How to Manage Storage Resources Using DISKPART
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If you have Windows 2000
The recently released Diskpart tool allows more control for management of storage resources. For example you may have a mass-storage controller that supports expansion of the underlying disk array, but without Diskpart the only option to expand the existing volume within Windows 2000 or later is to convert the volume to dynamic, and then expand the volume using the Disk Management MMC snap-in. Now with Diskpart, a storage volume that has contiguous free space at the end of the existing volume can be expanded using Diskpart without having to convert the entire disk to dynamic disk.
Diskpart provides the following new features:
Manage storage volumes at the command line
Extend basic volumes to contiguous free space
A side benefit to using Diskpart is that a known issue can be avoided. See the documentation in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:
Disk volumes can be extended without having to convert the entire disk to dynamic disk, which bypasses the scenario that could lead to an dynamic volume expansion failure. This issue was addressed with a hotfix that is included with Windows 2000 Service Pack 3.
If you have Windows NT 4.0
Diskpart is designed for Windows 2000 and later operating systems and will not work with any versions of Windows NT 4.0.