Migration disque Windows 2000 server

[Leonard MOR]

Hi,

Have a number of Windows 2000 servers each with a single disk containing two partitions, the first being the system volume and the second for the client data (as we used to do with Windows NT Server).

With the Microsoft (automatic) update system the system volume is rapidly filling up and is now below the recommended 20% free space.

Am interested in the quickest and safest way of transfering this system to an new disk. Have planned to prepare a larger disk with a system volume of double the capacity and to use a utility like ERD Commander or PowerQuest to transfer the contents of the partitions to the new disk.

Would be interested in other administrator experiences particularly if you can suggest a better way?

Of course, with Windows 2003 server I avoid the problem by creating a single partition on the disk. I still finding it alarming the sie of the update patches from Microsoft.

[Roger Faucher]

Hi:

I usually boot from a Knoppix CD (free online) and then run 'qtparted'. Make sure you do a backup first.

Make a great day!

Roger

[Leonard MOR]

Thanks Roger,

But since I have to increase the overall capacity I was planning to leave the old disk unchanged and to prepare a new disk to which I would copy the old partitions and increase the size at the same time.

Had a quick look at qtparted and it appears to be a Partition Magic clone. I have version 8.0 of Partition Magic but I seem to remember it will not copy Windows Server partitions (but may be wrong). Will qtparted do this?

Cheers

[Roger Faucher]

MOR:

I actually had a situation today where I needed to expand a C: drive on a virtual W2K3 server and I had a problem with qtparted. I hope to resolve this problem tomorrow. I'll update you then. If you're in a hurry and have an XP machine that will support three drives (are your server drives SCSI?), you could boot XP from one drive, insert the server boot drive as the second drive, and the 'new' bigger drive as the third drive, Now run Partition Magic and it should allow you to move the 2nd drive's partitions to the 3rd drive and resize them.

Make a great day!

Roger

[Leonard MOR]

Roger,

Yes I'm using SCSI disks (HP/COMPAQ ML330) but I have a HP X4000 XP Pro workstation with a SCSI card so I could try the test as you suggest. No particular urgency but I know that I have to find a solution in the next week or so.

By the way, I have the feeling that Partition Magic will detect that the disk has Windows 2000 Server installed and will not make the copy, but I'll let you know.

Be interested to hear of your own test results.

Thanks in advance,
Len

[Ken wanderer]

I don't know if this helps but I had a raid of three drives and replaced each one at a time with a larger drive and then after all three were replaced, created a new larger partition, all without rebooting.
If you only have one drive, you may need to add another and move the shares to this drive.

[Roger Faucher]

This is for Ken:

I have a server in Tokyo that needs bigger hard drives for its RAID5 array. Were you able to enlarge the existing RAID5 array after replacing all 3 drives, or did you create a new one for the added space? Did you use Disk Manager or what?

Thanks and make agreat day!

Roger

[Igor Karasik]

>>Were you able to enlarge the existing RAID5 array after replacing all 3 drives, or did you create a new one for the added space? Did you use Disk Manager or what?

Roger,
First, you need to have SmartArray controller (hardware RAID).
After you replace all three drives and array rebuild completed you will need to extend array and use diskpart tool.
Note: you cannot expand system volume (drive C:\) with diskpart
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/325590/en-us
(some 3-th party tools can do it, no freeware tools)
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1027500

For Len:
I don't sure you ML330 have SmartArray card - by default ML servers don't have SmartArray

[Leonard MOR]

Sorry guys but we seem to be getting away from the original question.

The ML330 servers I'm talking about have a single SCSI disk. Since both partitions on each disk are fairly full, it seems to me the safest and easiest way would be to replace the old disk (9Gb) with a new disk (36Gb for example) containing two larger partitions and to use a bootable solution (Deploy Center, whatever) on a disk or CD to then transfer the two partitions from the old disk to the new disk.

I'm sure there are tools out there to do this.
Cheers

[Igor Karasik]

>>Sorry guys but we seem to be getting away from the original question

Sorry.

Regarding your original question:
IMHO, the best way is backup(do GHOST)/replace SCSI drive to 36 Gb/create partitions/restore

We use Symantec GHOST (of course you can use any similar program as well, Acronis True Image for example).
I have Symantec ghost multicast server installed on our notebook, and I just connect notebook to Proliant with network cable. Then we boot Proliant server from GHOST network diskette and GHOST server capture Proliant image.
Restore from GHOST is similar
You can read this symantec document as well:
"How to clone or save an image file over a TCP/IP peer to peer connection"
http://tinyurl.com/fegf8

[Leonard MOR]

Thanks Igor, this was what I was looking for. I have a Ghost (version 8) and the idea of setting up a Ghost server appeals to me.

In any case I am currently working on a generalised solution for saving server images on a (RedHat) file server using BART PE CD and a ghost type application so your idea fits neatly into this.

Of course a disk to disk solution would be simpler since I could it onsite. Yours would imply bringing the server back to do the upgrade in house.

Cheers

[Ken wanderer]

To Roger,
I didn't use any program to install the larger drives, just created a new drive out of the extra space with Microsofts disk manager program already on the system.
I don't know if it is possible to expand the drives and didn't want to try. We did transfer some files over to the new virtual drive. A batch file may be needed to re-point the shared links.
There is also a program free from Microsoft called Diskpart?
Ken

[Ken wanderer]

Igor,
You are right, my apologies to all, this was on a ML350, I have an ML 330 also, but I mirror the drive on that server.
Ken

[Leonard MOR]

For general information, I set up the second SCSI disk on the same controller and used the PowerQuest utility PQIMGCTR.EXE to do a disk to disk copy and change the partition size at the same time.

Worked like a charm.

Thanks all.

[Leonard MOR]

Used PowerQuest PQIMGCTR.EXE utility.