Question

expand a specific partition to another datastore

Asked by: kenny_klbn

Hi Experts,

How do i expand and configure disk partition (E:\) of a vm guest to a second datastore (Datastore2) ?

Setup as follows:
VM Host - ESXi
Guest OS - Windows 2003
Partitions - C (10GB) , E (50GB), F (10GB), G (50GB)
Datastore1 - 130GB

thanks in advance

 

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2009-11-05 at 18:36:12ID24876851
Tags

vmware

,

ESXi

,

windows 2003

Topics

VMware

,

Microsoft Operating Systems

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
7

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. Resize a Datastore on Dell MD3000i
    Hi, I try to write a intern procedure for expend size of datastore for future use. I make some test in our test environment without full success. It is possible to expand size without the need of backing up all the Datastore content? On windows 2003 with iSCSI initiator I ca...
  2. VM Ware Datastore
    We are running ESXi 3.5 and would like to add additional disks to our primary raid. The ESXi is booted from USB drive. We would like to expand the datastore to allow us to expand the client VM's disk space. What is the best method to accomplish this. Thank you
  3. Accessing datastore
    Hey guys, I have two datastores on one host. One is the local and the other is iSCSI SAN datastore. I have my VM's installed on the local datastore. If one of my VM's is a W3K, how do map or use the storage space on the SAN datastore? When looking at the VM summary via VS...
  4. Designing Luns and datastores
    Hi, Im in my last phase of our VM/SAN migration design, and I am having a little trouble understanding how to proceed with LUNS and datastore designs. Eg, lets say I have one esx server, and I need to convert 3 physical servers to the virtual environment. How do I design th...
  5. Increase the Capacity of a Datastore on ESXi 4
    Hello, I have a datastore on an Esxi host that physically resides on a RAID 5 array which is on an HP MSA70 direct attached storage device ... I want to increase the size of this datastore ... so I plan to add 5 more physical drives ... I then plan to shut down my vm's and ho...

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: ryder0707Posted on 2009-11-05 at 18:54:07ID: 25756269

Shutdown the guest OS, Remove the 2nd disk in VM config
Move the 2nd disk to 2nd datastore
Use vi client or use vmkfstools -X 100G yourvm.vmdk to expand the disk (if expand to 100GB) or
Readd the 2nd disk in VM config
Start the guest OS & use diskpart to extend drive
Verify in diskmgmt.msc

 

by: kenny_klbnPosted on 2009-11-05 at 22:30:10ID: 25757005

Hi ryder0707,

when u said "Remove the 2nd disk in VM config"....does that mean my data in the 2nd partition is removed, when i click REMOVE in the Virtual Machine Properties Dialog? furthermore there's no option to move the 2nd disk to second datastore in vSphere Client.

rgds,
Kenny

 

by: ryder0707Posted on 2009-11-05 at 22:50:30ID: 25757129

Sorry I'm assuming you know how to move the vmdk
Select remove, then you have the option only to remove from VM, ensure not to select remove from disk!
Then using datastore browser, select the vmdk then right click to "move to" diffrerent datastore
Once done, edit the VM config, add existing disk then point to the "moved" vmdk at the new datastore
That's it!

 

by: kenny_klbnPosted on 2009-11-08 at 17:12:58ID: 25772863

Hi ryder0707,

Thanks for the clear instructions. As per my attached screenshot, im in need of a little more guidance in how to extend the E:/ partition to include the unallocated space. Ive read your other posts and reiterated here as follows:
1) RUN DISKPART from a command prompt
2) list volumes
3) Select volume X
4) list partitons
5) select partition X
6) Expand
7) Shut the second VM down
8) reboot bot VMS and you are done

Im not sure what you mean from point 5 onwards. Do you mean to create another partition (Primary or Extended?) on the unallocated space?

thanks in advance.

 

by: ryder0707Posted on 2009-11-08 at 17:19:35ID: 25772886

You can ignore that, just select the volume you want to extend then type "extend" it will extend to max capacity

 

by: ryder0707Posted on 2009-11-08 at 17:20:38ID: 25772888

Fyi, after you type extend, it the drive will be extended immediately and you can verify again in disk manager

 

by: kenny_klbnPosted on 2009-11-08 at 17:58:27ID: 31650861

Excellent

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...