1 Topic by Nanday

  • Nanday
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Topic: Trouble resizing W2003 Server on Dell PowerEdge

Hello. I'm new at this forum, but I'm not so new at using Gparted LiveCD. I tried it a few weeks ago, and it worked so well (it saved me from working at least 24H more) that  I made my first donation to the Free Software Foundation...

Well, the fact is that I tried it and worked like a charm, and now I'm trying to do quite the same with similar hardware, and it doesn't work. I booted from the liveCD, ran Gparted, adjusted the sizes of the partitions, and when I clicked on "Apply", it reported an error in just a few seconds. I was trying to expand C: drive with free space from D:.

I could obtain the details file, and I'm attaching it here (at the end, since I can't find an "attach file" button here).

Any help would be welcome. smile

GParted 0.3.8

Libparted 1.8.8

Move /dev/sda5 to the right and shrink it from 124.57 GiB to 115.50 GiB  00:00:09    ( ERROR ) 
     calibrate /dev/sda5  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS ) 
     path: /dev/sda5
start: 25254243
end: 286503209
size: 261248967 (124.57 GiB) 

calculate new size and position of /dev/sda5  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS ) 
     requested start: 44291268
requested end: 286503209
requested size: 242211942 (115.50 GiB) 
new start: 44291205
new end: 286503209
new size: 242212005 (115.50 GiB) 

check filesystem on /dev/sda5 for errors and (if possible) fix them  00:00:04    ( SUCCESS ) 
     ntfsresize -P -i -f -v /dev/sda5 
     ntfsresize v2.0.0 (libntfs 10:0:0)
Device name : /dev/sda5
NTFS volume version: 3.1
Cluster size : 4096 bytes
Current volume size: 133759468032 bytes (133760 MB)
Current device size: 133759471104 bytes (133760 MB)
Checking for bad sectors ...
Checking filesystem consistency ...
Accounting clusters ...
Space in use : 123999 MB (92.7%)
Collecting resizing constraints ...
Estimating smallest shrunken size supported ...
File feature Last used at By inode
$MFT : 3355 MB 0
Multi-Record : 132173 MB 37
$MFTMirr : 66880 MB 1
Ordinary : 131271 MB 9643
You might resize at 123998810112 bytes or 123999 MB (freeing 9761 MB).
Please make a test run using both the -n and -s options before real resizing!



shrink filesystem  00:00:03    ( ERROR ) 
     run simulation  00:00:03    ( ERROR ) 
     ntfsresize -P --force --force /dev/sda5 -s 124012546559 --no-action 
     ntfsresize v2.0.0 (libntfs 10:0:0)
Device name : /dev/sda5
NTFS volume version: 3.1
Cluster size : 4096 bytes
Current volume size: 133759468032 bytes (133760 MB)
Current device size: 133759471104 bytes (133760 MB)
New volume size : 124012540416 bytes (124013 MB)
Checking filesystem consistency ...
Accounting clusters ...
Space in use : 123999 MB (92.7%)
Collecting resizing constraints ...
Needed relocations : 1992262 (8161 MB)
Schedule chkdsk for NTFS consistency check at Windows boot time ...
Resetting $LogFile ... (this might take a while)
Relocating needed data ...
ERROR: Extended record needed (1048 > 1024), not yet supported!
Please try to free less space.




check filesystem on /dev/sda5 for errors and (if possible) fix them  00:00:01    ( SUCCESS ) 
     ntfsresize -P -i -f -v /dev/sda5 
     ntfsresize v2.0.0 (libntfs 10:0:0)
Device name : /dev/sda5
NTFS volume version: 3.1
Cluster size : 4096 bytes
Current volume size: 133759468032 bytes (133760 MB)
Current device size: 133759471104 bytes (133760 MB)
Checking for bad sectors ...
Checking filesystem consistency ...
Accounting clusters ...
Space in use : 123999 MB (92.7%)
Collecting resizing constraints ...
Estimating smallest shrunken size supported ...
File feature Last used at By inode
$MFT : 3355 MB 0
Multi-Record : 132173 MB 37
$MFTMirr : 66880 MB 1
Ordinary : 131271 MB 9643
You might resize at 123998810112 bytes or 123999 MB (freeing 9761 MB).
Please make a test run using both the -n and -s options before real resizing!



grow filesystem to fill the partition  00:00:01    ( SUCCESS ) 
     run simulation  00:00:01    ( SUCCESS ) 
     ntfsresize -P --force --force /dev/sda5 --no-action 
     ntfsresize v2.0.0 (libntfs 10:0:0)
Device name : /dev/sda5
NTFS volume version: 3.1
Cluster size : 4096 bytes
Current volume size: 133759468032 bytes (133760 MB)
Current device size: 133759471104 bytes (133760 MB)
New volume size : 133759463936 bytes (133760 MB)
Nothing to do: NTFS volume size is already OK.



real resize  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS ) 
     ntfsresize -P --force --force /dev/sda5 
     ntfsresize v2.0.0 (libntfs 10:0:0)
Device name : /dev/sda5
NTFS volume version: 3.1
Cluster size : 4096 bytes
Current volume size: 133759468032 bytes (133760 MB)
Current device size: 133759471104 bytes (133760 MB)
New volume size : 133759463936 bytes (133760 MB)
Nothing to do: NTFS volume size is already OK.






========================================

Move /dev/sda3 to the right and shrink it from 124.57 GiB to 115.50 GiB 

========================================

Grow /dev/sda2 from 12.00 GiB to 21.08 GiB 

========================================

2 Reply by gedakc

  • gedakc
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Re: Trouble resizing W2003 Server on Dell PowerEdge

There are a few things you can do to increase your success with resizing NTFS file systems.  Following are some tips that class413 previously posted in another thread:

1)  Try to defragment the NTFS partition 1 or 2 times, rebooting the computer each time.

2)  Try to disable the windows page file (virtual memory), any automatically running software.
     Run chkdsk /f from the command line, or better under safe mode.
     Run chkdsk /p from the recovery console, and retry.

3)  Try choosing a smaller resize amount.

3 Reply by class413

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Re: Trouble resizing W2003 Server on Dell PowerEdge

NTFS filesystem resizing is performed by "ntfsresize", called by GParted. I gave these explanations from the related forum. 

Furthermore:

- Sometimes the above checks are more successful under safe mode.

- Very large files, like multi-100s MiB or GiB media files, can cause problems. You could try to move them temporarily elsewhere.

size: 261248967 (124.57 GiB)
...
requested size: 242211942 (115.50 GiB)
...
Space in use : 123999 MB (92.7%)

- An NTFS partition used at 92.7% can be a problem by itself.
Under normal operation, it is good to keep at least 15% used space, otherwise defragmentation isn't possible (windows defrag needs at least 15% free space). This is just the space required by the Master File Tables (MFT) and a disk space where MFT can expand in case of need. Of course the filesystem works but not under optimal conditions.

In this case, I understand that you try to shrink the drive to almost the used size, leaving just a very small free amount. It would be a crash test for ntfsresize, but somehow extreme and perhaps risky for the filesystem. I would advice to move some of the partition content elsewhere, to obtain at least 15-20% free space. Move eventual giant files. Run defrag at least  2 times. I guess that deactivating virtual memory (swap) wouldn't help in the case of this logical partition, because the swap file is very probably located on the primary system partition.

Then, retry to shrink the partition, in one or more steps.

Go a step at the time, not all operations in the same GParted run (this seems perhaps conservative). Reboot in windows after each step, to check if anything goes as expected.

Use the latest GPartd Livecd version (actually 0.3.9-x) in case of problem.

And, first of all, take backup before doing partitioning work. It can be useless in case of immediate success, but it can be valuable in case of any severe problem.

(Topic moved to the Live Media section)

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

4 Reply by Nanday

  • Nanday
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Re: Trouble resizing W2003 Server on Dell PowerEdge

Thanks a lot. I'll try everything next wednesday. Hope it works.

5 Reply by george

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Re: Trouble resizing W2003 Server on Dell PowerEdge

gedakc wrote:

Run chkdsk /f from the command line, or better under safe mode.

Hi gedakc,

When you wrote  "Run chkdsk /p from the recovery console, and retry.", what do you mean by "recovery console"? 
Would you elaborate on that?  Thank you!

George

6 Reply by gedakc

  • gedakc
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Re: Trouble resizing W2003 Server on Dell PowerEdge

george wrote:

When you wrote  "Run chkdsk /p from the recovery console, and retry.", what do you mean by "recovery console"? 
Would you elaborate on that?  Thank you!

You can access the recovery console when booting from the Windows XP CD-ROM.
See also the following Microsoft knowledge base post:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307654

7 Reply by george

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Re: Trouble resizing W2003 Server on Dell PowerEdge

gedakc wrote:
george wrote:

When you wrote  "Run chkdsk /p from the recovery console, and retry.", what do you mean by "recovery console"? 
Would you elaborate on that?  Thank you!

You can access the recovery console when booting from the Windows XP CD-ROM.
See also the following Microsoft knowledge base post:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307654


Thank you for the reply.  But when I ran "chkdsk /f" , I always got the response that some other application is using it and can't start checking.  Why do I get this strange message? 
Thanks a lot

George

8 Reply by cmdr

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Re: Trouble resizing W2003 Server on Dell PowerEdge

Hi George,

Thank you for the reply.  But when I ran "chkdsk /f" , I always got the response that some other application is using it and can't start checking.  Why do I get this strange message?
Thanks a lot

"chkdsk" needs exclusive access to a partition to do its work. Even if you merely start "explorer.exe", "some other application is using it" , not to mention the bootable partition, where dozens of files are "in use". Therefore used partitions (drives) are marked to get checked at boot time, if you try to launch "chkdsk". Windows normally suggests this; just confirm and restart.

Regards
cmdr