8mo ago

How do you extend C: partition of Windows Server 2022?

Windows Server 2022 creates one recovery partition just on the right of the C: partition. So, when it is required to expand the C: partition it is impossible due to this recovery partition. I realised of this problem because our IT department provides Windows Server virtual machines users are unable to expand.

I would like to know how are you dealing with this problem. Do you remove the recovery partition? Do you keep the recovery partition? how?

20 comments

No recovery partition.
- Recovery partitions on servers -- especially VMs -- are kind of pointless. Just boot the ISO if you need WinRM.
  
  I remember years ago one Windows Update of the vmware drivers that took down all our Windows Servers and they were unable to boot. I thought the recovery partition could be useful for those situations.
  
  The recovery partition is used for automatic recovery and sometimes Windows Update. I wouldn't go deleting it willy nilly.
Remove the recovery partition, it's pointless anyway.
But what the hell was MS thinking doing that?
- Probably along the lines of "Ook ook ook"
  
  I'm imagining it went something like
  "Hey boss, should I set the Server variant to not install the recovery partition?"
  "Why?"
  "Well, kinda pointless isn't it?"
  "Yeah, but like, not hurting anything, and do you want to risk breaking something? Because I don't"
  "Yeah, fair point"
  
  deafening type-writer noises
As others have said, we remove the recovery partition when it gets in the way.
We came across a very similar but more sticky issue the other day. One of our admins rightfully converted all our VMs from BIOS to UEFI. This, however, created an EFI partition sitting to the right of the OS partition for the majority of our servers. We're now in a position where we can't increase disk size on any of those servers without going through the process of rebooting the box with gparted and manually moving the partition to the left. We're a 24 hour operation with hundreds of servers. This is bad :/
- why do you still use BIOS instead of EFI? For any particular reason? VMware recommends EFI for Windows Server 2022. Our Window Server 2022 template is EFI.
  
  Ah, its just legacy servers. Any newer have been built with UEFI for a while now.
- You could also push the EFI partition at the very end of the disk whenever you resize the volume. A bit more annoying but can be done live at least. Or at the very least, moving a 500MB partition is a lot faster than moving GBs of C drive, so less time spent on GParted.
You can move the recovery partition and then expand
Edit vhdx to add more storage, then follow this: https://thedxt.ca/2023/06/moving-windows-recovery-partition-correctly/
Works well

20 comments