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Resize Windows 2003 Server partition fast, safely and easily.

Many people don't know how to resize a drive in Windows Server 2003, so in this article, I want to talk about resizing partitions for Windows 2003 without starting over.

Why resize partition in Windows 2003 Server

All the size of the hard disk partitions are carefully allocated while building the Windows 2003 Server. However, things are changing and the scheduled size may not always meet your needs, especially for the System partition, no matter how big your drive is, 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.

Originally, you have to backup the system and all files, delete partitions, recreate larger system partition and restore. What a time-consuming and annoying work. Your whole happy weekend will be wasted to install Windows updates and large amount of applications.

New computer technology make things much easier, nowadays, you can resize Windows 2003 Server partition directly, without so much annoying works, much faster and easier.

Which tool to resize Windows 2003 Server partition

Windows 2003 diskpart command line

Diskpart.exe is built-in command line in Windows 2003 Server, steps:

1. Press "Windows" and "R" key, type "cmd", in the pop-up window, type "diskpart" and press "Enter" to continue.

2. Type "list volume" to display the existing volumes on the disks.

3. Type "select volume X". X is the number of the data partition that you want to extend.

4. Type "extend size=XXX".

Diskpart resize partition

Limitations of diskpart to resize partition on Windows 2003 Server:

  • Only DATA partition is possible to extend, if you extend system or boot partition, you will receive "Diskpart failed to extend the volume. Please make sure the volume is valid for extending".
  • The partition you would like to resize must be fomatted as NTFS file system.
  • There must be free Unallocated space behind the system partition if you want to extend it.

Is there a better way to resize partition in Windows 2003 Server without so many limitations?

Yes, Server partition software can help you shrink and extend any partitions as you wish.

How to resize Windows 2003 Server partition without rebuilding or rebooting Server

Check disk partition layout under Disk Management. Here is drive C: D: and G:, I want to extend C: drive by taking space from partition G:.

Disk management

Step 1: Launch Partition Assistant Server, you'll see all disks and partitions that connected to your Server, the layout is similar with disk management.

Partition assistant

Right-click drive G: and select 'Allocate Free Space', or click the feature shortcut on left 'Partition Operations' panel.

Select resize feature

Step 2: In the pop up window, type how much free space to shrink from G:, select C: as target partition to add space to.

Add space to c

Click OK and back to main windows, where you'll find that 14.09GB free space has shrank from G: and added to C drive.

Partition resized

Step 3: Click 'Apply' on top left to proceed resizing operation.

Apply resizing

Preview pending operations.

Pending resizing operations

If there is no mistake, click 'Proceed', after several minutes, partition resizing completed. Check in disk management. Yes, both partition C: and G: resized, C drive space increased to 34.12GB.

Partition resized

Is it easy to resize Server 2003 partitions? If the system partition is NTFS, close the open files and applications before running this program you can extend it without rebooting.

Unlimited edition allows unlimited installation and usage within your company to save time and money.

No partitioning software has the ablity to resize partitions between two physical hard disks.

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