Thread: How to extend a data volume in Windows Server 2003, in Windows XP, in Windows 2000

You can apply the Diskpart.exe utility to manage disks, partitions, and volumes from a command-line boundary. You can Diskpart.exe on both basic and dynamic disks. If an NTFS volume on a hardware RAID 5 container that space can be added to the container, you can expand the NTFS Volume with Diskpart.exe while the disk remains a Basic disk.

Use the extend command to include unallocated space into an accessible volume while preserving the data.

1. The volume must be formatted with the NTFS file system.
2. For Basic volumes, the unallocated space for the expansion, the next contiguous space on the same disk.
3. For dynamic volumes, the unallocated space to an empty area on a dynamic disk on the system
4. Only the extension of data volumes is supported. System or boot volumes may be blocked is extended, and you receive the following error:

Diskpart failed to extend the volume. Please make sure the volume is valid
For extending


5. You cannot extend the partition if the system page file is situated on the partition. Move the page file to a partition that you do not want to renew.


To extend a partition or volume, you must first choose the volume to give it the focus, and then you can indicate how large to make the extension. To extend a volume, follow these steps:

• At a command prompt, type diskpart.exe.
• Type list volume to display the existing volumes on the computer.
• Type Select volume volume number where volume number is number of the volume that you want to extend.
• Type extend [size=n] [disk=n] [noerr]. The following describes the parameters:
• size=n

The space, in megabytes (MB), to add to the current partition. If you do not specify a size, the disk is extended to use all the next contiguous unallocated space.

disk=n
The dynamic disk on which to extend the volume. Space equal to size=n is allocated on the disk. If no disk is specified, the volume is extended on the current disk.

noerr

For scripting only. When an error is thrown, this parameter specifies that Diskpart continue to process commands as if the error did not occur. Without the noerr parameter, an error causes Diskpart to exit with an error code.

• Type exit to exit Diskpart.exe.

When the extend command is complete, you receive a message that Diskpart successfully extended the volume. The new space should be added to the accessible drive while maintaining the data on the volume.

To extend the boot partition in Windows Server 2008, follow these steps:

1. Click Start and then click Server Manager.

2. In the navigation pane, expand Storage, and then click Disk Management.

3. In the details pane, right-click the volume that you want, and then click Extend Volume.

4. Follow the instructions in the Extend Volume Wizard to extend the boot partition.