Question : Problem: Shrink Windows Server (2K, 2K3) Partition

Looking to shrink a Windows 2000 or 2003 server partition.  

  Was wondering if anyone has accomplished this task before?

  Will ultimately be moving  the data to a smaller LUN, have that process planned.  Partition sizes range from 10GB to 1TB+.  MSSQL to flat files existing on the target partition.  Using a utility (SAN) based environment.  Hoping that the solution identified is identified by Microsoft as supported, although not an absolute requirement.

  Looking for a process that has been used and succeeded.  Here is my take on the summary process:
1.  Shrink target partition to the target size or smaller (primary technical issue needing resolution).
2.  Create new LUN for target server at target size.
3.  Transfer data to new LUN
  a.  Smaller space will be transferred using a file copy method.
  b.  Larger space will be transferred using block based copy software.
4.  Swap the LUN presentations.
5.  Recover space from copied LUN.
6.  Make management happy.

Answer : Problem: Shrink Windows Server (2K, 2K3) Partition

http://www.partition-manager.com/corporate/server/

is an example of a server based partition tool - we have used it and it seems fine - but have only tested this up to about 80Gb. I have no idea how long it would take to operate on a partition 12 times larger (!). Although with a bigger faster disk array it may only be hours rather than days.

So partitions can be resized.

It makes life easier if you have defragged the partitions first and have all the files within the smaller space to begin with.