Easy, reliable, quick way to resize a partition for windows server 2003?

Acronis Disk Director - Needs to be run from CD but only takes a few minutes if you are just adding the free space at the end to the last partiiton. Reliable and inexpensive.

You want to use the "rescue media" so you install this on a desktop computer and then make the "rescue media" -boot CD to use on the server.

http://www.acronis.com.sg/homecomputing/products/diskdirector/

IN either  case, always make sure that you have a full backup just in case there are issues.


I hope this helps !

A backup's always a good idea :-)
... but I can say that with thousands of operations with Boot-It I have NEVER lost anything ==> if it finds an issue with a disk it will simply refuse to perform the requested operation ... but has never "messed up" and caused any data loss.

One thing, however ==> I ALWAYS use a UPS on my systems (or any system I'm working on) ... a power failure in the middle of a partitioning restructuring operation WOULD (with any program) cause serious problems !!

cute - typically, how often do you need to do this? They give you a fully working trial and the trial of boot it does the whole thing (and doesn't reverse it at the end of the trial ! : - )

Why not just set it up the way Microsoft suggests for all servers?  One partition for the server O/S and another for the user data files.  That way, you can map the data drive to be something like "S" for shared on all of the systems, reinstall Windows on the server if you need to, and know that all of the user's files are on that 2nd partition.  To do that, all you need to do is use Disk Management to create and format the partition.

I purchased Boot-It for my main systems and have it installed on the disks.   Use it for a boot manager and imager as well as partition management activiites.    Two very nice features ("Image Sets" and "Boot-Now!" support) are only available in the purchased version ... and require that Boot-It be installed on the disk as the boot manager.    When it's installed on the disk, any maintenance operation is instantly available by simply rebooting the system and clicking on "Maintenance" at the startup screen (otherwise it just boots normally).

I almost never make changes to my "main" system (the one I'm typing this on), but make frequent changes to my 2nd system -- which I use to "play" with various OS's.   It's set up at the moment with 14 bootable primary partitions (Yes, you can only have 4 ... but Boot-It allows you to overcome this => you can have effectively as many as you want ... although only 4 at a time).    Sounds more complex than it is ... but it works SLICK & once you learn how to use it (it IS a bit "geeky") it's very simple.

But Yes, the trial copy will do exactly what you need here ... exactly the same as if you had purchased it.   If you explore the possibilties, however, I suspect you'll want a full copy :-)

Davis - yeah, that sounds good - in theory (O/S on c and data on D) and that's how I do have it (funny - we use S as the shared drive / same letter you suggested!).  there's loads on the c drive that you wind up needing - for sbs the companyweb folder by default, besides loads of other things.

I ALWAYS set systems up with the OS partition separate from the data --> whether they're running '98, '2000, XP, Vista, or a server OS.   It's simply a good idea ==> if you maintain a reasonably current system Image, you can always restore the image if something goes awry and NONE of the data is impacted :-)      I wrote this for a simple home user, but the concept applies to any system (it's a bit dated, but the principles certainly haven't changed):  https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/21582113/How-should-I-setup-a-new-DELL-desktop-to-make-it-easy-to-recover-problems-that-I-might-encounter.html

... it's also a good idea to keep some free space after C: to allow expanding it if you ever need to.   In case you have a system where that's not true, you can still easily expand C: ==> it just takes a bit of manipulation ... see the details I wrote for someone else here:  https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/21929035/Bootit-NG-and-Partition-resize.html  (Note in particular the 1st and 7th comments)

It can't be that difficult to move the company website and any other data files that shouldn't really be on "C" anyway.  Here is an MS Doc on how to do it, step-by-step download.microsoft.com/download/1/1/6/11671e4d-fb21-489c-870f-db36fd21a7d2/SBS_MoveDataFolders.DOC
Then, if you export the registry changes made by moving the folders, you can start from scratch/replace the server, get Windows working, put the data files back, merge the registry changes and, poof, you're back in business.