How Do I Change the Partition Layout of My Server?

How do I change the partition layout of my server?

The methods for changing the partition layout of your server are different for Windows servers and Linux servers. Below you can find guides on how to do this for both Windows and Linux servers.


How do I change the partition layout of my Linux server?

  1. First boot the rescue system for your server. You can find a guide on how to do this here
  2. Connect to the server via VNC.
  3. Log in to the server with the "root" user.
  4. To perform changes on the partition easily we recommend using gparted. To start the GUI type “startxfce4” within your VNC console and wait a few seconds until the graphical interface appears.
  5. On the upper left side you will see “Applications”, open it.
  6. Select “Run Program”. 
  7. Now type “gparted” within the application finder and the app should start immediately.
  8. You should find an overview of all existing partitions on your hard disk drive. In case there is no unused space left, you need to shrink one existing partition first, otherwise you will not be able to create a new one. To do this right click on the corresponding partition and choose “Resize/Move”, the partition can be either shrunk or extended.
  9. Right click on the unallocated space and select “new” to create a new partition.
  10. To write the changes to the HDD hit the green tick symbol.
  11. After hitting the tick, a warning will appear saying that you can lose all data – make sure you have a backup before continuing with this process.
  12. The application should start performing several tasks, just wait until it has finished. 

How do I change the partition layout of my Windows server?

  1. Connect to your server using RDP.
  2. Open the “Disk Management”, this can be done with a right click on the Windows Icon on the lower left side.
  3. After the Windows “Disk Management” utility was started you will see an overview of all installed harddrives. On a VPS / VDS you will usually have one drive, on a dedicated Server you will probably have more than one sparse disk. Search for the disk you want to repartition and perform a right click on the partition you want to resize.
  4. Click either "Extend Volume" or "Shrink Volume" depending on the change you want to make to the partition layout of your server.
  5. After some time passed you will see a popup, just fill out the field with the amount of space you want to free up/fill up.
  6. Click the Shrink/Extend button.

Things to note about changing the partition layout of your server:

Make sure to perform a backup of your server before making this change to avoid data loss.

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Modified on 15 Mar 2024

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