extending a logical drive

[andy steven]

Hi i have a 5300 smart start controller and what to extend the logical drive. I add the disks and expand the array fine, when using the ACU it states w2k does not support expanding a logical drive.

I recreated the array from scratch and this time in w2k i set the disk a dynamic then added the extra disks and expanded the array, w2k can not see the extra space????

[Patrick v.d. Veen]

Hi there,

As far as I know the 5300 controler is not capable of expanding a logical drive. As you have noticed you can expand the array but that's it.

Patrick

[Thomas Hoberg]

I can suggest two options:

1) Using a resize tool like partition magic

2) Generating another partition and then combining them into a spanned volume under NT/Win2k

Option two requires a reboot if you need to add space to a boot drive, but works immediately otherwise (without any performance hits that I know of).

[andy steven]

thanks

the controller does allow for expansion but i get an error that w2k does not support it, i created another logical drive and then spanned it in windows using dynamic disks

[Mark Mc Daniels]

Once the drive array expansion is complete, you will need to go back into the Array Configuration Utility "ACU" and highlight the logical drive and then select extend. This drive space will now show as unconfigured space in disk management at the end of that logical drive.

[kris rombauts]

Andy,

if you get that far that the W2K disk management shows you the extra space, next step would be to use a tool from Microsoft to also be able to use that space in Windows.

Have a look here :

Q article Q304736. Microsoft have a tool called Diskpart
that will extend an existing NTFS volume to use the free space.

It talks about a MSCS cluster shared disk but it is not limited to a cluster configuration, ignore the details that are specific to clustering.


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q304736


HTH

Kris

[andy steven]

Mark

I am using the ACU that came with smartstart 6, I can extend the array ok, but can not extend the logical drive. I called Compaq and they say this function is not supported using ACU.

If I don't create another logical drive from within the ACU windows can not see any extra space!!!

By creating another logical drive within the ACU windows can then see another disk, if I set this disk to dynamic and then go back to the original disk in windows and right click I get the option to expand the dynamic volume, windows now sees two disks and both are refered to as the D drive.

regards

[Mark Mc Daniels]

What version of the ACU are you using? Double check please. Also, what service pack for win2k?
From the users guide for the 5300 controller...
"IMPORTANT: When extending a logical drive under Windows 2000, upgrade the disk to
DYNAMIC before creating a partition on that disk. If the disk already has a partition when
it is upgraded to DYNAMIC, Windows 2000 may not allow logical drive extension. Refer to
the Windows 2000 documentation for details about DYNAMIC and BASIC disks."
What you've created is a simple volume set in win2k. As Kris refered previously, to extend the logical drive in the os, use diskpart.

[Alex Feldman]

I go the same message, and I just downloaded the latest ACU. So what's the bottom line?

Can this be done?
What are the exact steps?
Is this supported by Compaq/HP?

Thanks.

Alex

[Peter Allen_1]

FYI
Win2k won???t extend a partition created on a ???basic disk???
P.