Increase Boot Partition Size

[insyder]

I support a small office server that (for some dumb reason) has it's boot partition/system volume set up as a 4GB partition with plenty of physical space left on the drive.

The "WINDOWS" folder alone takes 2.5 GB. And as time moves along, they are squeezing every last bit of free space from the drive. It currently is sitting with 177MB of free space after uninstalling anything deemed unnecessary.

I'd like to bump this partition up to at least 8GB, if not 12GB.


I'm not going to reinstall the OS(Windows Server 2003) because I think this can be fixed using a less extreme solution.



Any suggestions on tools/strategies to remedy this situation?

[Robert R1]

Partition Magic.

[OldFatGuy]

Originally posted by Robert R1
Partition Magic.

+1

You can also move the "My Documents" folder to another partition (or even another drive) if that will free up a lot of space.

[hayabusafiend]

Also check the Active Directory logs directory. Win2K server AD doesn't clean up after itself, and I suspect Win2K3 doesn't either.

c:\winnt\ntds

[Wrong Way]

I wouldn't use partition magic on Server 2003 System folder.

I don't think your system volume can be extended. Maybe you can try breaking a mirror and changing the secondary back to a “basic” disc. From there you might be able to clone the partition onto a larger one on a separate physical disc.

Then you can use a boot disc that points to the boot.ini file on your clone. I think you should have a special Active Directory “Recovery” password for this to work.

The operating system uses a special disc initialization process. Hopefully the boot disc would be enough to kick start things. Switching back to basic from Dynamic could create problems but I don't know of any product that clones dynamic discs and the operating system would initialize any disc that you attached to your computer and I would guess this initialization could cause problems with the copy booting from the original ini file.

[insyder]

I'm wondering if a safer, easier alternative is to use some sort of drive imaging software(Ghost) to pull the system partition data out and reimage using a larger partition size or new physical drive...?

[}Dragon{]

Are the system drives raid1?

They used to make a product called server magic- but since symantec bought it... no mas.

[rixx]

Originally posted by insyder
I'm wondering if a safer, easier alternative is to use some sort of drive imaging software(Ghost) to pull the system partition data out and reimage using a larger partition size or new physical drive...?

Altering boot partition sizes are always a pain. Ghost will maintain the partition sizes of the original disk, and i've spent quite a bit of time trying to trick it into altering the partition with no avail. There's no documentation on doing it that I have found. No matter what you do though, a Ghost image of the disk would be a great backup/recovery solution should whatever you try fail.

I think your only option is to try Partition Magic; but as Wrong Way said; I wouldn't go into it with a great deal of confidence. Make sure you're using the latest-and-greatest version of the software.

Depending on what you use the server for, it would seem easier to me to setup a new Win2k3 install... unless this is your do-everything-at-once DC/Exchange/Fileserver machine. In which case... convince the boss they need some new hardware :teeth

[insyder]

Originally posted by rixx
...Depending on what you use the server for, it would seem easier to me to setup a new Win2k3 install...AD server (are they called "domain controllers" in AD?) :p
DHCP server
File Server
Only about 20 users and about 10-12 client workstations.

Not a problem to do, just takes more (billable) time and effort. Of course my client wants to keep costs low, but from MY standpoint a reasonable and reliable solution is the proper way to go.

From any research I've done so far the partitioning tools, Partition Magic, Partition Manager, MS DiskPart can do the job on basic discs but suggest not attempting on system partitions. :cry

Norton Ghost is starting to look like a promising solution though...:confused

Originally posted by rixx
...In which case... convince the boss they need some new hardware :teeth Client is a non-profit organization with a limited IT budget. Any $$ spent on hardware and software is $$ that wont go to consultants(me).

[Wrong Way]

Maybe instead of clone software you could take the secondary drive off of a mirror and then switch it to basic. Then hook it up to a windows 200 machine or xp without disc indexing or compression. Then you could simply copy the files onto a another blank NTFS drive with the correct partition size.

From there you could boot the server machine with a boot disk and point the boot.ini to the copy on the new drive/partition. Don't know if it will work but any other way I think of will not work.

[}Dragon{]

Originally posted by Wrong Way
Maybe instead of clone software you could take the secondary drive off of a mirror and then switch it to basic. Then hook it up to a windows 200 machine or xp without disc indexing or compression. Then you could simply copy the files onto a another blank NTFS drive with the correct partition size.

From there you could boot the server machine with a boot disk and point the boot.ini to the copy on the new drive/partition. Don't know if it will work but any other way I think of will not work.

Before you do anything- take a spare machine and load it up as a 2k3 domain controller- just to CYA.

So stupid question- but have you moved the swap space/pagefile to another drive yet to free up space on C:?

[Wrong Way]

Originally posted by }Dragon{
Before you do anything- take a spare machine and load it up as a 2k3 domain controller- just to CYA.


….shouldn't have any down time at all. If you use the secondary disc after breaking the mirror your system will run fine on the primary, you just won't have fault tolerance. It would be easier to mirror an extra drive than parallel an entire controller to maintain fault tolerance.

[}Dragon{]

Originally posted by Wrong Way
….shouldn't have any down time at all. If you use the secondary disc after breaking the mirror your system will run fine on the primary, you just won't have fault tolerance. It would be easier to mirror an extra drive than parallel an entire controller to maintain fault tolerance.

That's why I originally asked if he had a raid 1 set;)

[insyder]

Originally posted by }Dragon{
So stupid question- but have you moved the swap space/pagefile to another drive yet to free up space on C:? Originally posted by }Dragon{
That's why I originally asked if he had a raid 1 set;) I'll be swinging by the client's office next week to drop off some other work and will look at the pagefile configuration and try to free up as much space as possible to delay the partition reconfig.

I'll have to double check both if and what type of RAID setup is installed.

[Wrong Way]

Originally posted by }Dragon{
That's why I originally asked if he had a raid 1 set;)

Really? I would be surprised if they actually implemented a stripe set, all things considered. Whether or not they are running a RAID 1 shouldn’t matter. I would be surprised if they have any type of fault tolerance effectively running considering they installed the system on 4 gigs.

I was just offering a long shot alternative to a full install. It doesn't sound like the network was engineered very well and a full install could be troublesome since documentation is probably sparse to nonexistent. It would be hard to recreate the network without first combing through it and even then it would be possible to miss something. Hanging out for a full day after the install to make sure operations were running smooth would be a pita

[insyder]

Originally posted by }Dragon{
Before you do anything- take a spare machine and load it up as a 2k3 domain controller- just to CYA. I've been thinking about this one.

I know in NT, we had PDC's and BDC's. In AD is there any difference?

I'd assume I can setup a temporary box to transfer all AD data to, and potentially all user share data as well.

I can then take the original box, burn it down and reinstall 2K3 as needed, then bring everything back.

[}Dragon{]

Originally posted by insyder
I've been thinking about this one.

I know in NT, we had PDC's and BDC's. In AD is there any difference?

I'd assume I can setup a temporary box to transfer all AD data to, and potentially all user share data as well.

I can then take the original box, burn it down and reinstall 2K3 as needed, then bring everything back.

That would be the easiset...

In 2K and 2K3 you just have (AD) domain controllers (not pdc/bdc).

Have you ever used the program called cleanup? (for freeing up space)

[Sane_Man]

I'm confused. :confused

If this is a server, why is anyone writing ANYTHING to the system C: drive????? It sounds like they are running the apps from the server console, rather then Serving the apps to networked workstations.

All of the Apps should have been written to another drive. I would uninstall ALL OF THE APPS, then reinstall them to another drive, then access them from remote workstations.

[insyder]

Brian,

That is pretty much the case. No programs are installed on the C:\ drive.

I had to uninstall Acrobat Reader:rolleyes last time I was out there. They also had an unused install of SQLServer on the C:\ drive I've removed as well.

I'd really like to avoid the repartitioning exercise, so I'll have to take some time searching for garbage I can move off this drive.

[EC70]

take an ide pci controller card with and hard drive large enough to hold the data

:nerd I have done this with Adaptec Ata133 Eide controller cards

1 power down server and install pci eide controller card, power up server and let it be seen in device manager
2 power down server plug in hard drive to ide controller card and ghost old to new drive using ghost boot disk
3 unplug old hard drives from server and confirm new ghosted drive boots correctly, power down server.
4 plug back in old drives and reghost and resize new to old drives to correct sizes.
5 power down server when ghost is finished and you shloud be all set.:nerd

[EC70]

And remeber you will have to back up any workstations that are connected to it and re join the domain with them since it will have a new security id.

So sorry

[HeavenzJai]

Originally posted by EC70
take an ide pci controller card with and hard drive large enough to hold the data

:nerd I have done this with Adaptec Ata133 Eide controller cards

1 power down server and install pci eide controller card, power up server and let it be seen in device manager
2 power down server plug in hard drive to ide controller card and ghost old to new drive using ghost boot disk
3 unplug old hard drives from server and confirm new ghosted drive boots correctly, power down server.
4 plug back in old drives and reghost and resize new to old drives to correct sizes.
5 power down server when ghost is finished and you shloud be all set.:nerd

interesting... but I don't think you can do this with rackmount server or can you?

[EC70]

Oh no so sorry, did not read that rack mount server thing?

DUH :wow

[rumpofsteelskin]

http://www.engl.niu.edu/jstewart/phptest/Shoehorn.jpeg

[}Dragon{]

Originally posted by insyder
Brian,

That is pretty much the case. No programs are installed on the C:\ drive.

I had to uninstall Acrobat Reader:rolleyes last time I was out there. They also had an unused install of SQLServer on the C:\ drive I've removed as well.

I'd really like to avoid the repartitioning exercise, so I'll have to take some time searching for garbage I can move off this drive.

Check your PMs-