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Repartitioning in Windows 2003

V

VeeDubbs

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 9, 2005
Messages
398
Hi all -

Just need something verified. My numbers may be off, but hopefully you get the idea.

We have a Windows 2003 server with three 60GB drives in a single array. In that array, someone setup 2 partitions, the C drive has 12GB and the D drive got the rest.

The C drive is constantly complaining about needing more space, so my co-workers are constantly running disk cleanup and clearing out logs...not fun. D drive has around 90GB free. Two potential solutions have been suggested, which one is best, or which one will work? (Also, the solution needs to be only temporary as the server will no longer be used in 6 months to a year -- we are trying to avoid moving to VM for that short period of time).

1) a. Clone server to VM for backup purposes.
b. Boot into GParted
b. Use GParted to shrink the D drive and grow the C drive.
c. Boot into Windows

2) a. Clone server to VM for backup
b. Buy another drive.
c. Add drive to array.
d. Increase size of C drive with GParted(?)

I haven't dealt with repartitioning in a long time. Do either of those sound like a good idea? Will they work? Both the C and D drive use NTFS.

Thanks for any input!
 
I did this once, sorta kinda, and used diskpart

basically, the second partition needs to be empty.
run diskpart, extend the primary partition out, reboot, format second partition, use.

edit: diskpart is a built-in Windows command

edit2: ok, so it looks like diskpart may only work for extending a volume, ie RAID array, not partitions?
 
I've done tons of these with 3rd party tools from Acronis and Paragon, both have worked flawlessly. Lots of resizing "rob from peter to pay paul" stuff just like you have...take from D, give to C, visa versa. Or go from dynamic to basic, or extend across an array.

You can try other "free" ones if you'd like, I didn't bother taking a risk with a clients production server, I had them purchase the above products.
 
j-sta said:
I did this once, sorta kinda, and used diskpart

basically, the second partition needs to be empty.
run diskpart, extend the primary partition out, reboot, format second partition, use.

edit: diskpart is a built-in Windows command

edit2: ok, so it looks like diskpart may only work for extending a volume, ie RAID array, not partitions?
Click to expand...

Okay... We're looking to not lose any data here. Are you saying we'd have to blow away the D drive to so this?
 
VeeDubbs said:
Okay... We're looking to not lose any data here. Are you saying we'd have to blow away the D drive to so this?
Click to expand...

iirc, the partition you're "stealing from" must be empty. But, it was also years ago that I did this, so I don't remember it all that clearly.

edit: quick search on MS says it can only be used to extend a partition onto unallocated space, so I don't think it will work for your needs.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300415
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb490893.aspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/325590
 
Things have changed in the past few years and partitioning tools have gotten much better. They no longer have to be extended.

As long as you have a good backup, you should be able to resize the partition with something like gparted. It's not rocket science and it's very common. Seems many 2k3/XP admins decided these servers only needed ~10GB of space....
 
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