Do you encounter this issue: when you want to extend a partition in Windows Server by Disk Management, the function “Extend Partition” is greyed out. And you will discover that it is also unable to extend partition by using diskpart command. So you may want to know why.

 
The followings are the reasons:

To avoid convert basic disk to dynamic disk, extending primary partition was only available when there was contiguous unallocated space behind it, and extending logical partition just could borrow space from contiguous free space behind it. If there’s no unallocated space or free space in computer, the function “Extend Volume” is greyed out. Besides, extending partition in disk management is designed for NTFS and RAW partition. It’s impossible to extend FAT partition.

If you can’t extend partition by using Disk Management, you are also unable to extend partition in Windows Server by using diskpart command. So, you have to delete volume to create conditions for partition extending.

But you may really want to extend partition without data loss. This time, a piece of professional partition software can help you. I recommend you to use MiniTool Partition Wizard.

How to Extend Partition in Windows Server Using MiniTool Partition Wizard

MiniTool Partition Wizard is professional in partition field. If you want to partition Window Server, you should buy the MiniTool Partition Wizard Server Edition, and install it to your computer.

Take logical partition (H:) as an example.

Step 1. Open MiniTool Partition Wizard Server Edition and enter its main interface. Then select partition H, and click “Extend” from the right-click menu to get the next page.

Step 2. Choose a partition you want to take free space from and drag the square icon right and left the decide the size you want to take. And then click “OK” to continue.

Step 3. Then you will preview that the target is extended. Just click “Apply” to save the changes.

With these three steps, you can achieve the partition without data loss. Not like the limitation in Disk Management and diskpart command, as long as there is more than one partition in the same hard disk, you can use this professional software to extend partition by borrow free space from other partition.

Since shrink volume by Disk Management and diskpart command can get the ideal effect, I also recommend this tool to you to solve this issue. The function of “Move/Resize Partition” is available for you.

To know more about extending partition in Windows Server, you can read this post: [SOLVED] – The Volume You Have Selected May Not Be Extended in Server 2003.