resize first partition on dynamic Raid 0 (mirror) volume

[Kelly Jones]

I have a client with 2 x 18GB scsi drives in a Raid 0 config (Dynamic
volumes mirrored) they have three partitions and they are running very low
on free space on the first partition. this partition contains the OS. Is
it possible to decrease the size of one of the other partitions which have
lots of free space and increase the size of this first partition.

Is this covered by the MMC or do i need third party tools?

 

[Pat [MSFT]]

You would need to break the mirror and use a 3rd party tool (e.g. Partition
Magic), then rebuild the mirror.

That said, I have never tried it and I think a _tested_ backup would be in
order.

Pat

 

[Kelly Jones]

Is it easy to rebuild the mirror after i have removed it?

 

[phoenix]

I have a client with 2 x 18GB scsi drives in a Raid 0 config (Dynamic
volumes mirrored) they have three partitions and they are running very low
on free space on the first partition. this partition contains the OS. Is
it possible to decrease the size of one of the other partitions which have
lots of free space and increase the size of this first partition.

Is this covered by the MMC or do i need third party tools?

Hi

You need third-party tools if you want to do it on a working system. I use
Hard Disk Manager (on a RAID WIN2K3 Server) from here
http://snipurl.com/3tah but do make sure you have a backup first - just in
case. ;-)

Regards

Bill

 

[Pat [MSFT]]

You just put the disk in and go through DiskManager. It will re-format the
drive and rebuild the mirror. It can take a while. Also, make sure that
the drive you remove is not the root of the mirror (the base disk).
Otherwise, you won't be able to boot w/out a recovery disk.

Again, this process is not without risk and having a _verified_ restore
strategy should be a prerequisite.


Pat

 

[Montana Mike]

Kelly,

You don't say what OS you are running. A few months ago, I wanted to resize
the OS partition on a Windows2000 Advanced Server without formatting and
having to do the backup/restore scenario. I was trying to install a new,
larger system drive and thought that Partition Magic or Drive Image Pro
would do the copy and allow me to increase the partition size - I was wrong.

3rd party tools like Partition Magic (consumer edition) will not resize
Server OS partitions. What I found was that you need to spend about $600 for
a program that will do it "on the fly" on a server OS. Or you can do what I
did below.

I eventually just physically installed the old and new drives in a non
server machine (XP). I can't recall off hand if I used Drive Image to copy
the data or just did a binary copy. Which ever one I did worked.

mike

 

[Clive Flint]

Problem with using dynamic disks is that you can't expand them using
Partition Magic or other products (unless a new one has come out).

You would need to backup the data to tape, reformat the disks using basic
disks and restore the system before you could use PM. If you go down this
route then you won't need PM as you can make the partition bigger when
reinstalling the system back onto it.

Clive

 

[Clive Flint]

It will work IF using basic disks. Have done this a few times. Dynamic ones
won't work.

Clive

 

[Jason]

Mike:

Can you please explain a little more in depth about how you did the XP thing
with the old drives and new drives to expand the size?

Thanks!!
Jason

 

[Jason]

Mike:

Can you please explain a little more in depth about how you did the XP thing
with the old drives and new drives to expand the size?

Thanks!!
Jason