Win2k Server: Move to larger HD

[Peter Zingg]

This topic has been beaten to death, but I'd like to review my
possibilities. I have added a new larger HD to my Win2k Server
machine, so that it now looks like this:


HD 0, master HD on IDE bus 0: Two partitions--C: 2 GB (Bootable
system), D: 8 GB (Logs, data, applications)
HD 1, slave HD on IDE bus 1: Two new partitions--E: 10 GB (empty), F:
10 GB (empty)

Here's my proposal. I will CLONE the C: and D: partitions to E: and
F: respectively. Then disable HD 0, and move HD 1 to the master
position, so that E: and F: will become C: and D: (assuming I have not
told Windows to remap drive letters--or using some regedit hack with
DosDevices). When and if I can successfully boot to HD 1 (now the
master), I will repartition the old HD 0, combining partitions to
create a new 9 GB to be used for backup.

Questions:

1. The cloning operation must preserve SID (signature) information,
correct? Can a cheap utility like Ghost do this, or will I need to
spend $995 (equivalent to 5 or 6 hard disks) to purchase an
"Enterprise" solution? I work in a school district, where $995 is
about 1/10 my annual budget.

2. What happens when I detach the original drive and reboot? Assuming
I have the boot order correct in my BIOS, will Windows find C: and D:
and all will be well, or will I need to fix up boot.ini, hack the
registry, etc., using an emergency disk? Remember, this is Win2k
SERVER I'm talking about.

I assume that as long as I have a backup before I clone, and I keep
the old HD intact, I can always go back to where I was...

Peter Zingg

 

[SteveC]

Peter Zingg wrote:

[]

Here's my proposal. I will CLONE the C: and D: partitions to E: and
F: respectively. Then disable HD 0, and move HD 1 to the master
position, so that E: and F: will become C: and D: (assuming I have not
told Windows to remap drive letters--or using some regedit hack with
DosDevices). When and if I can successfully boot to HD 1 (now the
master), I will repartition the old HD 0, combining partitions to
create a new 9 GB to be used for backup.

I would do it this way instead:

Within Windows, delete all the partitions on HD1. Make sure that
it's a blank disk with no partitions.
Shut down your computer and remove HD1.
Boot up Windows and make sure everything works and there is no
reference to an E: or F: drive.
Shutdown your computer.

Install HD1 as master and HD0 as slave.
Boot to DOS.
Clone the partitions 1 and 2 from HD0 to HD1 with the right clone
software. (more on this)
Pay careful attention to the source and destination partitions when
cloning. You don't want to overwrite your "data" partitions with
blank information.

Remove HD0. Store HD0 in a safe place.
Boot up your computer with just HD1 and make sure that everything
works right.
Install another HD as a slave (or better yet, master on the second
IDE channel). Create partitions as you wish.
After your server is working for an acceptable period of time, and
you feel comfortable with the idea, recycle your HD0.

Cloning your computer:
Clone partition 1 from HD0 to partition 1 on HD1, but resize the
partition to your liking. Repeat for partition 2.

Some (if not all) clone software will allow you to resize the
destination partition size, ie copy a 2GB partition to a 4GB
partition, and copy a 4GB partition with 1GB of data to a 2 GB
partition.

Questions:

1. The cloning operation must preserve SID (signature) information,
correct? Can a cheap utility like Ghost do this, or will I need to
spend $995 (equivalent to 5 or 6 hard disks) to purchase an
"Enterprise" solution? I work in a school district, where $995 is
about 1/10 my annual budget.

I don't know about the retail version of Ghost. Check with the
symantec web site. Perhaps there is a trial version you can
download. Powerquest (bought by Symantec recently) also offers a
similar product. You can test it with a Windows 2000 Pro machine.
The principle is the same.

Enterprise version of Ghost will be able to do what you want (but
that doesn't help you, sorry).

2. What happens when I detach the original drive and reboot? Assuming
I have the boot order correct in my BIOS, will Windows find C: and D:
and all will be well, or will I need to fix up boot.ini, hack the
registry, etc., using an emergency disk? Remember, this is Win2k
SERVER I'm talking about.

I assume that as long as I have a backup before I clone, and I keep
the old HD intact, I can always go back to where I was...

This is why I suggested another way to do this. You don't have to
touch / hack / modify anything.
Bonus: you get to keep your HD0 intact for as long as you want.

regards,

SteveC
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