Guest Jerry K Posted May 31, 2008 Posted May 31, 2008 Hi, I need to install a bigger system drive on my Server 2003 DC. However, the software I have, Ghost, does not run under Server OSes. How are others upgrading their drives? Thanks, Jerry
Guest Kerry Brown Posted May 31, 2008 Posted May 31, 2008 Re: How do I upgrade System drive? "Jerry K" <JerryK@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:3404113D-6663-4F80-A0D4-5588C245B9FD@microsoft.com... > Hi, > > I need to install a bigger system drive on my Server 2003 DC. However, > the > software I have, Ghost, does not run under Server OSes. How are others > upgrading their drives? > I use Acronis True Image. I do it from the Acronis recovery media while the server is offline. -- Kerry Brown MS-MVP - Windows Desktop Experience: Systems Administration http://www.vistahelp.ca/phpBB2/
Guest Jerry K Posted May 31, 2008 Posted May 31, 2008 Re: How do I upgrade System drive? Thansk, But if I reading the Acronis site right the home edition does not support server 2003 and the server version cost $700. Is this correct? There must be a cheaper way to upgrade a disk. "Kerry Brown" wrote: > "Jerry K" <JerryK@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message > news:3404113D-6663-4F80-A0D4-5588C245B9FD@microsoft.com... > > Hi, > > > > I need to install a bigger system drive on my Server 2003 DC. However, > > the > > software I have, Ghost, does not run under Server OSes. How are others > > upgrading their drives? > > > > > I use Acronis True Image. I do it from the Acronis recovery media while the > server is offline. > > -- > Kerry Brown > MS-MVP - Windows Desktop Experience: Systems Administration > http://www.vistahelp.ca/phpBB2/ > > >
Guest Pegasus \(MVP\) Posted May 31, 2008 Posted May 31, 2008 Re: How do I upgrade System drive? I don't know about the current verson of Acronis but the previous versions did not care (or did not know) about the OS when invoked via the bootable rescue CD. Have you tried using the disk cloning facility that your disk manufacturer has on his home site? If it does not work then at least it would not do any damage either. "Jerry K" <JerryK@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:757EF53A-708A-4E3F-AFD3-28DE33A1F487@microsoft.com... > Thansk, > > But if I reading the Acronis site right the home edition does not support > server 2003 and the server version cost $700. Is this correct? There > must > be a cheaper way to upgrade a disk. > > > "Kerry Brown" wrote: > >> "Jerry K" <JerryK@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message >> news:3404113D-6663-4F80-A0D4-5588C245B9FD@microsoft.com... >> > Hi, >> > >> > I need to install a bigger system drive on my Server 2003 DC. However, >> > the >> > software I have, Ghost, does not run under Server OSes. How are others >> > upgrading their drives? >> > >> >> >> I use Acronis True Image. I do it from the Acronis recovery media while >> the >> server is offline. >> >> -- >> Kerry Brown >> MS-MVP - Windows Desktop Experience: Systems Administration >> http://www.vistahelp.ca/phpBB2/ >> >> >>
Guest Kerry Brown Posted May 31, 2008 Posted May 31, 2008 Re: How do I upgrade System drive? You'd have to talk to Acronis about the license. I have licenses for the Server and the Workstation editions. I haven't personally tried this program but it often recommended. http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-next-generation.htm The official way would be to do a full system backup to external media with ntbackup then restore the backup to the new hard drive. The exact steps involved would be slightly different if this is your only domain controller or if you have more than one domain controller. -- Kerry Brown MS-MVP - Windows Desktop Experience: Systems Administration http://www.vistahelp.ca/phpBB2/ "Jerry K" <JerryK@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:757EF53A-708A-4E3F-AFD3-28DE33A1F487@microsoft.com... > Thansk, > > But if I reading the Acronis site right the home edition does not support > server 2003 and the server version cost $700. Is this correct? There > must > be a cheaper way to upgrade a disk. > > > "Kerry Brown" wrote: > >> "Jerry K" <JerryK@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message >> news:3404113D-6663-4F80-A0D4-5588C245B9FD@microsoft.com... >> > Hi, >> > >> > I need to install a bigger system drive on my Server 2003 DC. However, >> > the >> > software I have, Ghost, does not run under Server OSes. How are others >> > upgrading their drives? >> > >> >> >> I use Acronis True Image. I do it from the Acronis recovery media while >> the >> server is offline. >> >> -- >> Kerry Brown >> MS-MVP - Windows Desktop Experience: Systems Administration >> http://www.vistahelp.ca/phpBB2/ >> >> >>
Guest leew [MVP] Posted June 1, 2008 Posted June 1, 2008 Re: How do I upgrade System drive? Jerry K wrote: > Hi, > > I need to install a bigger system drive on my Server 2003 DC. However, the > software I have, Ghost, does not run under Server OSes. How are others > upgrading their drives? > > Thanks, > > Jerry > Why? How large is the C: drive? What's using up the space? I'll tell you, in my experience, the CHEAPER, FASTER way to do this - move things off the C: drive that don't necessarily belong. Often people seem to think 10-15 GB is too little... I say it's more than enough if the server is setup appropriately. -Lee
Guest Pegasus \(MVP\) Posted June 1, 2008 Posted June 1, 2008 Re: How do I upgrade System drive? "leew [MVP]" <useContactPage@LWComputing.dot.com> wrote in message news:4842fb3f$0$15180$607ed4bc@cv.net... > Jerry K wrote: >> Hi, >> >> I need to install a bigger system drive on my Server 2003 DC. However, >> the software I have, Ghost, does not run under Server OSes. How are >> others upgrading their drives? >> >> Thanks, >> >> Jerry >> > > Why? > > How large is the C: drive? > > What's using up the space? > > I'll tell you, in my experience, the CHEAPER, FASTER way to do this - move > things off the C: drive that don't necessarily belong. Often people seem > to think 10-15 GB is too little... I say it's more than enough if the > server is setup appropriately. > > -Lee I beg to disagree. In my experience, 10 GBytes is very tight, 15 GBytes is reasonable and 20 GBytes is good. With 10 GBytes, even if you keep the Exchange Information Store and the paging file on a different drive, you have to keep on juggling things in order to prevent the system drive from overfilling. IMHO a robust server installation is one that does not need constant attention.
Guest leew [MVP] Posted June 1, 2008 Posted June 1, 2008 Re: How do I upgrade System drive? Pegasus (MVP) wrote: > "leew [MVP]" <useContactPage@LWComputing.dot.com> wrote in message > news:4842fb3f$0$15180$607ed4bc@cv.net... >> Jerry K wrote: >>> Hi, >>> >>> I need to install a bigger system drive on my Server 2003 DC. However, >>> the software I have, Ghost, does not run under Server OSes. How are >>> others upgrading their drives? >>> >>> Thanks, >>> >>> Jerry >>> >> Why? >> >> How large is the C: drive? >> >> What's using up the space? >> >> I'll tell you, in my experience, the CHEAPER, FASTER way to do this - move >> things off the C: drive that don't necessarily belong. Often people seem >> to think 10-15 GB is too little... I say it's more than enough if the >> server is setup appropriately. >> >> -Lee > > I beg to disagree. In my experience, 10 GBytes is very tight, > 15 GBytes is reasonable and 20 GBytes is good. With 10 GBytes, > even if you keep the Exchange Information Store and the paging > file on a different drive, you have to keep on juggling things in > order to prevent the system drive from overfilling. IMHO a robust > server installation is one that does not need constant attention. > > I've got SBS servers with 12 GB hard drives and I don't give them constant attention - I check them maybe every six months. Please, elaborate on what takes up space that you feel like you need that much space. The C: drive should contain primarily 3 things of consequence - Documents and Settings, Program Files, and Windows. Now, this is a server... so you're not adding programs to it frequently. The user profiles - there shouldn't be that many user profiles nor should there be much in said user profiles - certainly no Archive PST and no downloads on the desktop and no documents in My Documents. So what is going to take up space in Documents and Settings. I submit, Documents and Settings should be 500 MB AT MOST. Next, Program Files. What's in there? Maybe an AV solution - maybe. Exchange if it's an Exchange Server. SQL if it's a SQL server. Some miscellaneous client utilities. In most cases, this should not take up more than 2 GB - probably less. And again, it's a server - what are you adding to this so frequently that it's filling up space? Finally, Windows itself. Check the size of it on most of your servers. For me - and mostly on SBS systems - the folder is 6-7 GB. And that's without cleaning out some of the old patches and without moving the ServicePackFiles and DLLCache to another partition. Personally, once every 6 months or so, I remove some of the old (9 months and older) patch backups ($NTUninstall...) folders. But that's once every six months... hardly constant attention. Now, unless my math is off, .5+2+7=9.5 GB. So yes, 10 GB CAN be on the slim side... And if I'm setting up a new server TODAY, I'm making the partition 15 GB. But I can survive with MINIMAL maintenance (and some one time modifications) in a 10 GB partition as well. Now, a terminal server is another matter - that I would absolutely use the largest C: drive possible. If I've missed something, please let me know... I was going to post this depending on what the response was on actual C: drive size, but you might want to review this link - I'm always looking for corrections/other perspectives. http://www.lwcomputing.com/tips/static/bootdrivesize.asp -Lee
Guest Pegasus \(MVP\) Posted June 1, 2008 Posted June 1, 2008 Re: How do I upgrade System drive? "leew [MVP]" <useContactPage@LWComputing.dot.com> wrote in message news:48431660$0$11615$607ed4bc@cv.net... > Pegasus (MVP) wrote: >> "leew [MVP]" <useContactPage@LWComputing.dot.com> wrote in message >> news:4842fb3f$0$15180$607ed4bc@cv.net... >>> Jerry K wrote: >>>> Hi, >>>> >>>> I need to install a bigger system drive on my Server 2003 DC. However, >>>> the software I have, Ghost, does not run under Server OSes. How are >>>> others upgrading their drives? >>>> >>>> Thanks, >>>> >>>> Jerry >>>> >>> Why? >>> >>> How large is the C: drive? >>> >>> What's using up the space? >>> >>> I'll tell you, in my experience, the CHEAPER, FASTER way to do this - >>> move things off the C: drive that don't necessarily belong. Often >>> people seem to think 10-15 GB is too little... I say it's more than >>> enough if the server is setup appropriately. >>> >>> -Lee >> >> I beg to disagree. In my experience, 10 GBytes is very tight, >> 15 GBytes is reasonable and 20 GBytes is good. With 10 GBytes, >> even if you keep the Exchange Information Store and the paging >> file on a different drive, you have to keep on juggling things in >> order to prevent the system drive from overfilling. IMHO a robust >> server installation is one that does not need constant attention. > > I've got SBS servers with 12 GB hard drives and I don't give them constant > attention - I check them maybe every six months. > > Please, elaborate on what takes up space that you feel like you need that > much space. The C: drive should contain primarily 3 things of > consequence - Documents and Settings, Program Files, and Windows. Now, > this is a server... so you're not adding programs to it frequently. > > The user profiles - there shouldn't be that many user profiles nor should > there be much in said user profiles - certainly no Archive PST and no > downloads on the desktop and no documents in My Documents. So what is > going to take up space in Documents and Settings. I submit, Documents and > Settings should be 500 MB AT MOST. > > Next, Program Files. What's in there? Maybe an AV solution - maybe. > Exchange if it's an Exchange Server. SQL if it's a SQL server. Some > miscellaneous client utilities. In most cases, this should not take up > more than 2 GB - probably less. And again, it's a server - what are you > adding to this so frequently that it's filling up space? > > Finally, Windows itself. Check the size of it on most of your servers. > For me - and mostly on SBS systems - the folder is 6-7 GB. And that's > without cleaning out some of the old patches and without moving the > ServicePackFiles and DLLCache to another partition. Personally, once > every 6 months or so, I remove some of the old (9 months and older) patch > backups ($NTUninstall...) folders. But that's once every six months... > hardly constant attention. > > Now, unless my math is off, .5+2+7=9.5 GB. So yes, 10 GB CAN be on the > slim side... And if I'm setting up a new server TODAY, I'm making the > partition 15 GB. But I can survive with MINIMAL maintenance (and some one > time modifications) in a 10 GB partition as well. > > Now, a terminal server is another matter - that I would absolutely use the > largest C: drive possible. > > If I've missed something, please let me know... > > I was going to post this depending on what the response was on actual C: > drive size, but you might want to review this link - I'm always looking > for corrections/other perspectives. > http://www.lwcomputing.com/tips/static/bootdrivesize.asp > > -Lee Here is a typical profile of a SBS system drive: 1,019,156,916 6,569 c:\I386 1,590,697,258 6,526 c:\ClientApps 1,612,481,164 2,929 c:\Documents and Settings 3,029,565,809 18,180 c:\Program Files 3,603,557,590 13,502 c:\WINDOWS 10,855,458,737 Total Most of the space in c:\Documents and Settings is consumed by backup catalog files. While it is possible to move the ClientApps folder somewhere else, it is tedious because some applications cannot easily be persuaded to reside on a partition other than the system partition. You mention a requirement of 9.5 GBytes, leaving just 500 MBytes of free space on a 10 GByte system partition. This is far too little for my taste - I have seen servers where Windows took up +/- 500 MBytes from one day to the next for internal housekeeping purposes, e.g. for the c:\Windows\CSC folder. 2 GBytes of free space is the bare minimum I will tolerate. Perhaps we should let the OP have a say in the matter too - it is his problem, after all.
Guest leew [MVP] Posted June 1, 2008 Posted June 1, 2008 Re: How do I upgrade System drive? Pegasus (MVP) wrote: > "leew [MVP]" <useContactPage@LWComputing.dot.com> wrote in message > news:48431660$0$11615$607ed4bc@cv.net... >> Pegasus (MVP) wrote: >>> "leew [MVP]" <useContactPage@LWComputing.dot.com> wrote in message >>> news:4842fb3f$0$15180$607ed4bc@cv.net... >>>> Jerry K wrote: >>>>> Hi, >>>>> >>>>> I need to install a bigger system drive on my Server 2003 DC. However, >>>>> the software I have, Ghost, does not run under Server OSes. How are >>>>> others upgrading their drives? >>>>> >>>>> Thanks, >>>>> >>>>> Jerry >>>>> >>>> Why? >>>> >>>> How large is the C: drive? >>>> >>>> What's using up the space? >>>> >>>> I'll tell you, in my experience, the CHEAPER, FASTER way to do this - >>>> move things off the C: drive that don't necessarily belong. Often >>>> people seem to think 10-15 GB is too little... I say it's more than >>>> enough if the server is setup appropriately. >>>> >>>> -Lee >>> I beg to disagree. In my experience, 10 GBytes is very tight, >>> 15 GBytes is reasonable and 20 GBytes is good. With 10 GBytes, >>> even if you keep the Exchange Information Store and the paging >>> file on a different drive, you have to keep on juggling things in >>> order to prevent the system drive from overfilling. IMHO a robust >>> server installation is one that does not need constant attention. >> I've got SBS servers with 12 GB hard drives and I don't give them constant >> attention - I check them maybe every six months. >> >> Please, elaborate on what takes up space that you feel like you need that >> much space. The C: drive should contain primarily 3 things of >> consequence - Documents and Settings, Program Files, and Windows. Now, >> this is a server... so you're not adding programs to it frequently. >> >> The user profiles - there shouldn't be that many user profiles nor should >> there be much in said user profiles - certainly no Archive PST and no >> downloads on the desktop and no documents in My Documents. So what is >> going to take up space in Documents and Settings. I submit, Documents and >> Settings should be 500 MB AT MOST. >> >> Next, Program Files. What's in there? Maybe an AV solution - maybe. >> Exchange if it's an Exchange Server. SQL if it's a SQL server. Some >> miscellaneous client utilities. In most cases, this should not take up >> more than 2 GB - probably less. And again, it's a server - what are you >> adding to this so frequently that it's filling up space? >> >> Finally, Windows itself. Check the size of it on most of your servers. >> For me - and mostly on SBS systems - the folder is 6-7 GB. And that's >> without cleaning out some of the old patches and without moving the >> ServicePackFiles and DLLCache to another partition. Personally, once >> every 6 months or so, I remove some of the old (9 months and older) patch >> backups ($NTUninstall...) folders. But that's once every six months... >> hardly constant attention. >> >> Now, unless my math is off, .5+2+7=9.5 GB. So yes, 10 GB CAN be on the >> slim side... And if I'm setting up a new server TODAY, I'm making the >> partition 15 GB. But I can survive with MINIMAL maintenance (and some one >> time modifications) in a 10 GB partition as well. >> >> Now, a terminal server is another matter - that I would absolutely use the >> largest C: drive possible. >> >> If I've missed something, please let me know... >> >> I was going to post this depending on what the response was on actual C: >> drive size, but you might want to review this link - I'm always looking >> for corrections/other perspectives. >> http://www.lwcomputing.com/tips/static/bootdrivesize.asp >> >> -Lee > > Here is a typical profile of a SBS system drive: > > 1,019,156,916 6,569 c:\I386 > 1,590,697,258 6,526 c:\ClientApps > 1,612,481,164 2,929 c:\Documents and Settings > 3,029,565,809 18,180 c:\Program Files > 3,603,557,590 13,502 c:\WINDOWS > 10,855,458,737 Total > > Most of the space in c:\Documents and Settings is consumed by > backup catalog files. While it is possible to move the ClientApps > folder somewhere else, it is tedious because some applications > cannot easily be persuaded to reside on a partition other than > the system partition. > > You mention a requirement of 9.5 GBytes, leaving just 500 MBytes > of free space on a 10 GByte system partition. This is far too little for > my taste - I have seen servers where Windows took up +/- 500 > MBytes from one day to the next for internal housekeeping purposes, > e.g. for the c:\Windows\CSC folder. 2 GBytes of free space is the > bare minimum I will tolerate. > > Perhaps we should let the OP have a say in the matter too - it is > his problem, after all. > > I don't mean to hijack the person's question, but from my perspective, i386 should be moved off C: and placed on another partition - TECHNICALLY, it's not required anyway, though I fully understand why you would like to have it. I've never seen any problems with moving client apps and if I always do - usually pre-install, but occasionally post. Periodically, (again, once every six months or so), I go in and clean out old catalogs for backups. So yes, on an SBS system, that is more of a concern, but still on a NON-SBS system, it's less of an issue (as is the clientapps folder which won't exist. And what's in the Program Files folder? I suspect you have some MSDE databases there that I'd move to another partition. Once these items are moved, there's little recurring issue to worry about and you still have 3 GB of available space - OR MORE. And personally, I like keeping my available space at no less than 25% but no more than 50%. In the example above, I'd expect, with appropriate items moved, the C: drive would see 6-6.5 GB used, not 10.8. And to be clear, I'm not saying one should make a 10 GB partition TODAY. But, a considering what can be moved and the hassle in repartitioning, I would strongly recommend moving data around before repartitioning. On new servers, I go with 15-20 GB C: drives... but I don't worry much about 10-15 GB drives either. -Lee
Recommended Posts