Image/clone sbs 2008 hd

Is the hard drive single, or part of a RAID array?
Acronis, Easeus, Macrium, etc, all have the option of cloning/re-sizing partitions for single disks.
For RAID arrays, we're going to need more information to see how we can help.

HTH,
Dan

You can use Acronis products or Norton Ghost products to accomplish your goal for sure.  You can make an image of the server with either of the mentioned utilities.  You can then replace your server hard drives with new, larger ones then restore your image to the server but set the partitions larger so that you gain more space.  Sounds like a good idea in your case as you can more easily move data to your new server 2012 server if the old one is up and running.  Honestly I think Acronis makes a better product but there are others. IC3 is another one that I know of as well.

Hope this helps!
-D-

Is the hard drive single, or part of a RAID array?
Single, which is itself a problem, there is no backup.   Well I don't think so, but will a hardware Raid1 show both drives in CompMgmt?  This only shows 1, and I have not opened the case yet.
 I was also thinking of putting in another but larger hd, partition it the same as the current one, make them dynamic and r1, and then make the data partition larger.  
I've used Easeus many times and it seems very good, but I wasn't sure about using it on a server.  

Thanks both for comments!

If it's hardware RAID, you'll only see one drive in CompMgmt, but the name of that drive will be telling (not the typical WD/HP/ST etc, but something with RAID in it).

If you're dealing with plain SATA (not SAS drives), you can connect the new drive using a USB enclosure, clone it and then try replacing the old one.
Worst case scenario: you'll put the old one back.

HTH,
Dan

Regardless of the storage configuration.....
Are you running backup?
If so, you can restore back to the larger volume.
If not... Look at simple MS home server as a Back up solution running on a white box or spare computer in the office. Restore will be as simple as booting to the restore CD, finding the back up volume and running the job...

Regardless of the storage configuration.....
Are you running backup?
There appears to be no backup.  To be clear, I have inherited this, it's not my setup.  I'm trying to figure out how to move forward.

Related question (should I post a separate question?) in the op I mentioned going to Server12 (or Server08) and away from SBS; we have licenses for those.  The small domain is on XP, am going to move to Win7 and Not Win8, which server edition would be better, and does that plan make sense?

I would post a separate question for the server version question..  

Back to the cloning issue.  If I were you I would connect an external drive and create an image of the current server on it.  Once that is done..  If it's single drives, remove the drive and replace it with a new drive.  If it is a raid array remove the drives and record their exact position (in case they need to be put back to revert) then put new drives in.  With raid your stripe will be the size of the largest drive so best practice would be to put equally sized drives in.  Example 5 500GB drives would be a good amount of space in a raid 5 configuration.  Then initialize the new raid array.  After that reconnect the external drive and reboot with your imaging software boot disk.  Restore the image to the new drive array (extending the volumes so that you gain extra space).

Hope this helps
-D-

There appears to be no backup.  To be clear, I have inherited this, it's not my setup.  I'm trying to figure out how to move forward.


One of the FIRST moves "forward"  should be to set backup up AND backup EVERYTHING ...
This way, if things break for some unexplained reason you can easily revert back.
And... as a bonus you get to resize your drives ;-)

use built in windows backup it takes an image.

1. Backup to usb
2. make new bigger raid volume.
3. restore backup.
4. expand drive to consume free space.

pretty straightforward really.

Don't you think virtualization in an environment with 1 or two servers is a bit overkill?  Especially seeing that he just inherited the environment he is in?  Also, if you ever do do virtualization then VMWare is the real way to go.  We have 30+ servers.  In our environment virtual makes sense.  I don't feel in a 1-2 server environment it is necessarily worth the time/complexity that implementing it right is worth.

My 2c
-D-

I think that it has it's place but not in a 2 server environment.  Also in his situation the free version of vmware ESX would suit his needs.  I have used both extensively and I would never suggest Hyper-V to anyone.  It is in inferior product by far.  The same way I would not suggest Sharepoint to anyone either. (That would be one vendor too) and again, inferior.

-D-

So you don't think I made any points with recoverability/DR?

The free version of ESXi is limited to 32 GB of RAM.  VERY LITTLE.

I've heard a great many things about the wonderful management tools for ESX, and that's great.  In a small environment, they aren't needed... so outside of that, I don't agree with your opinion of Hyper-V being an inferior product.  ESX MAY be a little better in spots, but for a small environment, there is no difference.  And Microsoft seems to be leading now as they were first to support more processors, RAM, and larger virtual disks in 2012, if I remember correctly (and if I don't VMWare didn't have much of a lead on them.

32 GB ram again would work in this environment.   But let's hear what the author of the question has to say in regard to the posts and go from there.  The original question is "Image/clone sbs 2008 hd" and we have brought this way off topic.

-D-

Ok then the same could be done with ESXi with p2v.  

-D-

Relevant to the question...

If you don't want to find out why the disk is full, just clone it with Acronis, Easeus or anything you have available. Reboot with the new disk if everything goes ok proceed with the upgrade.

Passing from SBS2008 to Server 2012 should be fine if you know what your doing, specially with exchange.   I won't recommend one box for DC and exchange on 2012 better go with 2 boxes.  If your environment does not exceed your actual SBS2008 needs but in space requirements stay away from VM... is more budget wise... sometimes... :)

@dimante

Yes, you should have suggested it earlier.  :-)

Wow, there are so many interesting, complex, and detailed comments I have to consider them all carefully.  Thank you all.  I have no idea how to award points here, some for everyone?  I'll get back on that.

This is a one room area with only 4 XP computers and 25-ish users.  No Exchange.  C drive is about (I'm not in front of it and won't be for a few days) 75G.  (as I said I did not build this)   Data drive I'm sorry but do not recall atm, but it's less than 500G.  8G RAM.   This system is mostly about a small timekeeping database, and Active Directory authentication only for that one room.   One problem I think is the WinSxS folder, which is huge.  It's set up to run patches for the other machines through the server, which A. was unnecessary in this application IMO, and B.  it was apparently set to download ALL patches for every system, ever.  I need to fix that.

Again, thank you to all, I am reading and researching all this info.

75 GB is a little tight but should be managable.

This is one reason I'd START with virtualizing.  It would give you the opportunity to examine the system, play and experiment and learn the config and what's taking up space without potentially causing problems with the production server.

In any case, examine the disk and determine what is using the space and see what can mitigate that usage.  WinSxS can't be culled much if at all (I wouldn't touch it), but you can move the WSUS updates off the drive.  You can move databases, file storage and several other things to reclaim disk space.

It sounds like whoever setup the server really didn't understand the product.  They overpaid if they aren't using exchange.

Terribly sorry about my absence, contract problems caused me to not be at this job for quite a while.   This is now resolved for the next few months and I am hoping to move forward, but now funding may impact implementation.
Thanks to all so much, and again, sorry to not be here, but I had to quickly find other sources of income.