1 Topic by GuyboR

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Topic: Repartition MS Small Biz Server 2003

I've been doing my research getting ready to take on getting more space on my SBS Server.  I've looked at some commercial products (Paragon, Acronis) and someone pointed me here.  I've read most of the help and it appears your software will do what I want.  Little background.....

SBS 2003 server software
Compaq Proliant ML350 G4
2 - 72Gig HDs in Raid 1 (Hardware Raid with 642 Smart Array Controller)
C Drive - 12 Gig  (OS) - only about 800 meg free
E Drive - 30 Gig (Exchange Data)
G Drive - 30 Gig (Data)

I want to add some additional drives in a raid 5 and move my data to those.  Then I want to shrink the G Drive and only store "server" programs on it.  Take the added space (approx 10 Gig) from G drive and extend my C Drive

Is this possible with your software?  I think it is.  Which product do I need to download?  GParted or LiveCD.  I'm guessing LiveCD, I'm not sure.  Thus the question.

Also, is there any open source software for make disk images of my HD?  I currently backup with the built in backup software of SBS.  But before taking on this project, I would also like to make some images of the HD.

Thanks in advance
Guy

2 Reply by LarryT

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Re: Repartition MS Small Biz Server 2003

Well, you dont say anything about file system ...
Raid is not actually managed by GParted, but operations on hard drives are :-p

About backup tools, partimage is a very good tool , but it depends on the fs you use. The NTFS (Windows NT File System) is currently not fully supported.
http://www.partimage.org/Main_Page

Larry
GParted-project Admin
Former GParted-LiveCD maintainer (2007)

3 Reply by GuyboR

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Re: Repartition MS Small Biz Server 2003

Sorry Larry.  The OS is Microsoft Small Business Server 2003.  The actual drives (according to the computer management) are NTFS of type Basic.

Guy

4 Reply by GuyboR

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Re: Repartition MS Small Biz Server 2003

Bump.

Does you software work with NTFS disks that are raid 1 under Windows Server 2003?

Thanks in advance
Guy

5 Reply by plors

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Re: Repartition MS Small Biz Server 2003

we don't support softraid yet, the disks/partitions will show up separately. Real hardware raids are (of course) supported.
in case of a soft raid 1 you could resize each of the disks and then recreate the raid, but i'm not sure if this would preserve your data. Anyway, be very careful when proceeding with this.

6 Reply by GuyboR

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Re: Repartition MS Small Biz Server 2003

plors wrote:

we don't support softraid yet, the disks/partitions will show up separately. Real hardware raids are (of course) supported.
in case of a soft raid 1 you could resize each of the disks and then recreate the raid, but i'm not sure if this would preserve your data. Anyway, be very careful when proceeding with this.

It's a hardware raid 1.  So I should be OK?

I know.....backup, backup, backup.
Once again, any suggestions for disk imaging software?  I looked into partimage, but it doesn't fully support NTFS.

Guy

7 Reply by plors

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Re: Repartition MS Small Biz Server 2003

well, actually no, if i need to image a filesystem i usually use 'dd', but this is a very scary tool if you don't know it.
For quick backups you could use the copy/paste functionality of gparted.

8 Reply by jbalingit

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Re: Repartition MS Small Biz Server 2003

Guy,

I came across your post and was wondering how it worked for you, as I need to accomplish pretty much the same thing.

Thanks in advance.
Jesse

GuyboR wrote:

I've been doing my research getting ready to take on getting more space on my SBS Server.  I've looked at some commercial products (Paragon, Acronis) and someone pointed me here.  I've read most of the help and it appears your software will do what I want.  Little background.....

SBS 2003 server software
Compaq Proliant ML350 G4
2 - 72Gig HDs in Raid 1 (Hardware Raid with 642 Smart Array Controller)
C Drive - 12 Gig  (OS) - only about 800 meg free
E Drive - 30 Gig (Exchange Data)
G Drive - 30 Gig (Data)

I want to add some additional drives in a raid 5 and move my data to those.  Then I want to shrink the G Drive and only store "server" programs on it.  Take the added space (approx 10 Gig) from G drive and extend my C Drive

Is this possible with your software?  I think it is.  Which product do I need to download?  GParted or LiveCD.  I'm guessing LiveCD, I'm not sure.  Thus the question.

Also, is there any open source software for make disk images of my HD?  I currently backup with the built in backup software of SBS.  But before taking on this project, I would also like to make some images of the HD.

Thanks in advance
Guy

9 Reply by GuyboR

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Re: Repartition MS Small Biz Server 2003

jbalingit wrote:

Guy,

I came across your post and was wondering how it worked for you, as I need to accomplish pretty much the same thing.

Thanks in advance.
Jesse

Jesse,

Haven't done anything with it yet.  I have the Raid 5 setup but haven't gone any further.  I'm looking for free time to do it.  Need enough down time to rebuild if something goes south.  I will post update once I'm done.

Guy

10 Reply by GuyboR

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Re: Repartition MS Small Biz Server 2003

Update......

I finally got the nerve to tackle this task.  Here are the steps I performed last night.

I imaged all my partitions using Drive Snapshot. (Multiple times actually over the past few days)
Booted with GParted CD
Shrunk my last partition on Drive 0
Moved it to the end of the Drive
Shrunk the middle partition on Drive 0
Moved it to the right
Extended my Boot partition to fill the free space.

This all took about 4 hours to move. (about 45-50 gig)  Not quick, but didn't care.

Then booted back into SBS

Came up and said it needed the chkdsk the 3 partitions.  It did and rebooted.
After reboot, 2 of my partition drive letter assignments were changed, so it caused some errors.  Changed those back and multiple errors went away.  I still have some minor errors in my log file in SBS, I just haven't had a chance to track them down.

All in all, it was very painless.  But I did do a TON of praying to the big SBS God looking over my computer.  Very nervous time, glad it's over.

Hope this helps any others that are in the same situation.

Guy

11 Reply by tbomb

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Re: Repartition MS Small Biz Server 2003

I have experienced the same exact problem. When I go to extend the C: Drive into the unallocated space it doesn't allow for expansion. Was there anything else you had to do to extend the system boot partition?

12 Reply by class413

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Re: Repartition MS Small Biz Server 2003

I think the last question was solved in the Line Media section today:
http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtop … 047#p13047

*** It is highly recommended to backup any important files before doing resize/move operations. ***

13 Reply by GuyboR

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Re: Repartition MS Small Biz Server 2003

Just an update in case anyone searches for SBS 2003.  I was able to change partition sizes again on my same server using version 10.0.3 of GParted.

Once again, I backed up MULTIPLE TIMES, held my breath the entire time and did lots of praying to the SBS Gods.

THANKS GParted!!!!!!