Must Resize Partitions that are Spanned on a Server (Dell PowerEdge 600se)

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whiteviking

whiteviking

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Jun 10, 2013
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Hello,
I am working on a Dell PowerEdge 600se Server. It has two HDDs and 2 partitions. The first HDD(1) (37GB) has the boot partition (Windows Server 2003 Standard SP2), the whole First partition (C: ; 12GB) AND the first section of the Second partition (D: ; 112GB). The whole second HDD(2) (136GB) is all the second partition.

I want to re-size each partition by taking space from D: and reallocating it to C:. I have re-sized partitions before, but never with a spanned HDD configuration. I've tried using Acronis Disk Director Advanced 11 boot CD. I was able to take space from D: but not move D: to allocate it to C: I was not able to make C: any larger.

Is my only option to make a backup (image) of of C: & D: restore it on a larger HDD and then resize each partition?

I could really use some help. Thanks.
 
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popatim

popatim

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What you are calling your only option in reality should always be step 1.
Always make a current backup first. And not an image, you want a file copy. Image is an exact sector copy.

Then you can delete the D: partition
Expand C: if it will let you (depends on type of file system)
Recreate D: in the size you want.

otherwise yeah, Delete both and recreate what you want.
 
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whiteviking

whiteviking

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Thanks! That's a good idea I didnt think of. However, if there are programs pointing to D: for archive storage, and all of a sudden D: disappears will everything have to be reconfigured to retrieve the data on the C: drive? Basically, if I backup D:, delete D:, expand C:, restore D:'s contents on C:, will I have to reconfigure all the dependent programs?

Also, how would you back up both HDDs? What program? What format? Acronis? NTBackup based solution?

Thanks.

 
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popatim

popatim

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There should be no one using the server while this is being done so deleting D: for 15 minutes should not be a problem.

To be clear you need to backup both C: and D: because part of D: is on the same drive as C: and what would happen if C: dies?

as for what to use to do the backup, what OS are you running?
 
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whiteviking

whiteviking

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-I am using Windows Server 2003 Standard SP2;
& the backup system/software on the server is "BackupAssist 6.4.3" onto a RDX Quikstar USB 3.0 SSD cartrige.
To make a full backup with BackupAssist it utilizes Window's built in NTBackup; is there something better than that?

What I'm really wondering is will all the programs dependent on D: for storage know where to read/write once the files are on C:? Thanks.

 
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popatim

popatim

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you hadn't mentioned that before; Yes moving files from D: to C: will hinder programs looking for them on D: unless they are referrenced using relative addressing (//server/share/file) instead of absolute (d:/folder/file)

The server03 backup utility (in system tools) will be enough and probably easier than configuring a 1 time backup thru backupassist6
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/using-windows-server-2003-backup/5088388
todo backup and acronis also do nice jobs. I would not purchase them just to do this though.
 
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whiteviking

whiteviking

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So do you think the following would work:
1) Backup C: & D: with Acronis Backup and Recovery 11 Workstation
2) Delete D: w/ Acronis Disk Director
3) Expand C: w/ Acronis Disk Director
4) Recreate D: w/ Acronis Disk Director (All partitions are NTFS)
5) Restore D: with Acronis 11
6) Have everything as before i.e. programs in C: using D: for archive storage, and more space on C: to install new software?

 
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whiteviking

whiteviking

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What if I used Acronis or Paragon (any other good programs you know of?) to do a bare metal backup. Then replaced the two small drives with one large drive and did a bare metal restore using he same program; in the mean time, resizing the partitions, allowing for a large software upgrade on C:?

Do you think the server would function as normal after performing this procedure?

 
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whiteviking

whiteviking

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Can anyone confirm that you cant re-size partitions on two basic disks? And, what if I did the procedure above ---^ (...backing up C: & D:, restoring on a new larger HDD, and then resizing the partitions (maybe restoring them as dynamic disks)), would that work? Thanks for all the valuable help.

 
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