Tool Time: Repartition Windows Servers with GParted

As many of you probably know, Symantec's Norton PartitionMagic (formerly PowerQuest's PartitionMagic) doesn't run on Windows servers. There are a few expensive commercial partitioning programs that will repartition Windows servers. However, there's also an open-source alternative: Gnome Partition Editor (GParted), which is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

You can download this free utility from SourceForge.net. The Documentation page provides links to detailed information on how to install it and use it for such tasks as creating, resizing, copying, and deleting partitions.

GParted works great with RAID and NTFS partitions. I've ran GParted on multiple Windows Server 2003 servers with RAID 1 and RAID 5 without any problems. I had one server on which I needed to run the CHKDSK /R command before GParted would run. After running this command, GParted completed successfully.

Note that because GParted is an open-source program, you use it at your own risk. Therefore, it's important that you create a good backup before you run GParted. Failure during repartitioning could cripple a server or workstation.

I have to give credit to Charles Schlue for bringing this program to my attention. It has worked great so far.