disk space and psrtitioning.

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.misc (More info?)

I am running short on my c: drive on the server. I can delete a few
things..... I can also buy volume maanger and extend the partition that way,
but it is an expensive program at $700.00

can I manually increase the c: drive partition from 4 to 7 gigs?

thnaks

 

[Calvin]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.misc (More info?)

Hi Alan,

You can increase the size of the c:\ if you wish - but a bit more information is
needed from you first:

1. This is a Win NT4 box we are talking about I presume ?
2. Are there any other disks/partitions on this system, and if so how much space
is there on them ?
3. How is your system setup - ie: where is the \winnt folder and child tree
located - on c:\ ?

On NT4 there are some limitations on where things can go and how big the system
and boot partitions can be. Have a read of http://nt4ref.zcm.com.au/bigdisk.htm
as an introduction to what can be done.

A common practice if space if becoming a problem on the system and/or boot
partitions is to relocate the print spool folder and the pagefile to other areas
of disk space. A big cleanup of unwanted garbage (eg: .tmp files, IE cache and
no longer needed 'backout' files for hotfixes) can free up several hundred MB of
space quite easily. Have a look at http://nt4ref.zcm.com.au/patch.htm for
discussion of post hotfix cleanup.

Hope this gets you started in the right direction. If you can give us more to go
on, I'm sure we can come up with more help.

Calvin.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.misc (More info?)

Calvin,,

Here's my info

-NT 4 server
-Running Exchnge 5.5 with Small Business server( the SBS probably not
relevant for this issue I think)
- 3 hard drives (scsi each 14gig).... the c: drive was auto formatted to 4
gigs and there's still 7-8 gig's unformatted upon inital install.

I use the other 2 hrad drives for some backup and misc storage. I can clear
one off clompletely if needed.

I have also never set up internal web sites or anything like that. I use
this primarily as the company smtp mail and to make sure I have all company
documents havbe a second place to reside as a secondary backup.

One of the replies to my original post mentioned partition magic. I checked
with a friend of mine at symantec,(although in the anti-virus group).... and
I read the on-line specs of the product...If I am mistaken PLEASE let me
know....but I do not hink that partition magic will help me out on an NT
server?


thanks in advance for your next reply

Alan


"Calvin" wrote:

> Hi Alan,
>
> You can increase the size of the c:\ if you wish - but a bit more information is
> needed from you first:
>
> 1. This is a Win NT4 box we are talking about I presume ?
> 2. Are there any other disks/partitions on this system, and if so how much space
> is there on them ?
> 3. How is your system setup - ie: where is the \winnt folder and child tree
> located - on c:\ ?
>
> On NT4 there are some limitations on where things can go and how big the system
> and boot partitions can be. Have a read of http://nt4ref.zcm.com.au/bigdisk.htm
> as an introduction to what can be done.
>
> A common practice if space if becoming a problem on the system and/or boot
> partitions is to relocate the print spool folder and the pagefile to other areas
> of disk space. A big cleanup of unwanted garbage (eg: .tmp files, IE cache and
> no longer needed 'backout' files for hotfixes) can free up several hundred MB of
> space quite easily. Have a look at http://nt4ref.zcm.com.au/patch.htm for
> discussion of post hotfix cleanup.
>
> Hope this gets you started in the right direction. If you can give us more to go
> on, I'm sure we can come up with more help.
>
> Calvin.
>

 

[Brian]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.misc (More info?)

"alan fluhrer" <alanfluhrer@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote
> I am running short on my c: drive on the server. I can delete a few
> things..... I can also buy volume maanger and extend the partition that
way,
> but it is an expensive program at $700.00

That seems a bit excessive. I use Symantec Partition Magic which I think
cost about $50.

> can I manually increase the c: drive partition from 4 to 7 gigs?

You can use a partition size of 7Gb if you use NTFS. The FAT file system can
only support up to 4096Mb. Can you manually increase it? Sort of. You would
back up the entire drive, create the larger partition and then restore.

Another thing to consider is that a larger system partition will slow the
system down overall. If you have space on the drive, you are better off to
create a second partition and use that as someone else suggested.

Brian

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.misc (More info?)

It won't run on a server OS but you might get away with putting the drive
temporarily in a workstation to do the work.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

"Brian" wrote:
| That seems a bit excessive. I use Symantec Partition Magic which I think
| cost about $50.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.misc (More info?)

Dave,

I did consider this but wondered the following:

since the server drive, on power-up..."looks' for certain hardware to be
there, (already installed audio, vieo etc...... wouldn't the OS just give you
masssive errors because it cannot verify these devices?

thanks

Alan

"Dave Patrick" wrote:

> It won't run on a server OS but you might get away with putting the drive
> temporarily in a workstation to do the work.
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
> Microsoft Certified Professional
> Microsoft MVP [Windows]
> http://www.microsoft.com/protect
>
> "Brian" wrote:
> | That seems a bit excessive. I use Symantec Partition Magic which I think
> | cost about $50.
>
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.misc (More info?)

Not sure what you're getting at. What I mentioned was possibly slaving the
drive in a Windows NT workstation. Be sure you're completely backed up
before trying that. In other words always expect the worst.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

"alan fluhrer" wrote:
| Dave,
|
| I did consider this but wondered the following:
|
| since the server drive, on power-up..."looks' for certain hardware to be
| there, (already installed audio, vieo etc...... wouldn't the OS just give
you
| masssive errors because it cannot verify these devices?
|
| thanks
|
| Alan

 

[Calvin]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.misc (More info?)

Hi Alan,

A lot of the problems as far as partition size are concerned (as discussed at
http://nt4ref.zcm.com.au/bigdisk.htm ) will be 'non-issues' in your case because
the problems are unique to IDE drives and the Microsoft supplied ATAPI driver.

Certainly, you should be able to increase your c: drive (it's a combined
system/boot partition going by what you have said) to at least 7.8GB in size
without trouble. I'm not 100% sure whether going bigger than 7.8GB is wise - the
problems related with not being able to reach files outside the 7.8GB boundary
imposed by the CHS addressing scheme that NTLDR uses may still be apparent.

I'm not familiar with partition magic, but have seen reports here of people
getting it to work successfully. What Dave said is correct as far as I know
though, it cannot be used on NT4 server, and you would have to temporarily slave
the drive on a NT4 Workstation machine to give this process a go.

The alternative may be to (rough idea, exact details would need some research):

1. Take the server offline.
2. Do a COMPLETE backup of everything on the system/boot partition.
3. Temporarily install a 'parallel' copy of NT onto another of the disks.
4. Boot to the parallel install.
5. Reformat the old system/boot partition to it's new required size.
6. Restore all the content from the backup.

This simple list does not take into account some of the 'details' like ensuring
that the partition is bootable when you are done. Other backup/restore
technologies like Drive Image or Norton Ghost would probably have better chances
of succeeding at this procedure on the first go

This is one of the reasons why I prefer the methods I outline in
http://nt4ref.zcm.com.au/bigdisk.htm - using a separate system partition
formatted FAT16. It is then a relatively uncomplicated process to make the
partition 'bootable' again if need be. The boot partition (the one with \Winnt
directory tree - Microsoft terminology of 'boot' and 'system' partitions is
downright complicated and confusing) is then just an NTFS partition that can be
backed up, reformatted and resized and restored at any time without any of these
'bootstrap' issues arising.

Seeing you have plenty of room elsewhere, have you considered my suggestions of
shifting your print spool and pagefile elsewhere ? This can save you a lot of
space and at least temporarily save you from having to take any action over the
size of drive c:

Hope this info helps,

Calvin.