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Partition Drive Space

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17 replies

by stager

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We are currently running windows 2003 server. We are running out of space on the C drive on it. Will it cause a problem with the server to move to uninstall files from the windows updates to help free some space. If you have any ideas about repartioning the system drive, let me know. It is currently set up with a C (4 gigs) and E drive (120 gig). Is there anyway to repartion them without loosing the data stored on them?

17 replies

by cg it

only with a 3rd party partitioning program and then that program has to be able to work with NTFS formatted disks. It gets more complicated if you have dynamic disks. I use partiton commander version 8.0 but it doesnt like dynamic disks. havent tried other programs to see if they work with dynamic disks.

Though its a real pain in the butt to do, I recommend starting over from scratch. If you have only 1 drive, create a boot partition/system partition of 12 to 15 GB on a dynamic disk, setup the rest of the drive as a dynamic disk and mirror the system driver [RAID 5]. Better yet, go with a hardware RAID mirror [2 identical drives of 15GB] and a 3rd drive of whatever size you need for applications.

by cg it

well I know partition commander wont work with hardware RAID. We had a problem with a DC that used a mirrored hardware RAID. didn't work.

Dont know about any of the other products. we learned our lesson on running out of space on a DC and moved over to having all DCs with 20GB mirrored drives with hardware RAID. overkill but HDD prices are pretty cheap especially the 20 and 30GB drives.

by cashorty42

No you cannot becasue when you are partioning the server you are wipeing everrthing out of your computer so that means that you have to start all over from scratch.

by mini_bonez

If you are thinking about repartion you drives you should write all your needed files in to cd or transfer the needed data to another type of storage system, repartion your drives then restore the data.

by stager

We have everything fully backed up. We were just hoping to not have to go that route.

by drsysadmin

CG IT is correct - a third party application like partition-magic will do what you need without losing your data. Just drop some space from E and make it usable on C. Make sure you defrag your drive first - and you should run checkdisk after the procedure as well.
Luck.
Dr. Sys

by drsysadmin

Hmmm... I know partition magic will not work on a raid array, but is this server set up with raid? Don't know. Either way, 3rd party app is the way you will have to go.
Dr. Sys

by brian

Being a server partition magic will not do it-
You need a partition utility that works with 2kServer. I use either Volume Manger or
Acronis Disk Director Suite 9.0

I recently purchased and began using the Acronis Disk Director Suite 9.0

It is fairly inexpensive and works just as well as the Powerquest products.

You can pay online and download immediately- 10 minutes later you are setup good to go- faster than a trip to the store and back.

by rajk

I have heard that the acronis software is much cheaper and it works, I have same situation on one of my servers as well.

Do you know if the Acronis Diskeeper will work on Hardware RAID ?

Thanks

by stager

Wondering the same thing as Question #6 and about Dynamic Disk (will it see the dynamic disks not just the physical disk.)

by murphyma

Try this:

Use norton ghost to back up you os (c drive), and data (e drive) to say a usb hdd drive.
Confirm you can restore from this hdd!
reformat the server drive using for example a partial reinstall of os or simply purchace a new bigger drive.
restore the ghost image to the clean/new hdd, SPECIFYING what the new size should be.
repartion the rest of the hdd and reinstall the data.

run norton ghost every month to the usb drive!!! when (not if!) the hdd dies you can simply copy the hdd back to a new drive.

If the drive is dead try using file scavanger to pickle anything you can off it.

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