How to extend C drive in Windows 2003 Server fast and safely?

Today's hard drives feature jaw-dropping amounts of space, but no matter how big your drive, you'll be amazed at how quickly application/Windows update installs, browser caches, and temporary files can eat up your free space and clutter your system.

After running Windows 2003 Server for a period, the system C drive runs out of space. If there is no free space on the system partition, Operating System runs much slower immediately and you cannot install any updates or other applications. The worst, system may crash if extremely low free space remains.

The easy and fast way to solve this problem permanently is extending the system C drive, but all partitions have been allocated when building the Server, is it possible to extend Server 2003 C drive without losing data? Yes, in this article I'll introduce how to shrink other data partition and extend Server 2003 C drive without deleting or reformatting partition.

How to extend C drive in Windows 2003 Server?

Different with Windows 2008 Server, there is no shrink and extend feature under Server 2003 Disk Management. In fact, you cannot extend C drive by shrinking other data partition under Server 2008, I don't know why Microsoft add a semi-finished tool.

So to extend C drive in Windows 2003 Server, you need third pary partition software, such as Parition Wizard Server.

In technical forums, many professionals recommend Partition Assistant Server. Based on the enhanced data protection technology, Copy Wizard built in Partition Wizard Server Edition, you don't need to worry about data security. Besides, It is able to extend NTFS C drive without rebooting.

It is not only a partition resizing utility, but also and all-in-one partition solution to better maintain your Server and improve its performance.

How to extend Server 2003 C drive with Partition Assistant Server?

Two choices:

1. You may consider merging the system partition and a data partition directly. (How to merge Server 2003 partitions)

2. Shrink a data partition and extend the system C drive.

You just need to drag and move on the disk map to shrink an existing data partition to get some Unallocated space and then extend the system C drive, no need to delete, format partition or rebuild the Server.

Steps to extend Windows 2003 C drive without deleting or formatting:

Step 1, Launch Partition Magic Server, you'll see all disks and partitions that connected to your Server and free space, used space and other properties of each partition.

Right-click the data partition and select "Resize", in the pop-up window, drag the left border rightwards to shrink it.

There will be some Unallocated space behind the system partition.

Step 2, Right-click the system partition and select "Resize", in the pop-up window, drag the right border rightwards to hold the Unallocated space.

Click "Apply" to proceed, done.

Now you have a "new" Server that can be used for a long time again.

How to allocate free space from any data partition and add to C drive?

For enterprise users, Unlimited Edition allows unlimited usage within your company to save time and money.

Benefits to extend Windows 2003 C drive with Partition Assistant Server

• Your data safety is guaranteed by the Enhanced data protetion.
• Hot Resize helps you extend NTFS C drive without rebooting.
• Easy to use, just drag and move on the disk map to repartition.
• Virtual pre-execution, preview any operation tasks before apply to the disk.
• Hard Disk/VHD/VMware virtual disk/RAID virtual disk all supported.

View full features or download trial to see how easy it is to extend C drive on Windows 2003 Server.

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