Hi
If an NTFS volume resides on a hardware RAID 5 container that has the
capability of adding space to the container, you can extend the NTFS Volume
with Diskpart.exe while the disk remains a Basic disk.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;325590
How to Use Diskpart.exe to Extend a Data Volume
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This article was previously published under Q325590
SUMMARY
This article describes how to use the Diskpart.exe command-line utility to
extend a data volume into unallocated space.
MORE INFORMATION
You can use the Diskpart.exe utility to manage disks, partitions, and
volumes from a command-line interface. You can use Diskpart.exe on both
Basic disks and Dynamic disks. If an NTFS volume resides on a hardware RAID
5 container that has the capability of adding space to the container, you
can extend the NTFS Volume with Diskpart.exe while the disk remains a Basic
disk.
Note When you use Diskpart.exe to extend an NTFS partition, Microsoft
recommends that you perform this task in Safe mode or Active Directory
Restore mode. By doing so, you prevent open handles to the drive that cause
the process to fail.
Use the extend command to incorporate unallocated space into an existing
volume while preserving the data.
The following are the requirements for the extend command:
The volume must be formatted with the NTFS file system.
For Basic volumes, the unallocated space for the extension must be the next
contiguous space on the same disk.
For Dynamic Volumes, the unallocated space can be any empty space on any
Dynamic disk on the system.
Only the extension of data volumes are supported. System or boot volumes
may be blocked from being extended, and you may receive the following
error:
Diskpart failed to extend the volume. Please make sure the volume is valid
for extending
To extend a partition or volume, you must first select the volume to give
it the focus, and then you can specify how large to make the extension. To
extend a volume, follow these steps:
At a command prompt, type diskpart.exe.
Type list volume to display the existing volumes on the computer.
Type Select volume volume number where volume number is number of the
volume that you want to extend.
Type extend [size=n] [disk=n] [noerr] . The following describes the
parameters:
size=n
The space, in megabytes (MB), to add to the current partition. If you do
not specify a size, the disk is extended to take up all of the next
contiguous unallocated space.
disk=n
The dynamic disk on which to extend the volume. Space equal to size=n is
allocated on the disk. If no disk is specified, the volume is extended on
the current disk.
noerr
For scripting only. When an error is thrown, this parameter specifies that
Diskpart continue to process commands as if the error did not occur.
Without the noerr parameter, an error causes Diskpart to quit with an error
code.
Type exit to quit Diskpart.exe.
When the extend command is complete, you should receive a message that
states that Diskpart successfully extended the volume. The new space should
be added to the existing drive while maintaining the data on the volume.
Note For Windows 2000 and Windows XP, you can extend only new volumes that
were created on a Dynamic disk. You cannot use Diskpart.exe to extend a
volume that is currently on a Dynamic disk but was originally created on a
Basic disk. If you try to do this, you receive the following error message.
This restriction was removed in Windows 2003.
Diskpart failed to extend the volume.
Please make sure the volume is valid for extending
Note Windows XP and Windows 2003 include Diskpart.exe as part of the base
operating system.
To download Diskpart.exe command-line utility for Windows 2000, visit the
following Microsoft Web site:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/tools/new/diskpart-o.as
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Subbu
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