1 Topic by easgs

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Topic: Windows Server 2003 partition with only 9 mb of free space

Hi, there is a Windows server 2003 PC that has only 9 mb of free space in the system partition, this disk has another partition with 20 gb of free space, I know how to use gparted, and I want to take some space from that partition to add it to the low space one, but my question is, Will it works with so little space?

2 Reply by cmdr

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Re: Windows Server 2003 partition with only 9 mb of free space

Hello easgs,

Will it works with so little space (9MB)?

it=Windows Server 2003 : probably not. You need at least several 100 MB of free space.
it=Gparted: yes, of course, because it works from RAM (and / or CDROM) and must not use for itself any storage space on drives, it is repartitioning.

If the two partitions, which you want to resize with mutual exchange of space, do NOT lie side by side, it might be a complex process with "GParted". Perhaps you better show us your actual partitioning scheme (fdisk -l -u) and describe your intended procedure.

Regards
cmdr

3 Reply by easgs

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Re: Windows Server 2003 partition with only 9 mb of free space

Yes they are side by side, I can resize partition sda2 to extract 5 gb of space to make it free space preceding and then resize the partition sda1 to use that free space following, but sda1 only has 9 mb of free space and is the system partition.

I think I can temporary delete some files and clear temporary files to make some extra room, but it will not be too much.

will it work?


Thanks

4 Reply by cmdr

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Re: Windows Server 2003 partition with only 9 mb of free space

easgs wrote:

will it work?

Yes, as you described it. To avoid trouble, uncheck "align to cylinder boundary" , because this might result in a little move of your system partition, which as a result will not boot again, unless you do a manual correction of a few bytes in Volume Boot Record.

Regards
cmdr

5 Reply by gedakc

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Re: Windows Server 2003 partition with only 9 mb of free space

These are excellent suggestions by cmdr.

One additional tip is to be sure to use at least gparted version 0.4.4.  With this version you should not need to uncheck "align to cylinder boundary".  Also if you use gparted-live-0.4.4-1 then you should not experience Windows boot problems as long as you do not move the start of the Windows partition.

6 Reply by easgs

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Re: Windows Server 2003 partition with only 9 mb of free space

Yes, I am using gparted-live-0.4.4-1, I will do it and post the results, thanks a lot for your help.

7 Reply by easgs

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Re: Windows Server 2003 partition with only 9 mb of free space

I was able to free 210 mb in the partition but it didn`t work, It displayed an I/O read error, my best guest is that the disk has some bad sectors, I had to format and repartition from 0, I will check the disk latter to see if I can find some bad sectors.

8 Reply by class413

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Re: Windows Server 2003 partition with only 9 mb of free space

I/O errors doesn't mean necessarilly bad sectors on the hard disk. It may be a controller problem or cable / connection problem too. It is better to check all the hardware.

*** It is highly recommended to backup any important files before doing resize/move operations. ***