Extending System & Boot Drives on VM Ware

I found a fantastic way of extending C:\ Drive (Boot & or System Drives) on Windows Servers on VM Ware hosts.

As per Microsoft and VM Ware, you cant extend the volume of a Boot and/or System drive using DISKPART. Article from Microsoft: Click Here. This has been true for years and still applies today.. BUT.

I have found a way to increase the size of a Windows Boot Drive. Yes it can be done. For this trick to work you must have the following conditions:

1. You need two VM servers (server that needs to extend the C Drive and server that the work is done on)
2. Both Servers must be on the same VM Host or Cluster if you are using HA Clusters
3. Datastores of both servers must be on same Host Cluster (usually given with above statement but not always)

These directions are written quickly so I can remember them. They take liberties that you know what you are doing with DISKPART and VM Client. If not as they say at on TV: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.

As always before proceeding, make a backup of all servers. Now that we have our conditions, we can proceed.

1. Server 1 (server that needs space) needs to be shutdown and Powered Off in VM Client.
2. Go into SETTINGS of the Server 1 and locate the exact location of DISK 1. Typically its the C Drive. If not, located the correct Disk.
3. Add the new space you want to give to to this drive.
4. Make note of the exact location and name of the disk on the datastore.
5. Go to Server 2. Bring it down if not already. Once the VM is down, goto SETTINGS and click ADD.
6. Choose HARD DRIVE then click NEXT. On the option of NEW DISK or EXISTING DISK, choose EXISTING.
7. This will allow you to either type or locate the location of the DISK 1 from SERVER 1. Do so and save your changes
8. Boot Server 2.
9. Once booted up, you will see under DISK MANAGER a new hard drive with unallocated space.
10. Run DISKPART. Select the correct Volume on the DISK from Server 1 and Extend the volume.
11. Once the drive has been extended to the new size turn Server 2 off. Now that Server 2 is Edit the SETTINGS and remove the DISK from Server 1. NOTE: DO NOT SELECT REMOVE FROM STRORAGE. THAT WILL DELETE THE HARD DRIVE and you have a bad day.
12. Now turn Server 1 back on. You should have a new large C Drive.

They directions are written quickly so I can remember them. They take liberities that you know what you are doing with DISKPART and VM Client. If not as they say at on TV: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.

Sometime down the line I will clean up the directions with screen shots and etc. However this works for now.

Later
-Boston Tech Guy out.