Solved: Windows Server 2008 Extend Volume Parameter Is Incorrect

Scenario

"I extended my E drive partition from 100GB to 150GB using Server 2008 disk manager “extend volume” feature. But after running through the GUI, I received an error message reporting “the parameter is incorrect”. Any advice?"

Cause of “Parameter is incorrect” when extending volume in Server

Compared with Windows Server 2003 Disk Manager, Server 2008 Disk Manager add the “Extend Volume” and “Shrink Volume” options allowing users to change partition size online, instead of resorting to third-party tools.

The “extend volume” feature works well usually. However, sometimes you might meet the error message saying “The parameter is incorrect” when extending Windows Server 2008 system drive. In this case, it is possible that the volume has been increased to the new size in Disk Management, but it still shows the old size in the Windows Explorer. After Googling this issue many times, it seems because the file system of the target volume has not been expanded.

Fix "parameter is incorrect” error in Server 2008 (R2)

In the last section, we found out that the cause behind the “extend volume parameter is incorrect” is the file system of the target partition had not been extended correspondingly. So, we need to extend its file system as well. That can be done through Diskpart commands. Detailed steps are:

Step 1. Press “Windows” key and “R” key on your keyboard to open Run box. Type “cmd” in and click “OK” to enter the CMD.exe window.

Step 2. In the Command Prompt window, type “diskpart” and hit on “Enter”.

Step 3. Then execute the following commands in order:

• list volume

• select volume #: select the volume you have extended.

• extend filesystem

When done, type “exit” to leave this window.

Better workaround for "Parameter is incorrect" error in Server 2008 (R2)

If the “Windows 2008 extend volume parameter is incorrect” issue still persists after extending the file system via Diskpart, you can turn to AOMEI Partition Assistant Server. This partition management software can easily and flexibly extend volume in Windows Server 2008/2012/2016/2019/2022 and Windows 11/10/8/7 in different situations.

Part 1. There is adjacent unallocated space

When there is contiguous unallocated space in the right or left side of the target volume you want to extend, you can directly extend it via “Resize Partition”.

Step 1. Install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant Server on Server computer. Right-click the target drive and select “Resize/Move Partition”.

Step 2. In the pop-out window, drag the bar to the right side to extend it with the unallocated space. If the adjacent unallocated space is on the left side of the volume, you need to drag the slider to the left side.

Step 3. In the main interface, click “Apply” and “Proceed” to commit the pending operation.

Part 2. The unallocated space is not adjacent to the to-be-extended partition

When there is unallocated space but it is not adjacent to the aim volume, you can use the “Merge Partitions” function. That can directly merge one or more unallocated space into another volume no matter whether they are adjacent or not.

Step 1. Right-click the volume you want to expand and choose  "Advanced" > “Merge Partitions”.

Step 2. In this window, tick the unallocated space and click “OK”.

Step 3. Back to the main interface, click “Apply” to commit the operation.

Besides, you can first move partition to make the unallocated space next to the target partition, then use the first method to extend volume.

Part 3. There is no unallocated space on the hard drive

If there is no unallocated space on the hard drive, you can first shrink another larger drive and choose either one of the above two methods to extend volume in Server, or you can use “Allocate Free Space” to directly assign some free space from one partition to another.

Step 1. Right-click the partition which has some free space you can use to extend another one, and select “Allocate Free Space”.

Step 2. In this window, you can decide how much free space to allocate to the target volume and click “OK”.

Step 3. Click “Apply” and “Proceed” to execute the pending operation.

These three ways can help you extend volume in Windows Server 2022/2019/2016/2012/2008 and get around the "Windows 2008 (R2) extend volume parameter is incorrect" issue. In addition, the “Extend Partition Wizard” provided by AOMEI Partition Assistant Server can extend NTFS system drive without rebooting.

Final thoughts

Now, you are sure to know how to do when meeting the “Windows 2008 extend volume parameter is incorrect” problem. The same methods can also apply to Server 2012, Server 2016, Server 20019, Server 2022 extend volume parameter is incorrect. AOMEI Partition Assistant Server is a great workaround when you cannot extend volume successfully. Besides, it can also clone Windows Server to SSD/HDD, split a large partition into two smaller ones, convert system disk and non-system disk between MBR and GPT partition styles without deleting partitions.