I know there are some products that will do this. But I try to stay away from this on production servers if at all possible. I would first recommend. Moving all the data folders, sql, exchange, etc.. to the other partition.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sbs/2003/maintain/movedata.mspx

Hi epohl...

Thank you for your comment.

May I ask why you stay away from this on production servers? I do understand there is some risk, but I figure as long as I have a fresh image, if things go ugly I can just reimage the disk back to where it was. I do, however, worry that the problem won't show up now, but much later and make it more difficult to remedy.

Just goes back to old days best practices. I have done it (acronis sorry $500) and not had problems. I just do it as a last resort. And typically moving all the data folders (if they are still on C:) can get you back a couple gigs.

... in particular, be sure to read this comment for an explanation of why you must do the "slide" operation:
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/21929035/Bootit-NG-and-Partition-resize.html#17169507

Awesome garycase! I knew there had to be something like this out there. I will try it out, and award you the points if it works. I don't doubt it will. Thanks again.

It will work fine.  One IMPORTANT NOTE:  Be sure to select CANCEL when you boot to the bootable CD (or floppy) ... you don't need to install it on the disk.

Basic process is this:

Download it and create a bootable CD or floppy.

Boot to the CD/Floppy;  select CANCEL, then OK.

Click on Partition Work.

Highlight the partition you need to ReSize.   Initially this will be the 2nd partition (assuming your disk just has two partitions) -> you can confirm this by just looking at the sizes.

Click on ReSize & wait for that to finish (you have to tell it the new size -- you need to make this partition smaller to free up space for the other partition).

When that finishes, be sure the same partition is still highlighted and click on Slide -- you need to have 0 free space after this partition (i.e. all of it needs to be before it -- the pictorial on the last link I gave you shows what you're doing here).

When that completes, just highlight the first partition; click ReSize; and select the maximum size you can.

The first ReSize operation will be pretty quick (depends on how full the partition is and how fragmented it is);  the Slide operation will take a good while (it's got to move all of the data in that partition);  the last ReSize will be VERY quick (a couple seconds).

leew, I appreciate your comment, and typically I wholeheartedly agree, but I peachtree won't install anywhere but on C:\ and neither will Trend Micro Server AV, so while I've slimmed down the 12GB partition as much as I can, I cannot get it below 11GB which while attempting an updated installed of Peachtree server, the temporary files get too close to the limit and Peachtree installation will not allow to continue.

I'm sure I could relocate some internal log file locations to another partition, but that would only give marginal extra space. I need a couple extra GB at least so Peachtree will shutup and I want to save time by avoiding a fresh OS install. Thanks for DISAGREEING though. ;-)

Are you suggesting then that Trend Micro takes up over a GB of space?  For an antivirus application?  (I don't use it - for corporate, I stick to McAfee).  Again, what exactly is taking up the space?  Break it down...

I also don't use peachtree - most of my clients use QuickBooks.

So you're saying BOTH these products, in their install routines NEVER provide an option to change the installation path at all?  This is VERY unusual to see one product like that... let alone two... no less, both being from major vendors...

So at this point, if you read the link I posted, you could use one of the tricks I suggest - Junction Points.  You could also clear OVER 1 GB of data if you moved the DLLCache and ServicePackFiles folders... If you can confirm EXACT versions I'll try to dig up a trial version of each, install it, and guide you through the process.

Yup, Trend Micro is a hog. 768MB installation. It can be moved to another drive, yes. Peachtree does not allow installation anywhere but on primary drive. Peachtree bites, in my opinion. I followed your website tips and was able to salvage almost 3GB without resizing partition. Thank you. Your article is very helpful.

I'm awarding half points to leew and half to garycase for introducing me to the very useful boot-it app.

Thanks guys.