How to Extend Dynamic System Volume in Windows Server 2003?

In this post, you can learn how to extend dynamic system volume in Windows Server 2003, 2008 (R2 ), 2012 (R2), or other operating systems. With the help of AOMEI Partition Assistant software, expanding system volume on dynamic disk will be as easy as a pie.

Emily

By Emily / Updated on May 12, 2023

Share this: instagram reddit

Cannot extend dynamic system volume in Server 2003

Hi,I have a Windows Server 2003. The C: drive was originally set up with 170GB on the dynamic disk and F: with 280GB. Now the C drive is running on the low disk space. But when i try to add some free space to it, the Disk Management will pop out an error message, which says "The selected volume is a system or boot disk or was created on a basic disk in an earlier version of Windows and cannot be extended". So, how can I extend the dynamic system volume in Server? Thanks a lot!

Dynamic System Volume Cannot Extend

Windows 2003 built-in Disk Management allows users to extend simple volume and spanned volume. If you try to extend the system or boot volume on a dynamic disk, an error message will pop up. In such a case, it is necessary to turn to third-party software.

How to extend dynamic system volume in Windows Server?

To successfully extend dynamic system volume in Windows Server 2003 or other operating systems, the AOMEI Partition Assistant Server can help you a lot. It has a powerful dynamic disk manager to help users easily and flexibly manage their dynamic disk and volumes. With it, you can add adjacent unallocated space into C dynamic system volume. If there are unallocated space but not adjacent to boot volume, you can use the “Move Volume” feature to make them adjacent.

Now you can download the demo version and learn how to extend dynamic system volume step by step.

Free Download Win Server & PC
Secure Download

Step 1. Install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant Server. Click “Dynamic Disk Manager” in the right menu.

Step 2. Right-click the volume (F) next to dynamic system volume and choose “Resize/Move Volume”.

Resize Volume

Step 3. In the pop-up window, drag the slider rightwards to make some unallocated space for the dynamic system volume. Then, click "OK".

Drag to Right

Step 4.Right-click dynamic system volume and choose “Resize/Move Volume”. In the next window, drag the slider rightward to merge the unallocated space.

Drag C

Step 5. Click on “Commit” on the main interface to start executing the pending operation.

Commit

This is the traditional method to shrink another volume with redundant free space on the same dynamic disk to generate unallocated space, and then merge it into dynamic system volume. In addition, you can use another feature called “Move Volume Slice” to migrate volume slices from one disk to another to make adjacent unallocated space. This function is very useful and convenient when other dynamic volumes are also full and haven’t available free space to be shrunk. Below is how to do it:

Step1. Install, launch AOMEI Partition Assistant Server and initiate the Dynamic Disk Manager.

Step 2. Click "Move Volume Slice Wizard" in the left navigation. Click "Next" to continue on the pop-up Wizard window.

Move Slice

Step 3. In the following dialogue box, please select the volume (F) you want to move.

Select Volume

Step 4. Specify the slices that need to be moved. Then, click "Next". 

Specify Slice

Step 5. Select the destination disk where the volume slice will be moved onto.

Select Disk

Step 6. After clicking "Finish", you will find the F: volume has been moved from dynamic system disk 0 to disk1 and some unallocated space generates on the system disk. Then, click "Commit" to apply the changes.

Commit

Then, you can use the above methods to extend dynamic system volume with generated unallocated space.

Summary

Apart from extending dynamic system volume in Windows Server 2003, 2008 (R2), 2012 (R2), 2016, 2019 and Windows 10, 8, 7, AOMEI Partition Assistant Server also enables you to increase striped volume, enlarge mirrored volume, expand RAID-5 volume, convert dynamic disk to basic without deleting volumes, convert MBR and GPT without losing data, etc.  

Emily
Emily · Staff Editor
Emily is an English editor of AOMEI Technology; she has a great passion for providing easy solutions for people to tackle with all disk or partition management problems. In addition to writing articles about disk/partition management, she also edits great tutorials on how to back up and restore disk for data security. In her spare time, she loves to learn computer skill to improve herself or stay with her family to enjoy a good day.