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tacos_tacos_tacos
Asked: 2012-03-15 11:57:46 +0800 CST

Risk involved in converting basic to dynamic disk in Windows Server 2003 (and R2)

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How much risk is involved in converting a basic disk into a dynamic disk in Windows Server 2003 R1 and R2? I just expanded my vDisk in VMWare but since the disk is basic it will not let me expand the volume in Windows. Is there potential for data loss, OS corruption, etc? Or is this a relatively safe operation?

Edit: This image is backed up nightly.

windows windows-server-2003 windows-server-2003-r2 dynamic-disk

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Stop! You don't need to convert the disk to a "Dynamic Disk" to expand the volume!

    Just boot a Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 setup ISO on that VM. Once you've booted the setup media open a command-prompt (Shift-F10) and use the DISKPART tool to EXTEND the volume.

    From the DISKPART prompt you'd do a list disk to list the disks in the machine, a select disk # (where # is the ordinal for the disk containing the volume you want to extend), a list partition to list the partitions on that disk, and a select partition # (where # is the ordinal for the volume you want to extend). After that, enter the command extend and the partition will be extended to fill the entire free space on the disk.

    This is a pretty safe operation (I've never had a problem and I've done it a lot) but, even so, you really should have a backup before you proceed with this operation. Better safe than sorry.

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  2. Converting a disk from basic to dynamic is totally safe, but it's also completely useless if you don't need the software RAID features of dynamic disks.

    You don't need to convert a disk to a dynamic one in order to extend a partition; this can be done on basic disks, too. But not on the system partition, unless you're using Windows Server 2008 or later.

    In order to extend the system partition on a Windows Server 2003 system, you need to reboot it into something different from its main O.S. disk. As others have said, a Windows 7 or a Windows Server 2008 R2 DVD will do the trick.

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  3. Evan Anderson's answer worked perfectly 10 years later. Server 2003 running ancient shop hardware (fingers crossed to ward off bad luck).

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