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SBS2008 c:\ drive toosmall

HP Proliant ML330 G6 server running SBS2008
The C:\ drive on my server is running out of space, I have moved everything I can to the D:\ drive but it is still not enough.
I have purchased a pair of 1TB hot swap drives is it correct that i can do the following:
Remove one of the c:\ drives and put in one of the new 1TB drives wait for it to be filled up by the RAID and then do the same with the other driver.
Then go into Computer management Disck Drives and enlarge the drive to take up all the space on the 1tb drives.

Thanks
sam
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Church Gate

First I would suggest you to download free utility like tree size and check which folder is utilizing highest space.

Ref :http://www.jam-software.com/treesize/

 Expand each folder and Check which folder is utilizing more Disk space and take action accordingly.

Also check for the Shadow Copies? , Right Click on Drive C: and click “Shadow Copies “.

 Make sure Shadow Copies is not utilizing high amount of disk space

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I have moved all that can be moved I have to replace the drives
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Is the OS disk partitioned? If yes, and if C: is between other partitions, it won't work that easy. You'd have to move the partitions that come behind C: toward the end of the disk first, before the C: partition can be resized to use the unassigned space on the disk. To do that you'd need 3rd party partitioning tools which are expensive for servers, take a long time, and might cause data loss. The other option would be to backup the partitions behind C:, resize C:, then restore the other partitions. For that you wouldn't need 3rd party tools, and it probably wouldn't take any longer than if you used 3rd party tools to move the partitions (besides, before doing anything you'd need a complete backup anyway).

Also, before all the space on the new array gets available, you'd have to expand the array using your RAID tools. Your controller probably does support this, but I'm not sure. You'd have to check the manual.
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the computer is a server running raid
You can't extend system partition that easy.
The best solution is to create Disaster recovery backup, replace disk, create new raid and restore disaster recovery to new bigger partition.

If you just replace disks in Raid on by one and let partition rebuild is not going to change anything since Disk manager will not allow you extend system partition. You going to need to use some 3rd party tool like EASEUS partition master to do the job but it's always risky, So backup (disaster recovery) is crucial.

Another option is to use Disk2VHD tool to convert your System partition to virtual, connect to Hyper-V server, extend partition and convert back to logical using VHD2Disk tool on new created raid.
I have moved all that can be moved I have to replace the drives

A more accurate statement is that you have moved all that YOU can think of moving.

I would suggest you let us know how large the C: drive is and work with us - maybe we know something you don't.  Maybe you're that good and really do know your stuff and have moved everything... of course if that's the case, it's unlikely we'll be able to suggest much to help out other than what you might already suspect.
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The drive is 250gb partioned C:\ 70gb (free 4.58gb)  with D:\  160gb (free 106gb)

I have moved Exchange and WSUS to E:

The computer is a HP Proliant ML330 G6 running RAID1

I have purchased 2 hot swap 1TB drives and would  like help in fitting them
recent windows versions keep a trace of all updates which is quite often what will cause the loss of space. they typically amount to 20-50GB. passing service packs helps. removing the files will prevent updates rollbacks and possibly mess up wsus in unknown ways. i pretty much second the use of treesize in order to determine what is using up space before acting. also note that moving huge parts of the system and not just user data to another drive is feasible.

--

your scenario should work, and it is not too risky : growing partitions is not really a risky operation and you have the previous drives anyway.

if windows won't let you grow the system partition, you can boot any livecd or even a windows-based bartPE to grow the partition as long as you properly shutdown windows beforehand.

i'd try in windows first and if that won't work, use whatever linux-based livecd such as knoppix and do the operation in gparted which features an easy to use graphical interface.

this should also be feasible using the windows recovery console but not graphically and using quite cryptic command lines that could easily break the filesystem if you type them wrong. i would not recommend it unless you don't have a choice.

note that if windows won't let you resize the partition, you should resize before you add the second 1Tb drive. the live cd won't know about the raid setup and likely make a mess of things otherwise. if you can resize in windows, the order does not matter.
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I am told the hard ware RAID 1 will need to be told about the larger size is that correct?
A screen shot of the drive config would be helpful.  E: is what?  70 GB is low, but not generally unmanageable.  Have you moved the pagefile?  A screen shot of the results of Windirstat or Treesize would also be helpful.
I just checked my last SBS 2008 server and I've got about 51 GB used... no reason you shouldn't be able to get that low.  Make sure you move your IIS logs and WSUS CONTENT as well.
As I mentioned earlier, you will have to check with your RAID controller whether it supports expanding the array. Most good controllers do support that, and it just takes a couple of minutes normally. You must also make sure you have gotten HP server certified enterprise class disks which have the proper firmware and are on the HCL of your controller.

For the rest, backup D:, delete D:, Extend C: using diskmanagement, restore D:. This is pretty straight forward and doesn't take much time. It would probably also be faster if you just remove both old disks, install the new ones, create the array, restore C:, and if your backup program allows you to restore it to a larger partition, then restore D:, and your ready-

A 3rd option, provided your server has 2 empty drive bays would be to install the new disks and create a new RAID 1 array on them, then move D: to that new array. After that you can extend C: to use all of the original array. This would be simplest, and fastest.
I am told the hard ware RAID 1 will need to be told about the larger size is that correct?

 i was assuming windows software raid.
note that many hardware raid are actually software raid with raid ( poorly ) implemented in the driver so you end up with a mix of what's worse from both worlds.

normally, hard or soft raids will allow you to mirror a small partition with a big one, and then extend the LUN, and then the OS will let you extend the partition and filesystem. any actual hardware raid should let you use the described process seemlessly

when using software raid, the same applies in theory. but some software raids will leave partitions unusable when you boot live cds or even the recovery console. if you're unlucky, this may be the case. so if BOTH windows won't let you resize the system partition ( try in recovery mode ) AND live cds do not list partitions properly you'd be in trouble. if that applies we'll think something out. if not don't bother with uselessly more complex scenarios. it is quite easy to check.
In addition to the above comments, have you moved the actual WSUS Database? (not just the content).

I've got a couple of SBS2008's still and they are showing about 60GB used on C:\.

Do a TreeSize Free scan as already suggested and show us what is using the space, we maybe able to save you some downtime here.

Personally we are moving people off SBS2008 now anyways.
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please find attached tree files
tree1.jpg
tree2.jpg
Couple things:
1. SYSMSI is often that large because of the Windows Internal Database - you should be able to move that to a different drive.  See:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd277864(v=office.12).aspx

2. WINSXS folder is tougher to handle.  You can try to reduce it using compcln.exe (see http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tr-dojo/reduce-the-size-of-the-winsxs-folder-with-vsp1clnexe-and-compclnexe/) but if you've already done that, then that's what you're stuck with.
- winsxs is the issue regarding updates i was referring to previously.
have a look here, for more information
http://www.howtogeek.com/174705/how-to-reduce-the-size-of-your-winsxs-folder-on-windows-7-or-8/
don't even try moving that folder elsewhere. even hardlinking the folder with junction will likely break the boot process.

- program files and individual programs can be moved.
individual programs are usually simpler to reinstall to a different location.
moving the whole folder and linking it with junction proovably works fine without breaking stuff

- it might be interesting to dig into the windows folder as well. it is not that uncommon to find a bunch of old really big temp files

i'd say if you manage to free 15-20G and don't expect the space to rebuild up soon, you probably can keep this drive. otherwise, go on
You may be able to replace the drives with bigger ones one at a time but they have to be the same technology (can;t replace SAS with SATA) and to expand you also need battery backed cache on the Smart Array controller. You do have spare disk slots though so you could move everything off D: to a new E: and then use an offline CD such as Bootit NG to resize C: so it took up all 250GB of the first pair of disks.
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It is an HP Proliant ml330 running sbs2008 and is using a Smart Array P410 in slot 4
Sata array A - 1 logical drive (s)
                    Logical drive 1 (232.9 GB, RAID 1)     this is partitioned drive C: & D:
Sata array B - 1 logical drive(s)
                   Logical Drive 2 (931.5 GB, RAID 1)    this is drive E:

Can I remove one disc from array A and replace it with a new sata 1tb drive let the raid fill it up
Then do the same with the 2nd disk and replace it with the other 1tb drive and  let the raid fill it up
They will both only be 250gb
How can I then tell  the smart array to use up all the 1tb
Logical disk extension is only available if you have battery backed write cache. You can check in the ACU or SSA RAID utility to check that, or I can check it for you if you upload an ADU report. All these utilities should be under start->HP system tools.
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is this the report you want
report-dce4ce6c-0000c40c-00000000.zip
You don't need any tool like Bootit to increase the size of C:. This can be done directly from within diskmanagement after you have moved D to the 3rd array. As I mentioned already, that would be the simplest way.
P410/zero (no cache and no battery). I'm afraid you would have to upgrade it to allow you to extend the logical disk. The P410/Zero is also limited to two logical disks so you couldn't even swap the disks one at a time and then create a 3rd logical disk.

You can buy 534916-B21 512MB FBWC kit and fit that, then RAID array expansion and logical disk extension are enabled along with RAID5 and RAID 6. Refurbished is OK since it uses a supercapacitor rather than a battery and supercaps don't wear out like batteries do. They're only £22, $30 on eBay but make sure the cache DIMM plus supercapacitor is included. For that price it's well worth it as it will also speed up disk writes a bit.
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Rindi
your suggestion earlier:
A 3rd option, provided your server has 2 empty drive bays would be to install the new disks and create a new RAID 1 array on them, then move D: to that new array. After that you can extend C: to use all of the original array. This would be simplest, and fastest

If I copy the files from D: to the new array E: and then delete d: and extend c: into the resulting free space. Is this done by using
the disk management in Admistrative tools - computer management - Disk drives and right click on C: and telling it to extend?

And in the same place change the drive letter of the new array E:  to D:
computer management - Disk drives and right click on C: and telling it to extend?

Yes.

It would be better to remove the drive letter from the current "D" first, then just restore the backup of D to the new array, assign it the correct drive letter, and check that everything still works (for example any shares etc). After that is verified you can delete the original partition and extend C.

If you just copy from the original D to the new one shares might not be included.
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So I understand correctly
Insert the 2 new drives and create a new array  drive f:
backup d: to a usb drive
renname d: drive g:
resture the backup to the new array f:
rename f: drive d:
delete the old d: drive (now called g:)
and extend c:
then check the shares
You are limited to two logical drives with P410/zero so you still need that cache module if you want a 3rd array.
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the kit referred to:
HP 534916-b21 HP 512MB FBWC KIT SMART ARRAY CONTROLLER w battery 571436-002

What is the complication of buying and fitting this
does it need software?
will it recognise the existing raid arrays?
is it just a matter of unplugging the existing board and putting the new one?
It's a cache module and backup capacitor that you add to the current controller. As it just enhances the current controller there's no software or drivers to change.

In the line drawing at the top of https://www.hpe.com/h20195/v2/GetPDF.aspx/c04111713.pdf the cache module is in the middle of the board in clips, you don't have to reconfigure anything, just power off and fit it in the clips like a SODIMM. In the event of power loss the capacitor (not battery) powers it for about 10 seconds so it can flush the cache RAM into a little flash chip on the board,
Yes, that's it. The capacitor (not a battery but does the same job and looks similar) provides enough power to flush the RAM to a flash chip in the event of unexpected power loss.
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sorry not clear, do I need the battery or do I have to buy a capacitor?
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Thanks for all your patience and help, I will buy the part now and do the job
Happy new year to you both
Why Happy new year only to both,  we all are here to help you.
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Sorry, Happy new year to you all
you do not need a battery to extend the size of a raid 1.
your own procedure is much better than any other suggestion and there is no reason not to try it.
it might not work on some low end software raid cards but you'd know in a matter of minutes without breaking anything : replace one drive and see what the controller proposes at boot. if the option to mirror the old drive with the new is present, the rest will work.

... and if the controller does not support this, and you have to go through backup-restore or reinstall, there is no reason whatsoever to use such a lame hardware raid. you won't have better performance or security than by running a software raid in windows. and you're bound to run into similar problems in the future.
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I know it will work but after it mirrors the new 1tb drive it will only be 250gb  (the size of the original)
Then I put in the next 1tb drive and wait for that to mirror, but the both these drives will only show 250gb!
Will it allow me to extend them to 1tb?
it should. most controllers do. there is no reason not to try.
and if it does not, you have every reason to switch to software raid rather than buying more hardware.
skullnobrains> you do not need a battery to extend the size of a raid 1.

Don't know much about HP Smart Array controllers do you? Read the quickspecs at https://www.hpe.com/h20195/v2/GetPDF.aspx/c04111713.pdf and look at what it lists under Management Features...

Online array expansion (with BBWC/FBWC upgrade)
Online Advanced Capacity Expansion (with BBWC/FBWC and Smart Array Advanced Pack upgrade)
Online logical drive extension (with BBWC/FBWC upgrade)          
Online RAID level migration (with BBWC/FBWC upgrade)
Online strip size migration (with BBWC/FBWC upgrade)
Offline Mirror splitting and recombining (with BBWC/FBWC and Smart Array Advanced Pack upgrade)
Unlimited global online spare assignment
User selectable expand and rebuild priority
User selectable RAID level and stripe size
User selectable read and write cache sizes

A;so under standard features...
Logical Drives Supported
Zero Memory, Up to 2 logical volumes
256MB cache and greater, Up to 64 logical volumes

You say FBWC isn't needed for logical drive extension, HP say it is and they wrote the firmware.

Admittedly they could buy the 256MB cache instead of the 512MB FBWC and then have 3 logical volumes instead of extending the logical drive, that would save about £1.50

You may be right calling the P410/Zero a lame RAID controller but the P410/512FBWC is a feature rich RAID controller that's not lame at all and that's what they'll have after adding that £22 cache/capacitor module.
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i have ordered the Cache/capacitor and will install it.
but will it then allow me to extend the 250gb image to 1tb?

"I know it will work but after it mirrors the new 1tb drive it will only be 250gb  (the size of the original)
Then I put in the next 1tb drive and wait for that to mirror, but the both these drives will only show 250gb!
Will it allow me to extend them to 1tb? "
Yes. But why bother? With that module you can keep the old disks installed, AND add the new ones at the same time, as it also supports 3 arrays. You have less work, and risk that way, and it takes much less time, as you don't have to wait for the new disks to sync twice, which also exercises your disks more than necessary.

You'd have to backup/restore D anyway. Or shrink, then use a 3rd party tool to move the smaller D to the end of the disk before you can expand C.
Yes, once installed you can use the logical drive extension feature via the ACU, highlight the logical drive and extend it, start about half way down http://h20565.www2.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?sp4ts.oid=372786&docId=emr_na-c03510253&docLocale=en_US (the first part of that doc is for adding an additional disk which you are not doing).

You can still swap the disks one by one without waiting for the cache to arrive, recommended to shut right down and remove one disk, power on, acknowledge the missing disk error message and then fit the replacement and let it rebuild. That gives you a cleanly shutdown disk in hand that has  good copy of your OS on it. Rebuild will take several hours and once complete the green light will stop flashing at 2Hz,
It would certainly make more sense to use all 6 drives and shuffle the data about once you have the cache, it may use a little bit more electricity but it will be faster. You can even add the new 1TB disks to Array B which has your old 1TB ones and make that a 2TB RAID 10 making E: bigger and faster.
@andy : that most likely applies to expansion the require reformatting the raid array because any interruption during the operation would result in data loss. you should not need one for simple atomic operations.
it applies to any logical drive extension even though logically it shouldn't. You can't even add a mirror without a battery and all that needs is to copy one disk to another. I have had to temporarily borrow cache from stock to convert single dusk to mirrored in the past and we have had people asking at EE why drive extension wint work previously ao I know the quickspecs are correct.
never stumbled on such a controller, but given you have experience with it...

if that is the case, it might be worthwile to consider adding the new disks as standalone, dd from the old disk to the new ones, and setup windows raid1
... or switch to one of the backup-restore options but do the new setup with jbod and windows raid
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The path i am going to take is:
1: add the module to the controller
2: add the 3rd array of 2 x 1tb drives
3: backup the d: drive
4: restore the D; drive backup to the new 3rd array
5: delete the d: drive partion
6: rename the 3rd array d:
7: extend the c: drive into the space released        
is that the correct procedure?
Skull, you cannot setup stand-alone disks because the controller does not support pass-through except on Itanium so you would have to create two RAID0s if the single drives which would break the two LUN limit of the /zero version.

samcory, looks like the best way to do it although you could just robocopy the files from one windows drive to another rather than backup/restore.
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Andyalder
so as not to confuse me is my list correct bar using robocopy ?
aren't you replacing the c drive ?
1: add the module to the controller
2: add the 3rd array of 2 x 1tb drives
3: backup the c: drive
4: restore the c: drive backup to the new 3rd array
5: delete the original array for your c drives ( you may just unplug the disks and test you can boot from the new array before deleting the old array )
6: possibly repair the boot process. maybe set the bios to boot from the 3rd array.
alternatively you can also add the boot option to boot from the new array in windows and keep the boot record on the old drives
7: extend your c. partition. if that is impossible from within windows, you'd need a livecd

copying directly from one array to the next might be simpler
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No the C; drive is 250 gb split C: 70gb D: 160gb

add 3rd array 1tb   copy D: to it

Extend C: to the full 250gb  that should be good enough to last the rest of the life of the server which is already 4 years old
oh ! so you want a new d: and just reclain the space for C ???

- add the new array
- create one or more partitions. format the first one and mount it as e:
- copy files from d to e ( possibly with a livecd or in recue mode if you encounter problems )
- destroy the d partition
- change the mountpoint of the new partition to d
- extend c ( again possibly with a livecd if windows won't let you )

pretty much the same as yours.

note that you probably can copy/mirror the existing d partition to the new drive while the system is running which might be easier and prevent any weird copy problems.
you can do that with a few mouse clicks from the disk management which might be simpler that copys or backups and changing mountpoints
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Now that I think about it I am getting worried
The D: drive contains:
Program files: Microsoft : Exchange server   (I moved this from C: so I suppose I can move it to a new partion in the new 3rd array)
Program data: AVG   (I an just reinstall avg)
USERS: I moved these from C: so I suppose I can move them too.
OR SHALL I FORGET ABOUT the above and:

Or shall I
shut down the server
remove 1 of the C; drives and replace with a 1tb
wait for it to mirror
Then do the same with the 2nd c: drive
wait for it to mirror
and then see if it is possible to extend the drive from 250gb to 1tb
I suggest this:

1. Disconnect the server from the LAN so no one uses it during your work on it.
2. Backup the complete server (not just D), using a proper backup tool (just copying files is not a backup).
3. Remove the Drive-Letter from D using diskmanagement.
4. shut the server down and add the module to the RAID controller.
5. Add the new disks.
6. Power the server back on and configure the new RAID array.
7. Restore the backup of D to the newly created array, and when done assign it drive letter D.
8. Test the functions of the server, including everything that should run from D.
9. If everything is OK, add it back to the LAN.
10. Test again from a workstation.
11. If everything is fine and working as it should, Delete the old partition that used to be D.
12. Extend C using Diskmanagement (leave around 10MB at the end of the disk unassigned, if you don't do that the total disk space will often not be correctly show in Windows explorer, besides, should you want to convert the disk to dynamic at some point, that unpartitioned space would be required).

Your done!
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Thank you thats it!
I will not read any more notes as it confuses me.
I will follow your suggestion
feel free not to read unless you fail somehow with the above process
- add the new array ( not risky, reboot most likely required )
- soft-mirror your d in windows with a new partition on the new array ( not risky, performance drop expected )
- remove the initial d partition from the previously created mirror ( not risky, system is usable during the short operation )
- extend both partitions as needed ( in windows ). if windows won't let you extend c on a running system, use the recovery console and parted ( not risky in windows, mildly riskyt if you mess with parted, reboot required in the second case )
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How to "soft mirror"?
This is silly - you're going to jump through so many hoops... did you try the ideas I mentioned in https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/28993251/SBS2008-c-drive-toosmall.html?anchorAnswerId=41949095?#a41949095?  And there's another solution likely far easier - VIRTUALIZE!  Convert the server to a VM on another system temporarily.  Then reload this one with Hyper-V and move the VM back after you reconfigure the storage.  Likely easier in the long run.
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That's beyond my knowledge
Then hire a pro.  You have a mess.  If you don't trust the existing pro or the candidate, use us to vet their plan.  Frankly, you shouldn't be wasting your time with SBS 2008 - it goes out of support (for exchange) in 4 months!  But I assume you don't care about security and just want to keep this working.
you can create soft mirrors from the disk management in windows in a few mouse clicks. right click on the partition you want to mirror. if the required conditions are met ( available disk space for example ) the option will be available. if it is greyed, then you need to meet those conditions. in your case, if you add one or both 1tb drives, you should be good.

it is perfectly legit to build a soft raid over hardware raid arrays. quite useless in itself ( you'll temporarily end up with 4 copys ) but sensible during the migration phase if your goal is to end up with 2 hardware mirrors with c: on the smaller array and d: on the other one using the above procedure.

likewise you can decide to apply a similar process to make d into a software raid ( i definitely would ). it is even feasible to create multiple partitions and have a mirrored d and unmirrored other partitions on the 1Tb drive(s).

whatever the option the possibly difficult part will be extending the c: partition. i'd suggest you pick one way to move the data to the new drives, and do not extend d to the full size of the 1Tb drives until we deal with that part. if you are lucky windows might handle it natively. if not various options have been discussed. i usually like to start with the least "invasive" when unsure about the best option.