Win2k3 service pack 1 left only 50MB free space on C: drive--what to do?

1)backup your system (OS and data)
2) recreate the RAID setup.  Leave 10GB to C and rest for data..on raid 5
3) install the Windows 2003 with SP1 on C:
4) restore your OS and data

If you haven't moved the pagefile off of the C:, go ahead and do that.  That would help some, depending on the size of it.

Then when you have time, do what NJ suggests.

There's also Acronis Disk Director 10, which some on here have said works great for repartitioning arrays.

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/diskdirector/

Although I'm guessing it's only going to work if the RAID array is software based.

OK, but can I remove the service pack for now? Is that safe?I am really hesistant to reinstall the OS at this time. I am just not sure how it will all play out. I will have to reshare everything yes? And all the users mappings and shortcuts are kablooey too, right? And I am really afraid with the RAID 1 and 5 setup, it just makes me damn nervous, reseting those up. UGGGH! I wish the ding dong that set this up would have made the OS partition bigger back then, what a nightmare. I dont think I can use any partition software as it is a hardware RAID config.

I would not recommend the uninstall of the service pack.  

When you reinstall the OS, and restore the OS, you will not have to recreate the shares, user mappings,...because of the backup restore, all your settings will be retained.

OK could you elaborate on what backup restore is? I dont know if I am following. You are saying that all of my settings for Win2k3 can be backed up, then I reinstall win2k3, then I install the backed up settings--how do I do that?

Whoa...well NJ can walk you through the details, but:

Basically you can use NTBackup (accessories, system tools, backup) to backup the server.

You will want to backup all drives and the system state (but there is a wizard that can walk you through a full backup).

You'll need to either back it up to tape, or something portable like a USB external hard drive.

Then you rebuild the server from scratch, setting the correct RAID and partition sizes and installing just the OS.

Then you RESTORE the backup you made over the existing setup using NTBackup again.

OK cause I am confused as far as backing up the system state vs Automatic Server Recovery? (ASR) how would these play into reinstalling windows? Also, I have everything backed up via Veritas Backup exec.

OK this seems to be too simple to be true:

http://www.petri.co.il/what's_asr_in_windows_xp_2003.htm

Can someone have a look and tell me if this will work? Would there be any issues with RAID? Can I do the ASR setup, and then wipe the disk and restore it to a bigger partiton, or would it have to be restored to a partition the same size? I increased the points as I am kind of going off in a different direction.

Ah...even better.

With Veritas, I know it by heart.

BACKUP
====

1.  Run a backup using BackupExec (I'll assume BackupExec is local, if not, make sure the Remote Agent is installed on the server being backed up).
2.  For the backup, choose select the hard drives to be backed up (all of them) and check "system state".
3.  Make sure the backup job options show "Full backup" with verification turned on.
4.  Run the backup.
5.  Check the job logs to make sure it completed sucessfully and didn't have any errors.
6.  Put the backup tape someplace safe.

RESTORE
======

http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/236240.htm

Note:  The above is assuming you don't have the Intelligent Disaster Recovery option for Veritas.

The ASR method should work as well, which is using the NTbackup as explained above (the wizard)

OK herein lies my confusion:

 RAID 1  (2 36GB U320 drives mirrored)

C:\  Windows 2003  4GB
D:\ Data 32GB  (all moved to new RAID 5 below)

RAID 5  (3 72 GB U320 drives and 1 hot spare)
E:\ Data

Now when I do the backup, do I have to backup ALL drives or just the C:\ ? There is nothing on D: and I do have the e:\ backed up already, and would I even need to touch that in the rebuild of drives in RAID 1? I guess I really get confused when trying to account for RAID. Once it is done, and I go to reinstall the tape, do I have to install Backup Exec on the server I am restoring? And I the tape backup unit is on the other server, so do I have to move the unit to the one that is being restored as well?

If you are running BackupExec remotely (the server software is on another server) then no, all you need is the remote agent on the server in question.  The last link I posted was if you had BE installed on the actual server in question.

No you wouldn't need to backup the D drive then.

I would backup and restore E as well, just to be safe.  You may be able to get around, just depends on how you do the reinstall of the OS.  If you clear out the RAID arrays completely you'll definitely need to restore E.

Ok i wasnt planning on deleting the RAID 5, I figured I would leave it alone and when up and running again all of that would be there--if it got hosed, I have a full back up to restore from already. I dont think there is any reason to zap that one, just the RAID 1. I guess my other question is, what am I backing up to? If I have the server agent running, and I back all that up across the netwrok to a drive on the other server (the one running backup exec), when I go to restore, will it be able to see that network drive to restore from, or does it have to be locally attached?

You would do the restore from the "backup server".  You should see the backup jobs in the veritas software.  Just click the RESTORE tab and do a new restore job, then choose the full backup you did, and select everything.  Then it will basically restore everything on top of your existing new OS on the server you just wiped out and reloaded (be sure and install the remote agent again BEFORE doing the restore...you can do this through the software too, under tools, Install remote agents . depending on version #)

OK I am really having a hard time with this.  Lets step back and say I just do this with ASR (All the data from the RAID 5 drives will be backed up and safe via server2 w/ Backup Exec taking it from server1 via reote agent.).  I can do it and save all the c: drive system  data  for server1 to an external USB hard drive? OK now when I go to restore, it will be able to see that USB drive? I dont know where else to save to. I do have the DLT tape drive on server2 and it is external, but I would have to buy a SCSI card and install it on server1 in order to have a place to save the backed up data. It just seesm like it would be much easier to run ASR and backup to external USB harddrive if that can be done (cleaner i think you mentioned that??). So I guess my other concern is RAID. While all of this is going on with the RAID OS configuration, will it be OK to just leave my RAID 5 alone. I know I am its probably wishful thinking, but in theory if I replace the system data to c: on the RAID 1 config, when it finishes the restore, wont it see the RAID 5 setup? Tell me if you think this will work:

1)Pop out 2nd drive of RAID1 mirror as backup

2) run ASR on 1st drive of RAID1

3) after restore w/ ASR reinstall 2nd drive from mirror and have 1st write to it

Thanks for the points!