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Eduardo Lomeli

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5TB Bootable partition for Server 2012 R2 under GPT/UEFI ok?

Hello to all,

I took over a server from another IT company and I need to increase the partition size. IT has the following:

  • RAID 5 (yeah, I know, I know)
  • GPT
  • UEFI
  • One partition for OS and Data (C: Drive) - 3.7TB
  • Server 2012 R2

My question is: I need to add more disk space and I purchased a 2TB HD to add to the RAID 5 Array. Will I have any issues? The system has been operational without a hitch for the past 2.5 years.  Thanks for your input. See graphic below:

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J S
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This depends on two things if the raid is software or hardware based. If the raid is software based then you will need to backup the data to another location and break and recreate the raid 5 with the new drive (without 3rd party app).   If this is a hardware based raid I would still look at backing up the data and extending/expanding the raid (if supported by the raid controller) .

If the raid is software based then you could look into using a tool as such to expand the raid without recreating the raid.

https://www.easeus.com/partition-master/expand-raid-5-array.html

If there is anything you should do for sure is BACK UP the data before attempting to expand the raid.
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Eduardo Lomeli

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Thank you JS. That's good info. Below is the RAID setup. This is what I'm doing to reconfigure the RAID Array. I think this should be fine. I was just curious as to the support for this size of disk. What made me a little cautious was that when I pressed continue on the button of the graphic below, it gave me a message saying "Please verify that your operating system, including any updates or modifications, supports a virtual disk of this size." As per the info I've been able to find, it should support it, but I wanted to make sure with other experts like yourself. Thanks again.

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J S
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Thanks for taking me out of this doubt. I usually never have an OS partition so big, therefore I wanted to make sure that it would boot ok. Cheers!
No problem happy to assist with confirming the solution will work.
Just to point out that it could not be software RAID as no OS can boot from software RAID 5.
Thank you very much for explaining everything, it's very useful for me.