How to resize dynamic disk system partition on Windows Server 2008?

Dynamic disk

The difference between basic volumes and dynamic volumes is their ability to extend storage beyond one physical disk. The basic partitions are confined to one disk and the partition size is fixed, while, dynamic volumes allow users to adjust size and to add more free space either from the same disk or another physical disk.

Dynamic disk can be supported under the following operating system:

• Windows 2000 All Editions
• Windows 2003 All Editions
• Windows 2008 All Editions
• Windows XP Professional Edition
• Windows Vista Business Edition and Ultimate Edition
• Windows 7 Professional Edition and Ultimate Edition

Dynamic disk cannot be supported under the following system:

• Windows XP Home Edition
• Windows Vista Home Basic Edition and Home Premium Edition
• Windows 7 Home Basic Edition and Home Premium Edition

This article is going to discuss the method to extend your dynamic system volume. We will take Windows Server 2008 for example. Actually, all Server users with dynamic system volume can refer to it.

Resize dynamic disk system partition with Disk Management under Windows Server 2008

If you are a Windows Server 2008 user with dynamic disk system partition, you can extend your system partition with your built in Disk Management when you meet the following conditions.

• There are unallocated space on your system disk.

  First, you have to know the basic property of dynamic volumes. Only simple and spanned can be extended. If you have unallocated space on your system disk, and your system volume is simple or spanned volume, you can extend your system partition directly under Disk Management. Right click your system volume and choose extend option.

• There are no unallocated space on your system disk.

  In this situation, you have to buy another hard disk, then you can extend your system partition.

To be honest, Disk Management is relatively complex to resize partitions because it has some limitations. I suggest you buy a third party professional system partition to do this job.

Resize dynamic disk system partition on Server 2008 with server partition manager software

When I suggest others to buy partition software to resize partition, they often retort upon me, saying that they can resize their partitions under Disk Management even when there is no unallocated space on their disk. I know the built in Disk Management of Server 2008 can resize partitions. What I forget to mention you is that you can only extend it when there is unallocated space behind this partition. If you have no, you can't. It means that even you can shrink other partitions to release unallocated space, you can not extend system partition because those unallocated space is not behind your system partition. This is all because you can not move partition.

I recommend you a third party partition manager software: EaseUS Partition Master. It can convert dynamic disk to basic one without data loss, and you can resize, move partitions freely. The Server Edition can do you great favor with your intention to resize dynamic disk system partition.

Tutorial to resize system volume on Windows Server 2008

Solution 1: Convert your dynamic disk to basic. When there are other partitions on your system disk, you can shrink one to release more unallocated space, move the partition to let the unallocated space behind your system partition.

Solution 2: Resize dynamic volume directly with "Resize volume"

Solution 3: Copy dynamic volume to a basic disk first and resize the basic disk, and then convert it back to dynamic disk as you like.

Either you want to resize the dynamic system partition by copying it first or converting dynamic disk to basic directly, EaseUS Partition Master, can help you to achieve it in a efficient and safe way. We highly recommend you to download a demo version and have a try before buying. For more detailed guidance of how to achieve this, please refer to: How to safely extend or enlarge dynamic disk/volume under PC or Windows Server?

Besides partition manager features, EaseUS partition manager software also provides some other features like Partition Recovery Wizard to recover data, Disk & Partition Copy Wizard to upgrade or backup disk and ensure your data security.

 

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