Increase Disk Size of VM (Windows 2003)

[twahl]

I have a Windows 2003 Server that is running low on disk space.  Is there a procedure that I can follow in order to increase the size of the disk.  The drive having space issue is the C: drive (system).  If there is a procedure will it also work for Server 2008?

[idle-jam]

Hi,

Check this out: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1007266

[stuartpace]

If you can get downtime I have always attached the system drive to another VM as a secondary disk, booted up, resized, run diskpart, shut down, then reattach to the original server, and fired back up.

[Cloneranger]

I don't think that KBASE article's proceedure will work with your system disk though will it?.. correct me if I'm wrong..

I've found its easier to V to V it with converter (then adjust the target VM c drive size).. its less risky too IMO because you still have the old VM sitting there..

Also sometimes as a quick and dirty fix, I've where a machine just has a C drive... throw in an extra virtual disk and simply move the pagefile and or temp directory to it,

Has enabled me to free up a few gig pronto, until I can do something permanent.

[admin]

The KB procedure will work with the system disk. Look and listen to the parts in the video at 3.27 on the timeline. I can assure you that this will work, as I created the video :-).

However, the procedure is pretty straight forward really. But just like I state at the start of the video, it is always best to have a backup in place before attempting any disk modification.

And yes, I will agree that performing a V to V using Converter is probably a less risky option considering the fact that the original disk is not being modified, only the destination disk is being changed.

The converter operation will take longer though, if the disks needing to be changed are rather large. If you have a large disk, and you are comfortable with using Windows Disk Part and the ESX command line, then using this procedure will be much quicker.

[Fr3drikNilsson]

Have a look at a Dell utility called extpart.

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R64398&formatcnt=2&fileid=83929

I have used it several times with great success (without downtime)  :smileyhappy:

[bulletprooffool]

have a lookie here:

http://www.get-virtual.info/2011/01/26/extending-a-windows-c-dell-extpart/

[a_p_]

Assuming your virtual disk is partitioned into multiple partitions/drives, tools like diskpart and extpart will not help to increase the C: drive. They can only increase a drive with adjacent free disk space (i.e. the last partition).

In this case your only options are either using the converter or using a disk partitioning utility.

I usually use gparted to resize Windows 2003 disks. First backup the VM and commit all snapshots (you could do it with snapshots, however tha wouldn't make much sense, since may grow to almost the full size of the virtual disk). Then boot the VM with the gparted ISO/CD and do the resizing. Depending on the data that has to be moved to free up the disk space to grow the C: partition this might take several hours.

André

[iLikeMoney]

For me anyway, I start from the vsphere client where i shutdown the vm and right click on it, choose edit settings, click hard disk 1, here you should be able to increase the provisioned size of the disk using the spinner box.  If you're on a snapshot then I think the box is grayed so if that's the case check for snapshots, you may have to commit them first.

After that (for XP/2003) you'll want to attach the virtual cd rom drive to a winpe iso boot into that and run diskpart extend command with the c: volume selected.  As a caveat (someone else already noted) if there are other partitions present on the disk the extension of the volume likely wont work, in that case you will need a heavier duty partition tool such as partition magic (or freeware solution) to resize multiple paritions.

I use the same process for Server 2008, only in that case there's no need for booting into winpe, you can boot right into the OS and extend the partition from disk management.

Good luck.

[DCjay]

Hii,

If it si a windows 2003 32bit, ExPart from dell will work fine with no down time.

If downtime is required or of ot s 64bit windows, I will with Gparted.

[oasisinin]

follow this article

http://vsphere-land.com/tips-tricks/re-sizing-virtual-disks

have done that a few times with GParted; works like a charm