Better than Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 added shrink and extend volume feature, which can be used to change partition size online, however, you still cannot extend system C: drive by shrinking D, so 3rd party partition software is better choice to resize Server 2008 partitions.

When talking about resizing partitions, many people know the famous partitioning utility – Norton Partition Magic. Yes, this is a great program that is able to resize partitions without losing data.

Norton Partition Magic for Server 2008?

Partition Magic is first released by PowerQuest and then the ownership was transferred to Symantec. It seems that Symantec just want to get the technology of backup and recovery, so it doesn't provide a updated Partition Magic for Server 2008 or 2003. In technical forums, many people feedback partition magic cannot be installed in Windows Server.

Just forget Partition Magic, because it isn't compatible with Windows Server 2003 and later editions, on October, 2011, Symantec even abandoned it leaving a statement on their website "they no longer offer Norton Partition Magic".

It doesn't matter, there are still choices.

Partition Magic Server 2008 replacement

There are many partition manager software for server 2008, such as Acronis DDS, Paragon PM, Aomei Partition Assistant, etc. They works similar with Partition Magic but much more powerful. Among these partition magic software, I like to use Partition Assistant, because it provides easy and multiple ways to resize partition, reliable data protecting ability and full set of useful features.

Unlike the complicated partition resizing feature in other programs, Partition Assistant provides corresponding ways for different server disk partition configurations, refer how to resize server 2008 partitions.

If you are not allowed to install applications in production server, you may create bootable CD or USB disk. This boot disc is WinPE based, unlike Linux based utilities, WinPE boot disk has best compatibility of hardware RAID, it is also able to display drive letter, which is unavailable in Linux disk.

For other features, I don't want to introduce one by one, to the people who are looking for Partition Magic for Server 2008, this program is a good choice.

About 64-bit Windows Server 2008 R2, no problem, it is compatible with Server 2003 to SBS 2011, check the system requirements.

Note:

All server partition software are commercial.

No partition software is able to resize partitions beyond hard disks, that is to say, you cannot extend a partition by shrinking and taking free space from a partition in another physical hard disk drive.