Question

Resizing a Partition on Windows Server 2000

Asked by: thumky

This one is stumping me.  I have two partitions on a RAID 1 volume.  The C partition is 4GB and the D partition is 30GB.  Both are primary and formatted NTFS.  The OS is Windows Server 2000.

As you probably could have guessed, i've run out of room on the C partition.  I'd like to resize it and steal some space from D:
Now, the problem is that PartitionMagic doesn't support RAID volumes on Windows Server 2000.
It looks like the Symantec's freeware "Veritas Storage Foundation Basic for Windows" would accomplish this.  But the current version 5.1 doesn't support Windows Server 2000.  Version 5.0 DOES, but it's not available for download.

This is a production database.  I can bring it down on the weekends.  But i need a bulletproof way to do this.
Anyone know where i can get my hands on Veritas Storage Foundation Basic for Windows Version 5.0 ?
Or any other suggestions?  I don't mind upgrading my SCSI drives, but i'd be stuck with the same problem... i would have to resize the partitions once i had increased the size of the data volume ( right?? ).

Thanks!!!!
-matt

More specs:

OS is Windows Server 2000
Here are my two data volumes
2X 36GB SCSI RAID 1 ( 36 GB usable )
4X 73GB SCSI RAID 5 ( 146GB usable )

There are TWO partitions on the first data volume.  C: is 4GB and D: is 30GB

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Asked On
2009-11-02 at 12:04:27ID24865011
Tags

Veritas

,

Symantec

,

RAID

Topics

Windows 2000 Server

,

Disk Partition Tools

Participating Experts
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Points
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Comments
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Answers

 

by: alanhardistyPosted on 2009-11-02 at 12:20:20ID: 25723310

I use Paragon Partition Manager Server for tweaking my server partitions.  There are other available (probably cheaper too), but this is a tool I have and have used many times, all successfully (except one server).

Recommendation is to make a full backup and run a disk check first!

http://www.paragon-software.com/business/pm-server/

You will need to move the start of the d: partition to the right to free up space for the C: drive to expand into, then expand the C: drive.  I would personally perform one change at a time.

 

by: leewPosted on 2009-11-02 at 12:36:17ID: 25723443

4 GB is small but for 2000 IT MAY BE sufficient.  Remember, repartitioning is a POTENTIALLY DESTRUCTIVE action - it SHOULD be safe, but there is a NON-ZERO chance the repartitioning will irreparably damage the partitions and then you'll have to go to a backup.

Instead of repartitioning, examine the server more carefully.  What can be moved off C:?  What's taking up space?  the 4 GB has been enough for YEARS... what makes NOW different?  One of the biggest culprits is Windows Updates - they provide backups of the pre-update files - many of these can be deleted.  If web services are running on the system, logs may be filling up the drive... look things over CAREFULLY.  For a list of things you can move, see http://www.lwcomputing.com/tips/static/bootdrivesize.asp

 

 

by: JimUPosted on 2009-11-02 at 12:40:00ID: 25723475

Are you using the Windows software RAID (I can't remember if Windows 2000 even had this or not), RAID from a hardware card, or motherboard BIOS?

If using a hardware RAID controller or certain BIOS "hardware" controllers then you may be able to use a tool like GParted.  They have live ISO images you could boot into and then do your resizing.  It would depends on your RAID controller being supported though.   http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

However, if using the Windows software RAID that probably won't work (it might but I don't think GParted supports those).

With that said, those drives are so small I would just copy everything off to a spare drive (or image the drives using Ghost or Partimage), repartition/reformat, and then copy everything back.  You will probably have to repair your boot sector when doing this though.  Make sure to make a recovery disk in Windows first... and back everything up first obviously.  I would do the copying from another OS though, like boot into a Knoppix Live CD and copy everything from there to make sure it gets everything.  Doing it in Windows would probably require a tool so as make sure everything was copied.

Whatever you do I would try it on another machine first.  Set it up similarly and just try it.  You don't want a production machine to get into a state that you can't get it back quickly.

 

by: thumkyPosted on 2009-11-02 at 13:32:04ID: 25723976

These all look like excellent suggestions.
 
This is an IBM X-Series 365 (8862-3RX) with a ServeRAID 4LX RAID Adapter
Microsoft software RAID?  eww sounds yucky.

The C: drive pretty much is just the OS plus a few utilities.  The database, web server etc... is on another partition.
I'll try to cleanup the Microsoft Updates first, and investigate the other two soln's if that doesn't work.

Thank you.

 

by: alanhardistyPosted on 2009-11-02 at 13:34:18ID: 25723996

If you are looking to free up space - a great tool that I use is Foldersize:

http://foldersize.sourceforge.net/

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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