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In Disk Management for Windows 2008, I have an extended partition that looks like this:

|----X:\ Drive----||----Y:\ Drive----||-------Z:\ Drive-------|

I am running out of space for the Y: drive. I have a lot of space I can spare in the Z: drive. If I shrink the Z: drive, will the space be available to extend the Y: drive? Or will the empty space only be for any drives that come after the Z: drive?

I wish there was some kind of preview to this, so I am asking for help.

TruMan1
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  • I *think* but I'm not sure, that extending only works to the right. In other words, the space will be available for a new partition only. –  Nov 18 '10 at 21:54

1 Answers1

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Partition managers like gparted let you expand the disk space in either direction. Because this is the standard behavior for partitioning, its a safe assumption that Windows 2008 Disk Manager does the same. If you scale the the first block of your Z:\ drive to the right, those blocks to the right of Y:\ now become available. Visually...

|----X:\ Drive----||----Y:\ Drive----||>>-----Z:\ Drive-------|

|----X:\ Drive----||----Y:\ Drive----||--free--||--Z:\ Drive--|

|----X:\ Drive----||---------Y:\ Drive---------||--Z:\ Drive--|

Hope this helps! I believe the W2k8 Disk Manager will give you a "preview" of what's going to happen before it actually writes the changes to the partition table. Microsoft TechNet seems to agree with me.

Good luck, and remember that backing up should be the first thing you do! ;)

Andrew M.
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