Diskpart - "The volume you have selected may not be extended" on Windows 2003 Server when enlarging boot disk (C:) in VMware ESX 3.5

This solution may apply to anyone trying to extend a primary boot volume in Windows 2003 Server (mine happened to be the R2 Enterprise edition, but may apply to prior versions of 2003 Server).  I was following VMware KB 1007266 to extend the boot volume on this Windows 2003 guest VM on ESXi (3.5).  This is a separate issue from the Microsoft KB # 841650.

Everything was fine when I attached the newly extended VMDK file to my helper VM.  But I kept getting the "The volume you have selected may not be extended" error and couldn't figure out why.  It turns out I didn't read the KB carefully enough.  Make sure you assign a drive letter in the Windows Disk Management UI first!

Before assigning a drive letter:
DISKPART> list disk
  Disk ###  Status      Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  ----------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online        16 GB      0 B
* Disk 1    Online        56 GB    24 GB
DISKPART> list volume
  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     C                NTFS   Partition     16 GB  Healthy    System
  Volume 1                             Partition     32 GB  Healthy
  Volume 2     D                       CD-ROM          0 B  Healthy

DISKPART> select volume 1
Volume 1 is the selected volume.

DISKPART> extend
The volume you have selected may not be extended.
Please select another volume and try again.

After assigning drive letter E on the helper VM:

DISKPART> assign

 DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point.
DISKPART> list volume
  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     C                NTFS   Partition     16 GB  Healthy    System
  Volume 1     E                NTFS   Partition     32 GB  Healthy
  Volume 2     D                       CD-ROM          0 B  Healthy

DISKPART> select volume 1
Volume 1 is the selected volume.

DISKPART> extend
DiskPart successfully extended the volume.


DISKPART> list disk
  Disk ###  Status      Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  ----------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online        16 GB      0 B
* Disk 1    Online        56 GB    0 GB
Now you can detach the VMDK from the helper VM, and start up the first VM.  The OS should see the drive with your new total disk space.

Comments

  1. Art VFebruary 28, 2011 at 8:34 AM

    saved my life..
    Was brekaing my head here, didnt know drive letter required.
    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. ViperVRSeptember 22, 2011 at 8:55 PM

    This is helpful.. thanks a lot.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Pablo DDecember 11, 2011 at 2:54 AM

    Thanks!!!! I was freezed for 60 min before to read this...

    ReplyDelete

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