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GParted forum → Live Media → Trying to reduce d drive and increase c drive in server 2003
Hi,
I am about to use live media to increase c drive where the OS is installed, and there are some softwares installed on D drive.
Is there a step by step instruction? What is the chance of loosing data? on either drives. C and D.
These drives are different partition from one HD.
Please help.
Thank you
Perhaps you have already the problem solved, but I'd like to say that there are always chances of data loss when manipulating partitions. There are many reason for this, like various hardware problems, defective connectors, power failure, power supply problems, and of course software bugs. That's why, we always recommend to take backup of any important content. It is better to work safely rather than trying to recover lost files. I remarked that professional users keep double or even multiple backup sets.
Furthermore, it is safer to run the system on a U.P.S., because a power loss can cause data loss or even brake an entire file system.
The way to proceed, in general, is to make some unallocated space adjacent to the partition to grow. If your "c" partition is the first of the hard drive (it is very usual), you need to shrink the second partition first. Shrinking a partition from the start point can take quite long time.
Sometimes, this second partition is a logical partition, i.e. located in another partition named extended partition. I don't know if this is usual for mswindows server 2003, anyway it was quite usual in many personal user installations. If this is the case, you need to shrink the extended partition too, to leave the unallocated space out. The GParted livecd shows the partitions and unallocated parts of the hard drive in graphical form.
The command
fdisk -lu
from the terminal window (linux command line) gives accurate info on the partition limits.
In a final step, you have to expand the first partition. In this case, you need to leave the start point of the partition with no change, and select no round at all in the G.U.I. of GParted.
It is usually recommended to use the latest stable version. There are help documents in the "Documentation" page, in the main GParted web page.
http://gparted.org/documentation.php
While he never came back to say solved, I have a very similar situation and wanted to confirm a few things.
I have a Raid 5 Array made of 4 (73GB) disks. I am also running 2003 server and have a too small C: partition. This system was partitioned C:12GB and D: the rest (approx 220+GB), which of course leaves me the situation is that my C: drive is always ful. I want to move the partition so that my C: is at least 50GB.
Step 1: I used Clonzilla to backup an image to USB drive (seemed to work very easily)
Step 2: I need to Defrag the system(probably should have done this first actually)
Step 3: I now need to shrink my volume D (which only has 20GB of data on it)
Step 4: I need to move the D: up in the partion space to make room for the C: to grow.
Step 5: Grow the C: in the now used/unallocated space.
Step 6: Test and verify that the system came back together.
As I have read the documentation, it is daunting for a first time user, but it does seem doable.
Q1: Do I have all the steps needed in the correct order?
Q2: Are there specific areas in the documentation that I pay attention to for this process?
Any help would be greatly appreciated
GBrown
Perhaps you have already the problem solved, but I'd like to say that there are always chances of data loss when manipulating partitions. There are many reason for this, like various hardware problems, defective connectors, power failure, power supply problems, and of course software bugs. That's why, we always recommend to take backup of any important content. It is better to work safely rather than trying to recover lost files. I remarked that professional users keep double or even multiple backup sets.
Furthermore, it is safer to run the system on a U.P.S., because a power loss can cause data loss or even brake an entire file system.The way to proceed, in general, is to make some unallocated space adjacent to the partition to grow. If your "c" partition is the first of the hard drive (it is very usual), you need to shrink the second partition first. Shrinking a partition from the start point can take quite long time.
Sometimes, this second partition is a logical partition, i.e. located in another partition named extended partition. I don't know if this is usual for mswindows server 2003, anyway it was quite usual in many personal user installations. If this is the case, you need to shrink the extended partition too, to leave the unallocated space out. The GParted livecd shows the partitions and unallocated parts of the hard drive in graphical form.
The command
fdisk -lu
from the terminal window (linux command line) gives accurate info on the partition limits.In a final step, you have to expand the first partition. In this case, you need to leave the start point of the partition with no change, and select no round at all in the G.U.I. of GParted.
It is usually recommended to use the latest stable version. There are help documents in the "Documentation" page, in the main GParted web page.
http://gparted.org/documentation.php
The steps you outlined seem correct. One thing to note is to remember to resize the extended partition if needed. To grow a primary partition, the unallocated space must be adjacent to the primary partition and must not be within an extended partition.
Thank you, this was the extra bit of info that I needed and it worked perfectly.
Thank you
GBrown
The steps you outlined seem correct. One thing to note is to remember to resize the extended partition if needed. To grow a primary partition, the unallocated space must be adjacent to the primary partition and must not be within an extended partition.
Hi,
If you will be changing the main Windows partition and expand the size backup anything important - it's rare but things can go wrong. Altering the partitions can be risky, be careful and know what you are doing - there is no Windows safety option when doing this.
Hi,
I also want to increase the size of C drive on a Win Server 2003 system with two partitions on one disk. The steps I need to take are:
1) shrink and move the second partition up within the extended partition
2) shrink and move the extended partition up
3) extend the first partition
When I attempted this it partly completed step 1 by successfully shrinking the second partition but it refused to move it saying there was an error.
Qn 1) Why would it get an error moving the partition?
Qn 2) It allowed me the save the details but because GParted and the underlying Linux O/S are running from a CD and the hard drive is not mounted there is nowhere to save the details. How can I see the detailed description of why it failed to do the move? I wish GParted would just display the details there and then.
Here is the detailed error message:
GParted 0.8.1
Libparted 2.3
Move /dev/i2o/hda5 to the right 00:00:04 ( ERROR )
calibrate /dev/i2o/hda5 00:00:01 ( SUCCESS )
path: /dev/i2o/hda5
start: 8402058
end: 271907977
size: 263505920 (125.65 GiB)
check file system on /dev/i2o/hda5 for errors and (if possible) fix them 00:00:03 ( SUCCESS )
ntfsresize -P -i -f -v /dev/i2o/hda5
ntfsresize v2.0.0 (libntfs 10:0:0)
Device name : /dev/i2o/hda5
NTFS volume version: 3.1
Cluster size : 4096 bytes
Current volume size: 134915027456 bytes (134916 MB)
Current device size: 134915031040 bytes (134916 MB)
Checking for bad sectors ...
Checking filesystem consistency ...
Accounting clusters ...
Space in use : 22932 MB (17.0%)
Collecting resizing constraints ...
Estimating smallest shrunken size supported ...
File feature Last used at By inode
$MFT : 26150 MB 0
Multi-Record : 88157 MB 75299
$MFTMirr : 70680 MB 1
Compressed : 66326 MB 80537
Ordinary : 70685 MB 10
You might resize at 22931763200 bytes or 22932 MB (freeing 111984 MB).
Please make a test run using both the -n and -s options before real resizing!
grow partition from 125.65 GiB to 131.65 GiB 00:00:00 ( ERROR )
old start: 8402058
old end: 271907977
old size: 263505920 (125.65 GiB)
libparted messages ( INFO )
Can't have overlapping partitions.
========================================
Hope someone can help 
Pedrocelli
Hi pedrocelli,
Please create a new post for your situation. A new post helps to prevent confusion between your situation and problems that others have experienced.
No problem, after a bit of research in this forum I found the answer. I needed to use the by-cylinder setting instead of the MiB setting, so that the partitions would be cylinder-aligned. It is all working now, thank you.
Pedrocelli
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