DL380 G3 - Hard Disk Replacement

[Vince Barnard]

I have replaced the Raid 5 HDs on my server - 4x36Gb with 6x300Gb - and reinstalled Windows 2000 Server using Smart Start. However, the C:\ drive is showing as only 4Gb but in Computer Mananagement it's showing as 1395Gb - but I can only access the 4Gb and cannot get to any of the 1395Gb! I want the C:\ drive as large as possible. Anyone know how I can do that please? Many thanks...

[Ruslan]

Hi Vince!

Never seen that situation. Which version of Smart Start was used? I advise you uisng mount points with smaller partitions, instead one large partition. Explain your task - why you need large partition.

[Roger Faucher]

Vince:

Is it possible you took the default partition size when you installed the OS?
Can you post the Disk Management screen?

Thanks and make a great day!

Roger

[Vince Barnard]

Hi,

The Disk Management screen was attached to the original query - look for the paper clip, thanks. The version of Smart Start used is 7.01. The 3rd party system ideally needs a complete C:\ drive as it has hard-coded references (which is NOT ideal of course!). Previously it was 101Gb which has become seriously undersized, hence the new big disks. It's possible I took the default but it seemed to suggest it would take the maximum allowed on W2K, approx 500Gb. I wonder if when the procedure converted from FAT32 to NTFS it took the FAT32 default of 4Gb? I'll reinstall again now & post any changes later. Thanks for your help so far both of you!

[Ruslan]

Check the current firmware and OS drivers of sa5i controller http://h18004.www1.hp.com/support/files/storage/us/locate/69_5144.html

One note - checking quick specs I saw that sa5i plus don't support 300Gb drives http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11063_div/11063_div.html

[Brian_Murdoch]

Vince,

Is it possible that the GUI simply can't show the small 4Gb partition in comparison to the large disk size, i.e. 4/1395 is 1/500th of the disk which would be difficult to display so it has got it wrong graphically (A Microsoft Feature).

I suspect that as suggested you took the default 4Gb limit for the C: drive when configuring.

DISKPART, the command line utility may show you the true picture and you may be able to expand you disk with this.

Please see the following article before using DISKPART.EXE. You should be able to select the disk, list the partitions and true free space values hopefully.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;300415

I hope this helps.

Brian

[e4services]

Don't use SmartStart. Probably the 'Smart' part that is causing the problem. You can simply do a manual install

[Vince Barnard]

A colleague & I have been through SmartStart twice more today - the RAID 5 array definitely sees all 6 discs - 1400GB and we specified the maximum boot partition for W2K - 500Gb - but somewhere it's defaulting to 4Gb (I think when the W2K install process converts the FAT32 to NTFS). In Windows we keep getting the same thing - 4Gb usable, 1395Gb unusable! DISKPART ran OK but only showed what we could see in Windows - it didn't let us change anything usefully. We then deleted the logical drive in SmartStart but Windows would not install - said no drives present. We're now going to remove the array and then start over manually as most recently suggested. Thanks again everybody...

[Roger Faucher]

Vince:

I don't recall - can you install directly to NTFS?

Make a great day!

Roger

[Harshvardhan]

Hi Vince,
I have seen this issue befoe in a w2k enviornment and we resoled the issue by doing a Manual installation of the OS without the smart start. The link below will tell you exactly why this happens.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=PSD_EM021220_CW01

Best of luck.
Enjoy
Harry