

Emily

By Emily / Updated on May 12, 2023

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Move partition to extend C drive in Server 2019

Windows Server 2019 has the Shrink Volume and Extend Volume options in Disk Management tool. That allows you to shrink and extend the size of existing volumes. However, when you get an unallocated space from shrinking D drive and prepare to extend C drive with the space, you may find the Extend Volume option greyed out. That's because:

Notes:✎
Shrinking one volume only generates the unallocated space on its right side.
Unallocated space can only be added into its left adjacent partition with "Extend Volume" function.

That’s to say, even if you shrink D drive to get an unallocated space, but you cannot use it to extend C drive since the unallocated space is not behind the C drive, but after the shrunken D drive.

Extend Volume Greyed Out Server 2012

In this situation, you will need to move partition D rightwards and move unallocated space leftwards in Server 2019, then the Extend Volume option can be enabled for extending C drive. That's to say, it is necessary to move partition to the end of the disk in Windows Server 2019.

Best partition manager to move partition in Server 2019

As the screenshot above, we can see that Disk Management does not offer “Move Partition” option, so you will need a third-party tool to change the partition location in Server 2019.

Although there is countless software advertising to be capable of moving disk partition easily, some of them could cause the parameters of disk, partition or files failed to be updated or data loss, then you might be unable to boot Windows successfully. To ensure the safest and best result, you can use AOMEI Partition Assistant Server. This Server partition manager software comes with the “Move Partition” function, which can safely move partition in Windows Server 2022, Server 2019, Server 2016, Server 2012, Server 2008, Server 2003 and all Windows PCs.

3 Steps to move partition in Server 2019

With AOMEI Partition Assistant Server, it is very easy to move partition and unallocated space in Server 2019, and you just need to drag and drop on the disk map and only three steps can make it done.

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Step 1. Install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant Server. Right click the target drive you need to move (ex: D drive) and select “Resize/Move Partition” from the drop-down menu.

Move D Partition

Step 2. Then drag the partition towards right in the pop-up window.

Move D Drive

Step 3. Back to the main interface, you will find the D drive is moved to the end of the disk, and after the unallocated space, and the unallocated space is now after C drive.

Unallocated Space After C

After moving D drive, you can extend C drive by doing as below:

Step 4. Right click C drive, and select “Resize/Move Partition”. (If you want to resize Bitlocker partition, you can also do it with AOMEI.)

Resize C Partition

Step 5. In the new window, drag the C drive to the right side to add the unallocated space into it, and click “OK”.

Extend C

Step 6. In the main interface, you can see C drive is extended with the unallocated space. Now click “Apply” to commit the all pending operations.

Apply

If you move partition in Server 2019 just for extending another partition (like we do above), you can try other amazing functions of AOMEI Partition Assistant Server, which can extend partition with unallocated free space more flexibly without moving volumes.

One is “Allocate Free Space”, which is able to directly assign some free space from one partition to another partition, also within 3 steps.

Allocate Free Space From D To C Drive

Another is “Merge Partitions”, which can directly merge unallocated space into the to-be-extended partition in 3 steps no matter where the unallocated space locates on the disk.

Choose Unallocated Space

Further study about moving volumes in Server 2019

The above steps can also be used to move a partition to the start of the disk as long as there is an unallocated space in front of it. In addition, today we will also share you with how to move partition to another disk or move disorder partition.

Part 1. Move partition to another disk in Server 2019

At last, if you trying to move partition to another disk for a faster data transfer, backup or disk replacement, you can take the following steps.

Step 1. Click “Clone Disk” in the right menu.

Partition Clone Wizard

Step 2. Select a suitable cloning methods based on your needs and situation.

Select Copy Method

Step 3. Choose source partition from the list.

Select Source Partition

Step 4. Select unallocated space on another disk and click “Next”

Select Destination Space

Finally, remember to click “Apply” to commit the pending operation.

Part 2. Move disorder partition in Server 2019

If there are 3 partitions on your hard disk, but they are not in sequence such as C-E-D, you may want to move them to the right position (C-D-E) instead of simply switching their drive letter, which might cause programs not working if the partitions contains active paging files. In such case, you can move partition (E) to the end of the disk over another partition (D) via cloning.

This method requires the end partition D has enough free space to hold all content from E drive. First, shrink D partition to get an unallocated space (larger than the used space of E); secondly, copy partition E to the unallocated space. At last, delete the original partition E and reassign the drive letter E to the cloned new partition.

Summary

In this article, we cover how to move partition in Windows Server 2019 step by step, no matter what the reasons you do that. As the powerful manger software, AOMEI Partition Assistant Server also has other fantastic functions, including migrating only OS drive to SSD/HDD, converting system disk between MBR and GPT without deleting partitions, splitting a large partition into several small ones.

If you want to enjoy those functions on unlimited Server or Windows PCs within one company, you can try AOMEI Partition Assistant Unlimited.

Emily
Emily · Staff Editor
Emily is an English editor of AOMEI Technology; she has a great passion for providing easy solutions for people to tackle with all disk or partition management problems. In addition to writing articles about disk/partition management, she also edits great tutorials on how to back up and restore disk for data security. In her spare time, she loves to learn computer skill to improve herself or stay with her family to enjoy a good day.