Running out of disk space on the Windows system drive can become a serious problem, particularly when installing updates, or maintaining enterprise applications as discussed here “Upgrade Veeam Backup & Replication to v13.1.2.57“. As you can see, while attempting to patch Veeam Backup & Replication (VBR). The installation could not proceed because the C: drive did not have sufficient free disk space. Please see How to fix Error 202: AMD Software Installer Fails to install Update, and Resolve Veeam ONE “The specified property cannot be found” and License Mismatch Errors During upgrade.
Looking at the disk layout, I noticed that the system had sufficient available capacity on the E: drive which we had previously created for a different purpose (task). However, there was one obstacle: a Windows Recovery partition was sitting between C: and E:.
This meant that Windows Disk Management could not extend C: or merge with E using the available space on E: Rather than purchasing a commercial partition-management licence, I decided to explore free alternatives that could move partitions, redistribute available space and extend the system volume.
Please see “Aomei Free Partition Manager: Fix unable to Extend Volume on Windows protected by BitLocker, and “A Review of MiniTool Partition Wizard – Disk Utility Tool.
Expand Disk Partition
As you can see below, the low disk space shows the drive hosting the Veeam installation update directory has run out of free space
To fix this, you need to expand the disk partition by clicking on “Edit” the Hard Drive as shown below.
Note: To get to this settings, yu need the Hyper-V Manager since my VBR is running on Hyper-V. Then select the VM and click on settings.
On the Edit Virtual Hard Drive Window and click on Next as the Expand window is the only available button at this time.
Since I already had a Partion E already created for a different purpose. I will delete this and recreate it as we progress by deleting the volume. But let us create a new unallocated disk space first
Click on finish to the edit of the Hard Disk as shown below.
As mentioned above, I will extend Drive E and delete the volume at a latter time and extend this with Drive C.
Here I am extending E: with the new volume by right clicking on it and selecting “Extend Volume”.
On the select disk, click on Next
Click on Finish to complete extending the Drive E.
As you can see, this is the issue we wish to solve with GParted as we cannot merge Drive C and E together as we currently have a different partition in between. That is, it doesn’t support merging non-adjacent partitions.
Fixing Non-Adjacent Partitions with a Free Tool
Note: You can manage and extend partitions in Windows using DiskPart (CMD), PowerShell, or third-party partition management tools. However, I have decided to use GParted in this guide because Windows DiskPart and PowerShell cannot move existing partitions to make unallocated space adjacent to the system drive.
Although GParted supports moving partitions, I encountered issues when attempting to move the Recovery partition. I therefore decided to delete the Recovery environment partition and use the resulting unallocated space to extend the C: drive. This allowed me to extend the system partition without moving the Recovery partition.
To fix this without losing data, we can use a free, reliable partition manager such as using GParted (the industry-standard open-source partition editor). It supports moving and resizing partitions. To proceed, I will hed over to the following website and download the GParted as shown below.
Since the ISO was downloaded from the internet, do not forget to right click on it and select properties to unblock it as shown below.
This Windows security feature “called “Attachment Execution Service (AES)” attaches a hidden tag called the Mark-of-the-Web (MotW) to files downloaded from the internet.
Next, attach the GParted ISO to the VBR server (VM) via the HyperV Manager as shown below.
Before proceeding, create a snapshot, which is referred to as a checkpoint in HyperV. A checkpoint is not a substitute for a backup.
Please see how to create or delete snapshots on VMware Workstation, how to Create a Snapshot on vSphere Web Client, how to Manage VMware Snapshots: Delete or Edit or Revert a Snapshot, and Virtual Machine Snapshot vs Backup.
Enter the VM firmware settings, and move the DVD drive above the virtual hard disk in the boot order and click on OK.
If GParted does not boot, temporarily disable Secure Boot as shown below.
Next, start and connect to the VM.
Note: I also found out that selecting the default options as shown below gets the GParted Live boot process stuck. Therefore, it was unable to load its Linux kernel and initial boot environment due to hardware compatibility issues etc.
I read that this problem was not present in earlier version of Windows Server 2022, 2025 Generation 2 VMs. But selecting the below entry from the boot menu resolved it “GParted Live (VGA with large font & to RAM”). Other modes of GParted Live entry also works with HyperV.
GParted environment is starting and configuring its hardware support before loading the graphical partition editor.
Click on OK in the Package Configuration
On the default “Don’t touch keymap”, click on Ok
I will hit enter for the default language
I will also proceed with the default mode to use GParted automatically.
Since the Move did not work for me with GParted on Windows as I have tested, I will proceed and delete this partition (Windows Recovery Partition).
Note: It is safe to delete the 919 MB Recovery Partition (Disk 0 partition 4), but doing so will permanently disable the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE). This means that the built-in advanced startup tools (like Startup Repair, Safe Mode recovery, or system restore prompts from boot) won’t be accessible unless you recreate it later
Please see How to fix Update Error 0x800f0831 in Windows or Windows Server, Backing Up OpenShift Is Not the Same as Recovering It, and Veeam Agent for Windows deployment failing with Access Denied.
Delete Recovery partition
First, let us disable the Windows Recovery Environment by uisng the command below. We can do this by opening an administrative Command Prompt which ensures it cleans up pointers cleanly.
reagentc /disable
Now, delete the recovery environment partition.
When prompted, click on Apply
As you can see, the operation has completed. Click on Cose of re-initite the GPart boot process if it is stuck if you intend to perform other operations. Else, switch (move) the DVD Drive Boot Order further down.
Now, we have a free unallocated space. Let us extend the C drive this this unallocated space (deleted Windows Recovery Environment). To do this, right click on C: and select extend and following the prompts.
Click on next on the select Disks wizard and click on Next
Click on Finish to complete this process.
Please see Restoring a Physical Ubuntu Server to VMware using Veeam Agent and Export as Virtual Disks, Action required: Update Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager Before July 21, and how to Back Up and Restore Microsoft Entra ID with Veeam Backup & Replication v13.
Delete Volume
Since I no longer need the Drive E as mentioned perviously. I will now delete the volume (partition) as shown below by opening the Disk Management tool and right-click New Volume (E:). Then select Delete Volume.
On the confirmation prompt, click on Yes.
Now that we have the unallocated space adjacent to C:. We can now extend it without issues. To do this, right click on C and select extend
Follow the prompts and on the final wizard as shown below. Click on Finish.
Please see Azure Resource Inventory (ARI) for Engineers: Improving Control and Compliance, Azure Load Balancer: Configuring for SQL Server Always On Availability Group Listener on Azure Virtual Machines, and Azure Virtual Desktop: Build Custom Session Host Images Using Image Builder Templates [Part 07].
Re-enable the Windows Recovery Environment
With the command below, we can now recreate the Recovery Environment.
reagentc /enable
You can also check the status of the WinRE by launching command prompt as an Administrator
reagentc /info
As you can see, reagentc /enable successfully hooked into partition 3 (C: drive) and activated WinRE without needing a separate standalone partition.
As you can see. We have finally extended the hard disk space and we can now proceed with our intended uppgrade as referenced in the first blog (paragraph) above.
I hope you found this article on “how to fix Non-Adjacent Partition on Windows Server Using GParted” very useful. Please feel free to leave a comment below.
