How do I change the partition layout of my server?

The methods for changing the partition layout of your server are different for Windows servers and Linux servers. Below are instructions on how to do this for both Windows and Linux servers.

How do I change the partition layout of my Linux server?

1. First, boot the rescue system for your server. You can find a guide on how to do this here. 
2. Connect to the server using VNC.
3. Log in to the server as the "root" user.
4. To easily make changes to the partition, we recommend using gparted. To start the GUI, type "startxfce4" in your VNC console and wait a few seconds until the graphical interface appears.
5. On the upper left side you will see “Applications”, open it.
6. Select “Run Program”. 
7. Now type “gparted” into the application finder and the application should start immediately.
8. You should see a list of all the partitions on your hard drive. If there is no free space, you will need to shrink an existing partition before you can create a new one. To do this right click on the partition and select “Resize/Move”, the partition can be either shrunk or extended.
9. Right-click on the unallocated space and select “new” to create a new partition.
10. To write the changes to the disk, click the green check mark.
11. After clicking the checkmark, a warning will appear that you may lose all your data - make sure you have a backup before proceeding.
12. The application should start performing several tasks, just wait for it to finish.

How do I change the partition layout of my Windows server?

1. Connect to your server via RDP.
2. Open the “Disk Management” by right-clicking on the Windows icon in the lower left corner.
3. Once the Windows "Disk Management" utility has been started, you will see an overview of all installed hard drives. On a VPS/VDS you will usually have one drive, on a dedicated server you will probably have more than one sparse drive. Find the disk you want to repartition and right click on the partition you want to resize.
4. Click either "Extend Volume" or "Shrink Volume" depending on the change you want to make to your server's partition layout.
5. After a while you will see a popup, just fill in the field with the amount of space you want to free up/fill up.
6. Click the Shrink/Extend button.

Things to note about changing the partition layout of your server:

Be sure to back up your server before making this change to avoid data loss.