With server here and there located in different data centers, it is not uncommon these days to have to work with consoles and rescue environments.
In order to manipulate the hard disks on a Windows system and start with assessing what you have to work with, diskpart.exe is a useful utility.
Usually you will be given a Win PE edition with several tools installed in order to backup your data and have the intervention take place from the data center (change of Hard Disk, Controller etc).
DISKPART
Commands you may then issue at the DISKPART prompt:
LIST Disk
LIST Partition
LIST Volume
SELECT Disk=<i>n</i>
SELECT Partition=<i>n</i>
SELECT Volume=<i>n_or_d</i> (Number or Drive Letter)
DETAIL Disk
DETAIL Partition
DETAIL volume
ACTIVE (set the current in-focus partition to be the system partition)
ASSIGN (allocate the next free drive letter)
ASSIGN LETTER=<i>E</i> (Choose a free letter)
ATTRIBUTES DISK [{set | clear}] [readonly] [noerr]
ATTRIBUTES VOLUME [{set | clear}] [{hidden | readonly | nodefaultdriveletter | shadowcopy}] [noerr]
AUTOMOUNT [enable] [disable] [scrub] [noerr]
FILESYSTEMS (Use 'Select Volume' first)
HELP
INACTIVE (mark a system/boot partition as inactive [don’t boot], use 'Select Partition' first)
OFFLINE disk [noerr] (Take the current disc offline, use 'Select Disk' first)
ONLINE {disk|volume} [noerr]
REM (remark/comment)
REMOVE letter=<i>E</i> [dismount] [noerr] (Remove drive letter <i>E</i> from the in-focus partition)
REMOVE mount=<i>path</i> [dismount] [noerr] (Remove mount point<i></i> from the in-focus partition)
REMOVE /ALL [dismount] [noerr] (Remove ALL current drive letters and mount points)
RESCAN (Locate new disks that have been added to the computer)
SHRINK [desired=<i>n</i>] [minimum=<i>n</i>] [nowait] [noerr] (Reduce the size of the in-focus volume)
SHRINK querymax [noerr]
EXIT
UNIQUEID disk [id={<i>dword</i> | <i>GUID</i>}] [noerr] (Display or set the GUID partition table identifier
or MBR signature for the disk with focus)
ASSIGN MOUNT=<i>path</i> (Choose a mount point path for the volume) CREATE PARTITION Primary Size=50000 (50 GB) CREATE PARTITION Extended Size=25000 CREATE PARTITION logical Size=25000 DELETE Partition EXTEND Size=10000 GPT attributes=<i>n</i> (assign GUID Partition Table attributes) SET id=<i>byte</i>|<i>GUID</i> [override] [noerr] (Change the partition type)
ADD disk=<i>n</i> (Add a mirror to the in-focus SIMPLE volume on the specified disk
see 'Diskpart Help' for more.)
BREAK disk=<i>n</i> (Break the current in-focus mirror)
CREATE VOLUME Simple Size=<i>n</i> Disk=<i>n</i>
CREATE VOLUME Stripe Size=<i>n</i> Disk=<i>n</i>,<i>n</i>,...
CREATE VOLUME Raid Size=<i>n</i> Disk=<i>n</i>,<i>n</i>,...
DELETE DISK
DELETE PARTITION
DELETE VOLUME
EXTEND Disk=<i>n</i> [Size=<i>n</i>]
EXTEND Filesystem [noerr]
IMPORT [noerr] (Import a foreign disk group, use 'Select Disc' first)
RECOVER [noerr] (Refresh disc pack state, attempt recovery on an invalid pack,
& resynchronize stale plex/parity data.)
REPAIR disk=<i>n</i> [align=<i>n</i>] [noerr] (Repair the RAID-5 volume with focus, replace with the specified dynamic disk)
RETAIN (Prepare an existing dynamic simple volume to be used as a boot or system volume)
CONVERT basic
CONVERT dynamic
CONVERT gpt
CONVERT mbr
CLEAN [ALL] (remove all partition and volume info from the hard drive)
FORMAT [{fs=ntfs|fat|fat32] [revision=<i>x.xx</i>] | recommended}]
[label="<i>label</i>"] [unit=<i>n</i>] [quick] [compress]
[override] [nowait] [noerr]
