tool to extend size of C partition (disk with RAID-1)?

[woojtii]

Hello,


we work on windows 2003 server and we have HDD with RAID1.

primary C partition have only(!) 10 GB but secondary partition D: more than 150 GB.

What is the best way and the best tool to extend size of C partition.

Is it for example Partition Magic an appropriate tool to solve this task?


Thank You for help

Wojtek

[LekimaX]

Partition Magic works great for this particualr task. Before hand, just make sure you back up all sensitives information and such. I dont remember whether if you lose the data in the partition that you shrink or not, but I dont think so.

[Curio]

Partition Magic will not operate if it detects a server operating system so in your case it is useless. You say you have a raid 1 which is a mirror so you must have at least 2 drives, is the mirror software or hardware raid? How much data is on the big partition?

There are various methods to achieve what you want to achieve but it depends on where you are starting from.

[PIPER]

[Cowgoesmoo]

I am in much the same position as the origional poster.

A win2000 server 5gig c:\ partition. (I didn't set it up.)
Hardware ADAPTEC SCSI RAID 1.

The second partition has abou 10 gig free and not likely to be used so if I can resize the partitions I can make the c:\ drive serviceable again (might even have enough space to install some windows updates!!)

I have a copy of partition magic 7 floating around that I was going to attempt to use. Was just checking here to see if I was on the rihgt track.

Any info on the best tools to use would be greatly appreciated.

[ukchris]

I am in much the same position as the origional poster.

A win2000 server 5gig c:\ partition. (I didn't set it up.)
Hardware ADAPTEC SCSI RAID 1.

The second partition has abou 10 gig free and not likely to be used so if I can resize the partitions I can make the c:\ drive serviceable again (might even have enough space to install some windows updates!!)

I have a copy of partition magic 7 floating around that I was going to attempt to use. Was just checking here to see if I was on the rihgt track.

Any info on the best tools to use would be greatly appreciated.

hmm, what I have done with a mirrored system is firstly break the mirror, shut the server down, take out the second drive, install a bigger drive in seconds place, boot using a dos disk with ghost on it, run ghost and copy the entire drive from the smaller one to the bigger one selecting a larger partition size for each partition. Once it's finished, remove both drives, set the larger drive as the first drive, install a second larger drive into second spot, boot up and set the mirror up again, but this time you will have larger partitions.

With the above in mind, I am looking at a dell server running raid 5, 3 disks.... obviously the above won't work for this. What I was planning to do was install another hard disk ( not putting this into the array ) and copy the data off the second partition, and deleting said partition. This just leaves me with one small partition ( c: drive ) and available unalocated space. The server op sys is 2003 , and I have heard a rumour diskpart.exe WILL expand a c: partition on 2003 although microsoft don't recommend it. Once I have enough room on the C: drive, then I'll add another drive and mirror the 2 new drives ( raid5 - 3 disks for op sys ) and 2 disk raid 1 mirror for data.

Does the above sound logical ? will it work ?

the trouble with this is if the array messes up during the change around, it's basically start from scratch, unless I was to buy 3 disks and mirror each one of the drives before I started messing with the array.

With the disk mirroring solution I mentioned above using ghost, if for any reason you develop a problem, it doesn't matter, you have the second mirrored disk you can put back in and it will be the same as when you started !!

[mig2000]

Based on what I am reading, it looks like there is no tools to allow me to increase the partition on my C: partition from D: ? I am running WIndows 2000 server/ SP4 and under a lot os presure as the C: is really low. Anyone has any idea how to go about doing this? Is there any software out there that can help me? Any advice would be appreicated.

Thanks
Alex

[Big Booger]

http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.php?t=51710

That sounds like the easiest solution to me.

[Curio]

There are several ways of achieving the end result and they all basically involve rebuilding the server - either with a drive imaging tool or a backup and restore system. What you are looking for is a way to dynamically resize the server system and or boot partitions without the pain of the rebuild process, it doesn't exist. In some cases there are complications involved which mean even the disk imaging process doesn't work correctly so a backup, rebuild, restore is the most likely to succeed.

10 Gb is plenty for the installation partition it's all the stuff you did wrong after that that is the real problem. To remediate the problem in the short term delete all the stuff from the various TEMP folders and the $NTUninstall folders in the %SYSTEM% directory and move the paging file this usually regains a significant amount of space.

[gargoyle149]

you can do this with Arconis server disk Director, no format and reinstall i have done this on SBServer 2003, windows 2000 server works great and takes very little time.

[Curio]

Disk Director Server doesn't work with dynamic drives, so unless it is hardware RAID it can't be used. It doesn't seem to work with SAS either.