AOMEI Partition Assistant
How to Resize Partition in Windows Server 2008 without Losing Data?
To resize partition on Windows Server 2008, you can turn to a powerful partition manager for Windows Server 2008, 2012, 2016, 2019, and 2022 – AOMEI Partition Assistant Server.
By Lucas / Updated on May 12, 2023
Why do users want to resize partition Server 2008 (R2)?
Although Microsoft has developed Server systems to Server 2022, Server 2008 is still running on many users' devices. It's a great successor to Windows Server 2003 and the predecessor to Windows Server 2008 R2. But, no matter how advanced system you're using, resizing partition size is a problem that will appear in your mind sooner or later.
★Users may want to resize Server 2008 partitions for several reasons, including:
• Improving performance: Resizing partitions can help optimize system performance by ensuring that frequently accessed files are stored on faster parts of the hard drive.
• Reorganizing data: Users may want to resize partitions to reorganize data and make better use of available space.
• Increasing storage capacity: If the Server 2008 machine's hard drive is almost full, users may need to resize partitions to increase its storage capacity.
If the C drive on Windows Server 2008 is low on disk space, an alert will appear warning that the system is running out of space and suggesting that users delete unnecessary files. The lack of disk space on the C drive can cause various problems such as the system gradually slowing down, the inability to install new applications or Windows updates, and other issues. Therefore, it is necessary to resize C drive on Windows Server 2008 as soon as possible; otherwise, the system might crash someday.
Resize partition Windows Server 2008/(R2) via built-in tools
In this post, you can learn how to resize partition Server 2008 with 3 tools: Disk Management, Command Prompt, and a handy third-party disk and partition manager. Each has Pros and Cons, so you can choose the best one according to your needs. And one point you need to remember: Always make sure to back up your data before performing any disk operations.
▌ 1. Resize partition in Server 2008 with Disk Management
To resize the partition on Windows Server 2008 or 2008 (R2), you can try Windows Server 2008 Disk Management. It comes with “Shrink Volume" and "Extend Volume" features, which can help you resize Windows Server 2008 partition in particular situations.
▶ Shrink partition
For shrinking partitions, Disk Management has some limitations. First, it can only support shrinking and extending the NTFS partition. And when shrinking a volume, you will get unallocated space on the right side of the volume that is just shrunk. Another line is if you want to shrink a partition to extend another one, the unallocated space must be on its right side.
Step1. Open the Disk Management console by right-clicking "Computer" from the Start menu and selecting "Manage". Then choose "Disk Management" under the Storage category.
Step 2. In the Disk Management window, locate the volume that you want to shrink and right-click on it. Choose "Shrink Volume" from the context menu.
Step 3. The "Shrink" dialog box will appear, displaying the total size of the selected volume and the amount of space available for shrinking. Enter the amount of space that you want to shrink from the volume in the "Enter the amount of space to shrink" field.
Step 4. Click "Shrink" to start the process. Disk Management will perform some calculations to determine how much space can be freed up based on the amount you entered.
Step 5. Once the calculation is complete, you will see the new size of the selected volume in the Disk Management console.
▶ Extend partition
Step 1. Open the Disk Management console by right-clicking "Computer" from the Start menu and selecting "Manage". Then choose "Disk Management" under the Storage category.
Step 2. In the Disk Management window, locate the volume that you want to extend and right-click on it. Choose "Extend Volume" from the context menu.
Step 3. The "Extend Volume Wizard" will appear. Click "Next" to start the process.
Step 4. Select the amount of space you want to add to the volume in the "Select the amount of space in MB" field. The space must be available on the same disk and immediately after the volume you want to extend.
Step 5. Click "Next" and then "Finish" to complete the process. Disk Management will extend the selected volume to include the new space.
Step 6. After the process finishes, you should see the new size of the selected volume in the Disk Management console.
▌ 2. Resize partition in Server 2008/(R2) with Diskpart Command Prompt
DiskPart is a command-line tool that functions in text mode, allowing for the configuration and management of storage objects like disks, partitions, or volumes through a script, remote session, or direct input from a command prompt. With DiskPart, it's possible to resize a single disk drive by either reducing or enlarging its size.
▶ How to shrink volume with command lines
Step 1. Open Command Prompt as an administrator.
Step 2. Type "diskpart" and press Enter to launch DiskPart.
Step 3. Type "list volume" and press Enter to display all the volumes on your computer.
Step 4. Type "select volume X", where "X" is the number of the volume that you want to shrink, and press Enter.
Step 5. Type "shrink desired=X" and press Enter, where "X" is the amount of space (in MB) that you want to free up on the selected volume. For example, if you want to shrink the volume by 10GB, type "shrink desired=10240".
Step 6. Wait for DiskPart to complete the shrinking process.
Step 7. Type "exit" and press Enter to close DiskPart.
Once the process is complete, you should see the new size of the selected volume in Disk Management or by using the "dir" command in Command Prompt. However, the amount of space you can shrink a volume by may be limited by factors such as unmovable files, system files, or virtual memory paging files.
▶ How to extend volume with CMD lines
Step 1. Open Command Prompt as an administrator.
Step 2. Type "diskpart" and press Enter to launch DiskPart.
Step 3. Type "list volume" and press Enter to display all the volumes on your computer.
Step 4. Type "select volume X", where "X" is the number of the volume that you want to extend, and press Enter.
Step 5. Type "extend size=X" and press Enter, where "X" is the amount of space (in MB) that you want to add to the selected volume.
Wait for DiskPart to complete the extending process. Then, type "exit" and press Enter to close DiskPart.
• The volume must be formatted with the NTFS file system.
• You can only shrink the partition towards the left and create unallocated space on the right.
• To extend a partition, you first need to delete any contiguous partitions and create unallocated space on the right.
• The process can be complicated for many computer users.
• If you make incorrect operations during the partition resizing process, they cannot be undone.
Easily resize partition on Server 2008 with AOMEI Partition Assistant Server
As you see, using Disk Management and Command Prompt can't safely and flexibly resize partitions.
In Disk Management, you need to move the partition (like D) between the unallocated space and the partition you want to extend (like C) to the right side. But Disk Management does not offer such a feature. So the only workaround is to delete the middle partition (such as D drive) to get a contiguous unallocated space for extending C drive on Server 2008. While in Command Prompt, since we've listed all limitations above, if your devices or your operations are inappropriate, then the operation will fail.
Servers are considered more important than regular personal computers because they store large amounts of confidential data for companies. When Windows Server users need to resize partitions, they require a tool that is easy, safe, and efficient due to the critical nature of their work.
Therefore, to securely and flexibly resize partition without losing data on Server 2008 (R2), you can run AOMEI Partition Assistant Server. More powerful than Server Disk Management, it allows you to make unallocated space adjacent to the partition that you want to extend and shrink a partition beyond limits. And it is compatible with Windows Server 2000, 2003, 2008(R2), 2012(R2), 2016, 2019, 2022, and Windows PC OS.
Now, we will show you how to shrink D drive and extend C drive with generated unallocated space step by step. You can try the Demo version first.
▌ Feature 1. Resize Partition
Step 1. Run AOMEI Partition Assistant Server. Right click on D partition and select "Resize/Move Partition".
Step 2. In the pop-up window, drag the right slider bar leftwards to shrink D partition to free up unallocated space and click OK.
In AOMEI Partition Assistant, the shrink and extend operation is visualized, so you can see all changes on your partitions. And after the change, you can preview the result, if there is anything you're not satisfied with, you can undo the task before confirming, which minimizes the risk of incorrect operation.
▌ Feature 2. Merge Partition
If the unallocated space is not right after the C drive after the D drive is shrunk, you can easily move the D drive to the right side with AOMEI Partition Assistant Server, which cannot be done in Disk Management. Moreover, you can directly merge the non-adjacent unallocated space into C drive using the “Merge Partitions” function.
Step 1. Launch AOMEI Partition Assistant. Right-click the partition (here is D:) which you want to merge, choose “Advanced” and select "Merge Partitions".
Step 2. Tick partition and the unallocated space, click OK.
Step 3. click "Apply" on the toolbar.
The "Merge Partition" function is also available for existing partitions. You can merge the D drive to the C drive. After the operation, the data on the D drive will be saved in a folder named as the drive letter.
▌ Feature 3. Allocate Free Space
Last but not least, when one partition has redundant free space and another partition is running out of space, you can also choose to allocate free space from one partition to another directly on Windows Server 2008 via AOMEI Partition Assistant Server. Namely, you don’t need to delete or shrink a partition to create unallocated space in advance.
Step 1. Launch AOMEI Partition Assistant, right-click the partition which you want to allocate free space from and select "Allocate Free Space".
Step 2. Type in the size of the free space which you want to cut from D partition and this free space will be directly added to the destination partition.
Step 3. Click "Apply" to execute this operation.
For users who want to extend C drive space safely, allocate free space is the best option. It saves many unnecessary steps and also reduce the risk of resizing partition size.
Conclude
In this article, we show you 3 tools to resize partition Server 2008. However, we can say that with the help of AOMEI Partition Assistant Server, you can easily resize partition in Server 2008 (R2) without deleting any partitions or losing data. What's more, besides resizing partitions, this software also has many other amazing disk management functions such as cloning partition, migrating OS only to SSD, converting disk between MBR and GPT without deleting partitions, testing disk speed, cloning disks to upgrade disks without reinstalling OS and all apps, clean up junk files, moving installed programs, etc.
In addition, if you need to manage multiple PCs, you can choose the Unlimited Edition to efficiently manage many devices.
