Advertisement

08.02.2007 at 01:20PM PDT, ID: 22738667
[x]
Attachment Details

Extend Primary Partition in Windows Server 2003

Asked by jeremyd123 in Microsoft Server, Windows 2003 Server, Disk Partition Tools

Tags: partition, extend

I believe I need to extend my current C: drive (~4GB) (primary partition and boot) and was wondering if you could give help out?  I currently have 620 MB free.

Ive already moved the pagefile.sys, various logs, Exchange Information stores to E: but am still short of space to install Win2k3 SP2 and Exchange SP2.  (Win2k3 requires 369MB + 369MB for uninstall)

My particulars:  Im running Hardware: Dell PowerEdge 2850 Software: Windows 2003 Server with Exchange Server 2003 and have six (6) X SCSI Hard Drives with 146GB each.

All are Basic disks.  Looking at the Disk Management console I have the following:

Disk 0:
Volume      Layout      Type      Filesystem      Status                  Capacity      Free Space      Fault Tolerance
<Dell utility?>       Partition      Basic      <blank>      Healthy (EISA)            31 MB            31 MB       No
(C:)            Partition      Basic      NTFS            Healthy (System)      4 GB            620 MB      No
Data (E:)      Partition      Basic      NTFS            Healthy (PageFile)      146.75GB      143.25GB      No
New Volume      Partition      Basic      NTFS            Healthy                  19.53GB      19.47GB      No

To summarize:
Primary Partition: <31MB + (C:) 4GB NTFS > | Logical Drive: <(E:) Data> | Primary: 19.53GB | Unallocated: 649.41GB

After reading numerous posts on this subject, my first inclination is to use Norton Ghost (which we already own) to ghost the partition, delete the partition from the recovery console, write it back from Ghost with a large partition size.  Comments on this approach?

Other possibilities I considered, but don't think would work in my situation include:
1. Moving the C:windows/system32 folder to my E: drive (which would free up ~400 MB) or is this just 'kicking the can down the road' until the next SP release?
2. I've looked into buying Acronis (too expensive) or some other 3rd party software (i.e. BootIt NG (http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/), Ranish, however, these would be more difficult to use since I can only use "approved" software due to government constraints on software).
3. Not sure about mounting an empty NTFS folder into C:?
4. Other?

Notes:
1. I looked at Microsoft's Diskpart.exe utility and am unsure if it will work on Win2k3.  From reading other posts as well as Microsoft's (KB: 886986) I've heard conflicting ideas.  The old diskpart utility from Win2k may work on Win2k3 but I haven't heard of anyone successfully doing that with something similiar to my setup.

2. Dell also has an expart.exe utility, but again, I haven't heard of anyone successfully extending a boot partition with something resembling my setup.

Thanks.

- JeremyStart Free Trial
[+][-]08.02.2007 at 01:25PM PDT, ID: 19620554

View this solution now by starting your 7-day free trial. Setting up your free trial is quick, easy, and secure. We will return you to this solution, unlocked, when you're done.

 

About this solution

Zones: Microsoft Server, Windows 2003 Server, Disk Partition Tools
Tags: partition, extend
Sign Up Now!
Solution Provided By: Bartender_1
Participating Experts: 2
Solution Grade: A
 
 
[+][-]08.02.2007 at 01:39PM PDT, ID: 19620678

Assisted solutions are selected by the member who asked the question as a comment that contributed to their question's solution.

Start your 7-day free trial to view this Assisted Solution or ask the Experts your question.

 
 
Loading Advertisement...
20080716-EE-VQP-32