Ho do I Merge Partitions on a 2K3 Server with Shadow Copy enabled and RAID 5?

[Guest Sean]

Hi

 

As above, I have inherited a 2K3 Server will multiple NTFS Partitions on a

Hardware RAID 5 configuration (DELL Poweredge). I want to keep a separate

partition for the system but the data needs consolidating into a single

partition instead of 4 250 GB ones.

 

The box is a Production Fileserver so downtime needs to be minimal, a bit of

a search shows up various ways of doing this.

 

Using Diskpart to extend volumes but this relies on being able to move the

data somewhere else delete a partition then extend the partition into the

unpartitioned space and I don;t really relish the thought of doing it for 4

partitions.

 

Acronis Disk Director 'states' this functionality - what are peoples

experience of this software.

 

What problems could I have with doing this considering volume shadow copy is

enabled?

 

As I said it needs to be quick and easy with as little downtime as possible,

I've never done this on a Server before as I've always gone for the clean

sweep method in the past but had the luxury of a bigger budget and more

redundant equipment. I have on workstations and I know it can take hours

even for a drive with a small amount of data on it never mind one with

750GB+

 

Are there any other options? things I've already thought about are moving

away from the one box format to something like a Fibre Attached NAS or SAN

for storage, this may be the better idea based on the level of growth for

this company.

 

Cheers

 

GD

[Guest gocat2005]

RE: Ho do I Merge Partitions on a 2K3 Server with Shadow Copy enabled

 

RE: Ho do I Merge Partitions on a 2K3 Server with Shadow Copy enabled

 

Hi Sean

 

I just merged/extended/moved several partitions on a Win2k Server using

Acronis Disk Director no problem. Easy.

 

Acronis appears to create a small new partition where it puts "Mount Point

Manager". I left that as it is.

 

It's been running for 2 months no issues

 

Best wishes

Graham

 

"Sean" wrote:

> Hi

>

> As above, I have inherited a 2K3 Server will multiple NTFS Partitions on a

> Hardware RAID 5 configuration (DELL Poweredge). I want to keep a separate

> partition for the system but the data needs consolidating into a single

> partition instead of 4 250 GB ones.

>

> The box is a Production Fileserver so downtime needs to be minimal, a bit of

> a search shows up various ways of doing this.

>

> Using Diskpart to extend volumes but this relies on being able to move the

> data somewhere else delete a partition then extend the partition into the

> unpartitioned space and I don;t really relish the thought of doing it for 4

> partitions.

>

> Acronis Disk Director 'states' this functionality - what are peoples

> experience of this software.

>

> What problems could I have with doing this considering volume shadow copy is

> enabled?

>

> As I said it needs to be quick and easy with as little downtime as possible,

> I've never done this on a Server before as I've always gone for the clean

> sweep method in the past but had the luxury of a bigger budget and more

> redundant equipment. I have on workstations and I know it can take hours

> even for a drive with a small amount of data on it never mind one with

> 750GB+

>

> Are there any other options? things I've already thought about are moving

> away from the one box format to something like a Fibre Attached NAS or SAN

> for storage, this may be the better idea based on the level of growth for

> this company.

>

> Cheers

>

> GD

>

>

>

[Guest gocat2005]

RE: Ho do I Merge Partitions on a 2K3 Server with Shadow Copy enab

 

RE: Ho do I Merge Partitions on a 2K3 Server with Shadow Copy enab

 

Correction - the server I reconfigured with Acronis Disk Director was a Dell

Windows 2003 server with shadow copy enabled. The Raid is Raid 1 mirrored.

 

Please note that first I took an image of the server using Acronis True

Image Server

 

Then I powered down the server and booted from the Acronis Disk Director CD

and made the changes

 

All was fine

[Guest Sean]

Re: Ho do I Merge Partitions on a 2K3 Server with Shadow Copy enab

 

Re: Ho do I Merge Partitions on a 2K3 Server with Shadow Copy enab

 

Graham,

 

Thanks for clarifying and taking the time to post, I'll have a look at

Acronis in more detail now.

 

Thanks again :)

 

Sean

 

"gocat2005" <gocat2005@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:70DE9B2C-1398-46FA-87D0-AECF1DBB4E7F@microsoft.com...

> Correction - the server I reconfigured with Acronis Disk Director was a

> Dell

> Windows 2003 server with shadow copy enabled. The Raid is Raid 1 mirrored.

>

> Please note that first I took an image of the server using Acronis True

> Image Server

>

> Then I powered down the server and booted from the Acronis Disk Director

> CD

> and made the changes

>

> All was fine