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How I resized a Windows partition  
  

How I resized a Windows partition

May 3, 2006, 09:23 PM
#1  

jeliker
Junior Member


Join: Apr 2006
Posts: 22
How I resized a Windows partition
Moved from How Parallels "Desktop for Mac"

I successfully resized my Windows 2003 installation today using the following process.
  1. Copy the HDD drive image file and rename
  2. Use Image Tools to resize the original HDD file
  3. Change your VM profile to boot off of the copied HDD image and add the original, resized image as a second hard disk
  4. Once booted, open CMD prompt and run DISKPART
  5. View volumes in DISKPART with the command list volume. Note which volume is your original, resized partition
  6. Select that partition using the DISKPART command select volume # where # is the partition number.
  7. Enter the command extend
  8. Enter the command exit
  9. Exit Windows and change the VM profile to once again boot from the original, resized image file. You can disconnect (and delete?) the copied image file from the VM profile.

I don't know if DISKPART can be used on Windows XP, etc. but I know that you can download it from Microsoft. Google diskpart windows download.

As mentioned, this worked for me though I cannot guarantee that this will work in all situations.
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May 7, 2006, 04:39 AM
#2  

BenInBlack
Senior Member


Join: May 2006
Posts: 374
:D :D I what to give you a big thank you for these instructions.

I can personally vouch for the fact that they work with Windows XP Pro Service Pack 2
I just went from 8gig to 20gig.

Just some notes to help those that also want to do this.
1. When you do "List Volumns" you will be hit with 2 volumns that say the same size, so remember you've setup your backup copy as the boot so that will be the C: and you added your resized one and that will most likely be the E: (D: being the CD/DVD).

Here is what my "List Volume" looked like at the point just before extending
DISKPART> list volume

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 D CD-ROM 0 B
Volume 1 C NTFS Partition 7995 GB Healthy System
Volume 2 E NTFS Partition 7995 GB Healthy System

at this point i did the "select volume 2" and then did the extend
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May 7, 2006, 11:37 AM
#3  

wesley
Senior Member


Join: Apr 2006
Posts: 398
Wow, this should be in a FAQ or something.

__________________
Core 2 Duo iMac 2.8GHz | 4GB RAM | 500GB HDD
Mac OS X 10.5.4 | VM inside PW: Windows XP SP3
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May 8, 2006, 12:07 PM
#4  

KaiserX
Junior Member


Join: Apr 2006
Posts: 12
Worked for me. Thank you for posting this!
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May 8, 2006, 12:50 PM
#5  

MarkHolbrook
Senior Member


Join: Apr 2006
Posts: 351
Worked beautiful. Thanks a million!
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Jun 26, 2006, 04:34 PM
#6  

darren
Junior Member


Join: Jun 2006
Posts: 2
help..
Quote:
Originally Posted by BenInBlack
:D :D I what to give you a big thank you for these instructions.

I can personally vouch for the fact that they work with Windows XP Pro Service Pack 2
I just went from 8gig to 20gig.

Just some notes to help those that also want to do this.
1. When you do "List Volumns" you will be hit with 2 volumns that say the same size, so remember you've setup your backup copy as the boot so that will be the C: and you added your resized one and that will most likely be the E: (D: being the CD/DVD).

Here is what my "List Volume" looked like at the point just before extending
DISKPART> list volume

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 D CD-ROM 0 B
Volume 1 C NTFS Partition 7995 GB Healthy System
Volume 2 E NTFS Partition 7995 GB Healthy System

at this point i did the "select volume 2" and then did the extend


need a little help. i can not seem to get the new virtual drive to be listed as volume 2. It is listed under volume 1 as a foreign disk. nNy help would be appreciated
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May 18, 2007, 03:04 PM
#7  

Jthompson
Junior Member


Join: May 2007
Posts: 1
problem. My volume list only shows one hard as a system. The extend function is not working.

the error message is "diskpart failed to extend the volume. Please make sure the volume is valid for extending

Any idea.
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May 20, 2007, 11:38 PM
#8  

rdean
Junior Member


Join: Apr 2007
Posts: 26
Thanks....
Great thread. With the GPart and the initial instructions I was able to do this quite easily.

Though it did take some research to figure out how to create an ISO disk on the Mac, so I learned somethng new along the way.
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May 22, 2007, 04:59 PM
#9  

Ellefsen
Junior Member


Join: May 2007
Posts: 1
please forgive me
please forgive me.
i have tried to understand this entire thread.. im a new parallels and Mac user..and i find it all very hard to understand!
my first problem is a simple one (i think ...)
when i try to use the Image Tool
i say that the image Tool should operate with the hard Disk.
then i choose to increase the size of the virtual hardisk
then i have to select a source hard disk image and specity its new size.
however the hdd file does not excist.
any idea on what to do?
i think im somewhat confused because my english isnt that good, so its hard to figure out what exaclty you mean.
can anyone help me
terribly sorry for being troublesome. :-(
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May 25, 2007, 01:40 AM
#10  

mthibode
Junior Member


Join: May 2007
Posts: 1
Look for a file ending with ".hdd".
This is on your hard drive if you're running Parallels now. (probably under /Users/Library/Parallels/)
"YourHardDrive.hdd" is the file that you are asking image tool to increase.

Another successful gparted customer.
You don't need to make a copy of the disk image-- especially if you already have a backup on another disk (this is an attractive option if you don't have the room on your hard drive to duplicate your HDD).

GPARTED Option:
Resize your parallels image with Parallel's Image Tool located in \Applications\Parallels\
(Takes a few minutes depending on how large you want to go)
Download the live cd from http://gparted.sourceforge.net/download.php
Get one of the known-good distributions, i.e., version 0.2.5 or 0.3.1
(32 MB download takes 1-5 minutes of broadband)
Put it anywhere on your mac's hard disk
(Don't be tempted to get the Live-USB because you'll boot from the .iso image and not from a regular cd)
-----------
Open Parallels and go to your virtual machine settings under the edit menu
Select your CD/DVD drive and uncheck the enable switch, making room for the ISO image startup
Add a different virtual CD drive, enable it and set IDE connection to 0:1 (affirm the prompt that Parallels gives you)
Select the .iso image that you downloaded earlier as the mount point for your new CD drive
Change your boot settings to indicate booting from the cd drive instead of the hard disk
------------
Boot your VM from the live cd iso
Select default values until gparted starts (gparted will start automatically and is a program to expand drives etc.)
(Takes about 1 minute)
Select partition to resize (then you can drag the bar to the right to extend the available space)
Resize
Hit apply
Quit the program
Disconnect iso and return to original boot settings under the edit: virtual machine menu item
Reboot
Check Disk will probably run automatically

If I was a little more saavy, I'd write an applescript that does this.
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Jun 20, 2007, 05:34 PM
#11  

Rappy28
Junior Member


Join: Jun 2007
Posts: 2
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ellefsen
please forgive me.
i have tried to understand this entire thread.. im a new parallels and Mac user..and i find it all very hard to understand!
my first problem is a simple one (i think ...)
when i try to use the Image Tool
i say that the image Tool should operate with the hard Disk.
then i choose to increase the size of the virtual hardisk
then i have to select a source hard disk image and specity its new size.
however the hdd file does not excist.
any idea on what to do?
i think im somewhat confused because my english isnt that good, so its hard to figure out what exaclty you mean.
can anyone help me
terribly sorry for being troublesome. :-(
I have exactly the same problem. I know I really suck at computers, but I CANNOT find the ".hdd file". What is it supposed to be ? I did not find anything in my Library/Parallels folder. All I can see is the virtual hard drive "Untitled" on my desktop, which I want to expand, and it certainly isn't a .hdd, and Parallels Image Tool refuses to do anything with it.
I did a spotlight search for ".hdd" and it did not find anything relevant.

What is the .hdd and where can I find it ? :confused:

A fast answer (before Saturday if possible) would be greatly appreciated.
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May 8, 2006, 02:35 PM
#12  

hevans
Junior Member


Join: Apr 2006
Posts: 7
Where do I find "Image Tools"?
Thanks in advance.

Hugh Evans
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May 8, 2006, 04:50 PM
#13  

neile1
Junior Member


Join: May 2006
Posts: 5
Thanks a lot jeliker
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May 8, 2006, 10:40 PM
#14  

BenInBlack
Senior Member


Join: May 2006
Posts: 374
After i installed beta 6 i found that parallel had changed it an put a folder that contains the image tools and parallel.

__________________
Parallels Build: v3 beta build 5580 on Leopard
Running: Mac Mini - DuoCore 1.66Ghz with 2 gig of Ram.
PW: Windows XP Pro set to use 512Meg Memory, 20gig Primary HD
miniStack: 360gig with 40gig second HD for PW
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May 9, 2006, 08:50 AM
#15  

jeliker
Junior Member


Join: Apr 2006
Posts: 22
Quote:
Originally Posted by BenInBlack
After i installed beta 6 i found that parallel had changed it an put a folder that contains the image tools and parallel.
You'll need to use Image Tools to resize the hard drive image in step 2 of my original post
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May 10, 2006, 04:32 AM
#16  

jkragenb
Junior Member


Join: May 2006
Posts: 4
Outstanding solution - worked perfectly. Thank you.
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May 11, 2006, 01:27 PM
#17  

wndxlori
Junior Member


Join: Apr 2006
Posts: 7
Worked like a charm. This should be a sticky thread.
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May 11, 2006, 09:23 PM
#18  

pmbooks1
Junior Member


Join: May 2006
Posts: 12
I've gotten as far as resizing the original HDD, but am stumped from 3 forward, changing VM profile to boot off of the copied HDD image. If this is found in the Configuration Editor, I'm not sure what to do. You guys must already be Windows saavy (or programming smart). Any help would be appreciated, thanks, Paul
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May 11, 2006, 11:04 PM
#19  

jeliker
Junior Member


Join: Apr 2006
Posts: 22
Quote:
Originally Posted by pmbooks1
I've gotten as far as resizing the original HDD, but am stumped from 3 forward, changing VM profile to boot off of the copied HDD image. If this is found in the Configuration Editor, I'm not sure what to do. You guys must already be Windows saavy (or programming smart). Any help would be appreciated, thanks, Paul
When you first start Parallels Workstation, you'll see the property page for the current VM. If you click on "Hard Disk 1" under the resources section, you'll be shown the Configuration Editor page and "Hard Disk 1" will be highlighted. Under the "Image File" field on the right side of the screen, browse to and select the copied, renamed image file. That will make the copy the new boot drive.

Now, Click the Add... button at the bottom, left side of the screen. Choose "Hard Disk" then click Next. Choose "Use an existing hard disk image" then click Next. Browse to the original, resized image file then click Finish. Now, you'll see a "Hard Disk 2" entry on the left on the Configuration Editor page. Click OK to close the Configuration Editor window.

Start your VM and follow steps 4-8 in my original post.

Shutdown your Windows guest OS and wait for the VM property page to appear. Once it does, click on the Edit button to display the Configuration Editor again. Highlight "Hard Disk 2" then click Remove. Select "Hard Disk 1" and browse to and select the original, resized image file under the Image File field on the right side of the screen. Click OK to close the Configuration Editor window. Click Save to update your VM properties.

Restart your VM and you should see that your guest OS drive is now up to the size you reset it to.
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May 12, 2006, 03:37 PM
#20  

BatmanPPC
Junior Member


Join: May 2006
Posts: 7
You don't need to make a copy of the disk image.

Download the live cd from http://gparted.sourceforge.net/download.php
Boot your VM from the live cd iso
Select default values until gpartd starts
Select partition to resize
Resize and apply
Disconnect iso
Reboot

Windows should run chkdsk automatically.
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