Expanding RAID 5 Logical Drive

[PCochrane]

I've inherited an ML370 G3 with a Smart Array 532 controller running Win 2000 Server. It had 4 drives installed with only a drive "C" (I know - bad idea). I have added two more drives and expanded the array but now get a warning that Win 2000 does not support expanding a logical volume and continuing will likely cause loss of data. It is a Basic disk. Can I convert it to Dynamic to allow the expansion? Or, is there anything I can do to gain use of the added space?

[Rajashekar Chintakunta · Accepted solution]

Hi PCochrane,

Follow the steps given the document that should help.

Regards,
Raj.

[PCochrane]

Exactly the document I needed! Thanks.

[PCochrane]

One more question - is there any problem with that procedure given that I'm extending the boot volume? I think I read somewhere that the Page File is an issue.

[sandeep_raman]

Hello PCochrane,

Yes afaik boot/system volume cannot be extended using diskpart.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/325590/en-us

SRH

[Rajashekar Chintakunta]

Hi PCochrane,

Has suggested by Sandeep, You cannot extend the partition if the system page file is located on the partition. Move the page file to a partition that you do not wish to extend.

To implement that what i could suggest is use a different harddisk and create a new array with raid 0 for temporary purpose. create a logical drive, create partition format it and move the page file to that disk/partition.

Than extend the System or boot volumes and after extended move the paging file back to boot volume and remove the second array and disk.

Before you try any steps please be sure that you have a valid backup of the data.

Regards,
Raj.

[PCochrane]

Thanks, Ill proceed accordingly.