Extend RAID 5 volume

[Adde]

I'm running out of space on my W2k server, so I added an
additional hard drive and now I would need to extend the
existing volume to include the new hard drive!

My current setup includes 4 discs setup as basic discs in
a RAID 5 configuration.

The options that have been suggested to me are use of
third party software like ExtPart from Dell or
VolumeManager from PowerQuest. However both methods seems
to be a bit risky and I would like to hear from someone
that has actually done this a few times and can recommend
the most "secure" way of performing this operation. Any
other working suggestions are welcome.

Thanks,

/Adde

 

[Kyle Lang [MSFT]]

To extend a System partition you must remember the following:

1. Must be done from Safe Mode (Command Prompt) or boot to Safe Mode and
open a DOS window.
2. Must be done on Basic disks
3. New Free Space must be contiguous (unused space immediately following the
System partition).
4. Not recommended (or supported) for extending the System Partition, but
can be done if you are
running Win2000 SP1 or SP2. If you are running SP3 and SP4, it
intentionally cause errors when
you try to extend a system partition via Diskpart.exe since this is not a
supported approach.

Note: The supported way to extend a system/OS partition is to backup the
entire system partition,
repartition the system partition to include the additional new disk
space, format it, install the
OS again, then restore from backup.

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=300415
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=325590


Hope this helps

 

[Mark Mancini]

3rd party apps are the most stable way ( I do this all the time) but ghost
it first!

 

[Gerry Hickman]

Hi Adde,

Are you saying you splattered all your boot stuff, system stuff and data
all over the _same_ four disk RAID 5 array??