system drive upgrade possible?

[Guest anthonyx26]

I have a fairly new Dell server (2 yo/dual core) but the dummy who

originally set it up, split a single 120 GB hard drive into two

partitions...one for system (12 GB) and another for data (108 GB). It's

configured as a "basic" drive in disk manager.

 

The server is running Windows 2003 and Active Directory.

 

I'm not sos concerned about the data drive as I am about the system drive

(as I'm considering upgrading it to Windows 2008). Is there any way to,

more or less painlessly, migrate the system drive to a larger hard drive?

 

- anthonxy26

[Guest Meinolf Weber]

Re: system drive upgrade possible?

 

Hello anthonyx26,

 

If you have an additional machine which is capable of 2003, then i would

make it a seond DC, move the FSMO roles, make it DNS and Global catalog server

copy the data and remove the first one from the domain. So you have still

the domain running and can start from scratch.

 

Best regards

 

Meinolf Weber

Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers

no rights.

** Please do NOT email, only reply to Newsgroups

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> I have a fairly new Dell server (2 yo/dual core) but the dummy who

> originally set it up, split a single 120 GB hard drive into two

> partitions...one for system (12 GB) and another for data (108 GB).

> It's configured as a "basic" drive in disk manager.

>

> The server is running Windows 2003 and Active Directory.

>

> I'm not sos concerned about the data drive as I am about the system

> drive (as I'm considering upgrading it to Windows 2008). Is there any

> way to, more or less painlessly, migrate the system drive to a larger

> hard drive?

>

> - anthonxy26

>

[Guest anthonyx26]

Re: system drive upgrade possible?

 

"Meinolf Weber" <meiweb(nospam)@gmx.de> wrote in message

news:ff16fb6698348caf9417c09ec94@msnews.microsoft.com...

> If you have an additional machine which is capable of 2003, then i would

> make it a seond DC, move the FSMO roles, make it DNS and Global catalog

> server copy the data and remove the first one from the domain. So you have

> still the domain running and can start from scratch.

 

Hmmm. I was afraid that might be the case. Unfortunately since I only

contract for the company, I'd have to charge them a pretty hefty per hour

fee, making that method not terribly cost effective. If I worked for the

company full time, then such a project would make sense.

 

- anthonyx26

[Guest Meinolf Weber]

Re: system drive upgrade possible?

 

Hello anthonyx26,

 

From my point of view this will be the way with minimum to zero downtime

and risk. If you use some tools like partition magic you can srew up everything

if it goes wrong. Especially because this machine is a DC. Additional i would

recommend the customer to have at least 2 DC's for redundancy and failover

reasons, so this can be the starting point for this.

 

Best regards

 

Meinolf Weber

Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers

no rights.

** Please do NOT email, only reply to Newsgroups

** HELP us help YOU!!! http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm

 

> "Meinolf Weber" <meiweb(nospam)@gmx.de> wrote in message

> news:ff16fb6698348caf9417c09ec94@msnews.microsoft.com...

>

>> If you have an additional machine which is capable of 2003, then i

>> would make it a seond DC, move the FSMO roles, make it DNS and Global

>> catalog server copy the data and remove the first one from the

>> domain. So you have still the domain running and can start from

>> scratch.

>>

> Hmmm. I was afraid that might be the case. Unfortunately since I

> only contract for the company, I'd have to charge them a pretty hefty

> per hour fee, making that method not terribly cost effective. If I

> worked for the company full time, then such a project would make

> sense.

>

> - anthonyx26

>

[Guest Dusko Savatovic]

Re: system drive upgrade possible?

 

12 GB is not much of data.

You could use any imaging solution to transfer this data to a new disk. I

would first take the image to a network share, then I would replace the disk

and apply image from the network share.

In the past I used Symantec Ghost, but now since WAIK (free download from

Microsoft) is available, I'm using WAIK. In fact I built WinPE and I'm now

using ImageX tool from WAIK. I'm also using other tools:

- Diskpart, disk partitioning tool

- Bootsect.exe, to fix (rebuild) boot and MBR sectors

- BCDEdit, new boot configuration utility for Vista/Win2008

The whole operation should not take longer than two hours. But building of

WinPE with proper tools will take you one or two days (if you didn't try it

before). I would definitely recommend you to get proficient with these new

tools. They are great.

 

 

"anthonyx26" <anthonyx26@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:4D900896-9D63-4A06-8360-F021E63F921C@microsoft.com...

>I have a fairly new Dell server (2 yo/dual core) but the dummy who

>originally set it up, split a single 120 GB hard drive into two

>partitions...one for system (12 GB) and another for data (108 GB). It's

>configured as a "basic" drive in disk manager.

>

> The server is running Windows 2003 and Active Directory.

>

> I'm not sos concerned about the data drive as I am about the system drive

> (as I'm considering upgrading it to Windows 2008). Is there any way to,

> more or less painlessly, migrate the system drive to a larger hard drive?

>

> - anthonxy26

>