Windows Server users may encounter the problem that system C: drive is running out of space on RAID 5 array. For better understanding RAID-5 array and how to resize virtual partition for RAID 5, I would like to introduce some information on RAID 5 or you may also jump to the end to see how to resize RAID 5 partition with MiniTool Partition Wizard server Edition. With this partition magic server, users can resize virtual partition for RAID 5 on Windows Server 2000/2003/2008 fast and safely.

Brief Introduction of RAID 5
The most popular RAID level, RAID 5, can stripe both data and parity information across three or more drives. It is similar to RAID 4 except that it exchanges the dedicated parity drive for a distributed parity algorithm, writing data and parity blocks across all the drives in the array.
This removes the "bottleneck" that the dedicated parity drive represents, improving writing performance slightly and allowing somewhat better parallelism in a multiple-transaction environment, though the overhead necessary in dealing with the parity continues to bog down writes. Fault tolerance is maintained by ensuring that the parity information for any given block of data is placed on a drive separate from those used to store the data itself. The performance of a RAID 5 array can be "adjusted" by trying different stripe sizes until one is found that is well-matched to the application being used.

Generally speaking, RAID 5 needs some powerful logic processing capabilities to control the simultaneous operation of several hard disks and to write data and parity information across all disks in the stripe set. The latter function does not require a particularly complex architecture, but as transfer rates increase, the process of writing parity data on the fly increases CPU overhead accordingly.

How to easily and fast resize virtual partition for RAID 5?
To solve low disk space problem, you can extend the system partition with free space gained by resizing virtual partition for Raid 5 on Windows Server. However, you must be carefully:

Don't break the RAID array. Just operate like resizing partition on physical hard disk. Since no partition magic server software can guarantee the security 100%, users must backup the important files.

If there is no free space on all virtual partitions on the RAID 5, you have to add another disk to this RAID 5 array. After that, the new disk space will be displayed as Unallocated at the end of the virtual disk, and then you can extend C: drive.

If you need to add new disk before resizing RAID 5 partition, you have to make sure the RAID controller has the feature to re-configure RAID without data losing.

So, MiniTool Partition Wizard Server Edition is the best assistant.

With this partition magic, users can resize virtual partition for RAID 5 fast and easily.
Download and launch MiniTool Partition Wizard Server Edition and all disks and partitions information will be displayed in the main interface.



Right click the data partition and select "Move/Resize Partition" on the pop-up window. Drag the right border of partition handle rightwards to shrink selected partition.



On this interface, unallocated space is behind the system partition.



Here, right click the system partition and select "Move/Resize Partition" on the pop-up window. Next, drag the right border rightwards to include the unallocated space.



Go back to main interface by clicking "OK" and then click "Apply" to realize all operations.



As MiniTool Partition Wizard Server Edition users knows that this partition magic server has many other features, including : convert dynamic disk to basic, set Active partition, change cluster size, hide/unhide partition, and others. To download this partition magic server software, please visit its official website.