asked on

Raid 5 Partitions and resizing c: taking space from d:

I have 3 Dell servers that i made the mistake of having Dell configure my raid 5 only giving me 12 GB on my C: drive. Over time I have just about run out of space C: I have since set up a storage area network at one location that one of the files servers and the exchange server are attached to. All the data for both now resides on the SAN, however, I still need a safe way to resize the partitions (take from the D: drive and give to C:

The 3rd server in Houston (Dell) I also need to do the same with. I need to know the safest utility to use to do this especially with regard to exchange.

jesusrulesme

I have seen so many people crash servers because of resizing utilities that it isn't funny. Personally, I usually prefer to make an image of the server to a bench drive with Ghost or Acronis, then once I've verified the image on the bench drive was made properly, I image back to the RAID 5 and manually set the partition sizes when I image back. I've done this dozens of times and it has always worked and kept me from losing any data. If you do choose to resize partitions instead of imaging off and back on, I would recommend gparted. Please make sure to get a good backup prior to imaging, though.

tomaskir

Partition Magic can easily do this on the fly and in seconds - http://www.symantec.com/norton/partitionmagic

As mentioned before tho, make sure you have a good backup before messing with partitioning.

dprada

ASKER

tomaskir, do you trust partition magic for servers and exchange? Have you ever sucessfully used it on a server running raid 5?

dprada

ASKER

i have read up on acronis, very expensive, however, the imaging at least in the event of failure is the quickest way to restore.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

jesusrulesme

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial