Increase boot and/or system partition size

I have a W2003 server installation on a relatively small partition. Is there
any way to backup the system, increase the partition size and then restore
the system on the increased size partition?

 

On Sat, 02 May 2009 12:55:13 +0800, Guus Ellenkamp wrote:

> I have a W2003 server installation on a relatively small partition. Is
> there any way to backup the system, increase the partition size and then
> restore the system on the increased size partition?

RAID? Single drive? Hardware? details please!

 

Just a single drive with several partitions on it. I can combine the first
two partitions if I want to get the space I need, but 1 is the boot
partition, the other is the OS partition.

"Amnon" <none@none.com> wrote in message
news:7625o7F1b48dnU1@mid.individual.net...
> On Sat, 02 May 2009 12:55:13 +0800, Guus Ellenkamp wrote:
>
>> I have a W2003 server installation on a relatively small partition. Is
>> there any way to backup the system, increase the partition size and then
>> restore the system on the increased size partition?
>
> RAID? Single drive? Hardware? details please!

 

"Guus Ellenkamp" <Ellenkamp_Guus@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:uSEuwi%23yJHA.5964@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Just a single drive with several partitions on it. I can combine the first
> two partitions if I want to get the space I need, but 1 is the boot
> partition, the other is the OS partition.
>
> "Amnon" <none@none.com> wrote in message
> news:7625o7F1b48dnU1@mid.individual.net...
>> On Sat, 02 May 2009 12:55:13 +0800, Guus Ellenkamp wrote:
>>
>>> I have a W2003 server installation on a relatively small partition. Is
>>> there any way to backup the system, increase the partition size and then
>>> restore the system on the increased size partition?
>>
>> RAID? Single drive? Hardware? details please!

I would do this:
1. Get a new disk of suitable size.
2. Partition & format.
3. Mark the boot partition as "active".
4. Connect the old and the new disk as slave disks to some other Windows PC.
5. Use robocopy.exe to copy everything from the old to the new disk.
6. Connect the new disk to the server and test it. Do NOT connect the old
disk at the same time.

This is a low-cost and zero-risk method to obtain whatever partition size
you require.

 

Guus Ellenkamp schrieb:
> Just a single drive with several partitions on it. I can combine the first
> two partitions if I want to get the space I need, but 1 is the boot
> partition, the other is the OS partition.
>
> "Amnon" <none@none.com> wrote in message
> news:7625o7F1b48dnU1@mid.individual.net...
>> On Sat, 02 May 2009 12:55:13 +0800, Guus Ellenkamp wrote:
>>
>>> I have a W2003 server installation on a relatively small partition. Is
>>> there any way to backup the system, increase the partition size and then
>>> restore the system on the increased size partition?
>> RAID? Single drive? Hardware? details please!
>
>

First of all:
Backup all your Data for the case of dataloss during increasing the
partition size.

Then try Acronis DiskDirector (you need to buy)
http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/diskdirector/


Or PartedMagic 4.0, which is free.
http://partedmagic.com/

Or another possibility: create a BartPE-CD with Acronis- or Ghost-Plugin
(http://www.nu2.nu) then make an Image of your hole HDD, create the
Partition you want, and restore the image. (Only the data, not the
partition info)

 

On Sun, 03 May 2009 20:14:16 +0800, Guus Ellenkamp wrote:

> Just a single drive with several partitions on it. I can combine the
> first two partitions if I want to get the space I need, but 1 is the
> boot partition, the other is the OS partition.
>
> "Amnon" <none@none.com> wrote in message
> news:7625o7F1b48dnU1@mid.individual.net...
>> On Sat, 02 May 2009 12:55:13 +0800, Guus Ellenkamp wrote:
>>
>>> I have a W2003 server installation on a relatively small partition. Is
>>> there any way to backup the system, increase the partition size and
>>> then restore the system on the increased size partition?
>>
>> RAID? Single drive? Hardware? details please!

in addition to the two excellent replies you have, you can also try
Gparted bootable CD,
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/index.php
Read the description, it can do everything for you and it's free .