As seen in the screenshot, I can't expand my Basic Disk2 for Data2 Volume (F:). This is Server 2012R2 Virtual Machine, Unallocated space of 1TB was added to the VM Disk2 from vCenter Datastore. I tried to reboot the server but getting the same grayed out. Should I try a diskpart option with cmd? Any suggestions please?
Why Extend Volume is Grayed Out in Server 2012R2
disk-volumediskmanagementhard drivewindows-server-2012-r2
Best Answer
The
Extend Volume...
menu item can be grayed out for a number of reasons.So, in order to extend Drive F and make use of that unallocated 1 TB, you'll need to convert Disk 2 from MBR to GPT (GUID Partition Table). The built-in tools won't do this without data loss, so if you want to use the Disk Management console or
DiskPart.exe
, you'll need to back up your data to another location and then restore it after the conversion.Microsoft's article about converting from MBR to GPT
Windows 10 version 1703 introduced
MBR2GPT.exe
, which can convert from MBR to GPT without modifying or deleting data. But that's unlikely to be compatible with Windows Server 2012 R2, so it won't help in your current situation.Microsoft's article about MBR2GPT.exe
There are also third-party tools that claim to be able to convert from MBR to GPT without data loss, but I can't vouch for any of them.