If you’re running out of space on a Windows Server 2003 instance in VMware you do have a workaround to expand your system partition. This will require gparted which is standard on Knoppix so I would suggest you grab a copy of Knoppix and burn that to a CD first. Now I will detail the steps required since this is really easy:
- Power off the VM
- Right click your VM in vSphere client – Edit Settings
- Select the Hard Disk that contains the VMDK file for your system drive
- Increase size to whatever you want (or is available)
- Open the Console to the VM
- Power on the VM but quickly mount your local host CD/DVD drive to boot to Knoppix
- Once Knoppix is booted open a terminal and type in: sudo gparted
- Select the drive you want to expand by right clicking and select “Resize”
- You can resize by typing in the desired size or dragging the vertical bar over to desired size
- Continue through the menu and when done press APPLY at the top and gparted will do the work
- Once complete, reboot the system and remove the Knoppix CD and unmount the CD drive from within vmware
- LET WINDOWS PERFORM THE CHECKDISK – DO NOT INTERRUPT THIS PROCESS
- Windows will probably want to reboot when you login, please do so and after this you’ll see your newly sized system partition
