increasing HDD size in a mirrored set

[Guest Ian M]

Hi All,

I hope I am posting this to the right group. If not, which group should I

post to?

 

I have a Windows 2003 server with two 73gb drives, which are mirrored. I

need more space, but because the server only has space for two hot-swap disk,

I will need to replace these two disks.

If i get two 300gb drives, what is the easiest way to upgrade the current

disks. i would prefer not to have to reinstall the OS etc...

 

Any suggestions?

 

thanks

Ian

[Guest Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Re: increasing HDD size in a mirrored set

 

 

"Ian M" <IanM@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:5D0BE7E7-BAF7-4CB3-A99A-F8A72546B701@microsoft.com...

> Hi All,

> I hope I am posting this to the right group. If not, which group should I

> post to?

>

> I have a Windows 2003 server with two 73gb drives, which are mirrored. I

> need more space, but because the server only has space for two hot-swap

> disk,

> I will need to replace these two disks.

> If i get two 300gb drives, what is the easiest way to upgrade the current

> disks. i would prefer not to have to reinstall the OS etc...

>

> Any suggestions?

>

> thanks

> Ian

 

I would try this:

1. Break the mirror.

2. Connect the first large disk.

3. Use a cloning tool to copy the small disk to the big disk.

4. Remove the small disk.

5. Boot on the big disk.

6. If all is well, install the second big disk and rebuild the mirror.

If it does not work then nothing is lost because you still have

the original disk.

[Guest Joshua Bolton]

RE: increasing HDD size in a mirrored set

 

Assuming you are doing hardware raid and not software the procedure would be

as follows:

Buy Acronis server

http://www.acronis.com/smb/

Break the mirror.

Remove the shadow drive

Install new disk

Clone primary disk to new 320gig disk and expand to use the entire drive [if

you wish]

Remove the old primary and set new 320 as primary

Boot it to test.

Install 2nd 320

Hardware mirror primary 320 to shadow 320

Boot the server and you are done.

 

FYI but you can not clone a server with workstation cloning software.

[Guest WorkingHard]

Re: increasing HDD size in a mirrored set

 

Or just replace the small disk one at the time so at the end the mirror is

on the two large disks. Then use a tool like gparted live CD (free) or other

disk resizing tool to expand the original system partition.

 

Cheers

 

"Ian M" <IanM@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:5D0BE7E7-BAF7-4CB3-A99A-F8A72546B701@microsoft.com...

> Hi All,

> I hope I am posting this to the right group. If not, which group should I

> post to?

>

> I have a Windows 2003 server with two 73gb drives, which are mirrored. I

> need more space, but because the server only has space for two hot-swap

> disk,

> I will need to replace these two disks.

> If i get two 300gb drives, what is the easiest way to upgrade the current

> disks. i would prefer not to have to reinstall the OS etc...

>

> Any suggestions?

>

> thanks

> Ian

[Guest Joshua Bolton]

Re: increasing HDD size in a mirrored set

 

gparted seen here

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/larry/resize/resizing.htm

 

Only shows XP screen shots. Not a single mention of Server.

 

Have you successfully used it on server?

[Guest WorkingHard]

Re: increasing HDD size in a mirrored set

 

Yes, last time was on monday this week, a DELL Power Edge 6350 with a PERC

raid 2 controller, See the supported OS's on the website. I did break the

mirror to have a fall back and had the backups ready just in case. But in

any resize operation: backups in whatever form: make sure you have them.

 

Cheers

 

 

"Joshua Bolton" <JoshuaBolton@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:41E39B27-319A-4466-B21E-FE63CCC968D2@microsoft.com...

> gparted seen here

> http://gparted.sourceforge.net/larry/resize/resizing.htm

>

> Only shows XP screen shots. Not a single mention of Server.

>

> Have you successfully used it on server?