1 Topic by Maze (edited by Maze 2011-08-17 12:09:28)

  • Maze
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  • Registered: 2011-08-17
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Topic: Resizing system partition on a RAID-5 system

Hi at all,

I've got a question concerning the essential resizing of the system partion (c:) because of the daily growing winsxs-folder *grrr*.
Further information about the system:

- Windows Server 2008 R2 on a Fujitsu TX 200 S5 server-system
- RAID-5 with 3 x 147GB SAS drives as 1 logical drive based on LSI MegaRaid
- 6 partitions (c:, e: - i:)
- 3 of them are logical partitions and 3 extended with some 25GB unallocated space (at the end of the extended)

This is what windows says:
PunBB bbcode test

And the same out of the raid-manager:
PunBB bbcode test

What i want to do is:
1. move any extended partition to the right to gain free space at the beginning of the extended partitions
2. decrease the size of the extended part
3. move the 2 small logical partitions to the right and get the free space next to the system partition
4. increase the system partition
5. boot 2008 r2 as if nothing happend

Have done this on some of our desktop-pcs but with 2 partitions only and without any raidsystem. Gparted worked fine every time.
Of course this will be a saturday work and we have a bare-metal-recovery. But maybe the experts are able to dispel my concerns. Or someone had done a similar operation and some advice.

edit says: look at this post --> http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=14811
nevertheless my case is a bit different due to the higher amount of partitions and any advice my be helpful. thanks smile

Best regards,
Maze

2 Reply by gedakc

  • gedakc
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Re: Resizing system partition on a RAID-5 system

When moving or resizing partitions, especially those with NTFS file sytems, I highly recommend that you perform and apply one step at a time while booting into Windows between each step.

If your first partition begins on sector 63, then you should use "align to cylinders" when moving the partitions.  If the first partition begins on sector 1048, then the default "align to MiB" is the correct alignment option to use.

Of course a good backup of all your data is highly recommended prior to editing any partitions.  That way you can restore all of your data should anything go wrong due to software bugs, hardware failures, or power outages.

3 Reply by Maze

  • Maze
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Re: Resizing system partition on a RAID-5 system

Good morning,

thx for your quick reply.

Doing all these step by step was one of my thoughts as well.
The first sector begins at 2048 so "align to MiB" would fit. The server runs behind a UPS and therefor power outtakes shouldn't be a problem.

I will take the time for any step to provide you with an approximate value of time.
Unfortunatly my college with whom i want to do this has no time the next two saturdays so i have to wait till september.

Best regards,
Maze