Resizing 2000 Server Partition

Ola,

I ran into an older 2000 Server acting as the main domain controller and DNS that has run out of space and cannot deploy MS security patches. I did all the normal stuff, move the swap file take off unused programs, delete the caches - old files etc... and still need more space. I ran down and bought the trusty old Partition Magic to find that Symantec bought them. After a full backup a tried PM 8.0 and there wasn't enough space to install it. So I disconnected the Server from the network and took off the MS patches make room only to find out that PM 8.0 does not supprt the server OS. LOL and ****.

So here is my question, I want to resize this thing SAFELY and it appears that the server based partitioning programs sold by symantec are now defunct. They want to sell a huge enterprise based imaging system. So I am about to boot PM via a diskette and repartition outside of windows. I've taken all the normal precautions like removing mirrors and reverting back to Basic Disks and understand the risks involved, but has anyone really tried resizing a partition from dos on a server? I thought I would toss that out there for the techies.

//EDIT PS, is it even safe to use the bootable version of Partition Magic 8.0? Safe in terms of ZERO data loss of a normal resizing?

Sorry for the double post but this POS will not even run from the bootable disk. It detects the Server OS and aborts. How many times do we see good windows products fcking ruined for money. :rolleyes:

As far as I can tell the product that enables server partition sizing is Volume Manager at $800 bucks. Hell I'll buy a new server for that with hardware raid.

have you tried the linux pm clone, parted. you can get a seperate front-end made with qt, imaginatively called, qtparted. the newer versions of this should be included on knoppix and other live cd distros. http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/parted.html - they do not yet resize NTFS, i just checked their site. so that's out.

have you tried SystemCommander. that's another partition resizing tool that comes to mind. it will co$t mon€y though.

Quote:

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//EDIT PS, is it even safe to use the bootable version of Partition Magic 8.0? Safe in terms of ZERO data loss of a normal resizing?

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i've had strange experiences with PM on windows, especially with different NTFS versions and resizing. i don't know if i would consider it safe at all.

don't forget to back-up!

Hell yeah, I backed up before I even thought about changing disk configurations. ;) I was staring at my linux tools earlier but I just don't know them enough and this is a live server. It's behind a firewall on a small network and doesn't deal out public requests, so I backed out of it. I have a packet sniffer on it for the weekend incase anything happens since this is a hot security item with missing patches.

Need to do some more research. I may just build a new box and migrate if I can't find a cheap tool that will do this. I also tried changing the disk to a dynamic volume and using windows to extend the partition but it won't let me do that either since it was created as a basic volume. I am stuck for now. If I bust out linux CDs I may lose data at this point.

I'll look at System Commander.

it's actually Partition Commander that you would want. seems that they are seperate products now.

if you are going to get out the linux tools then check out ntfsprogs. i think you can even get a windows binary of the ntfsresize code.

http://mlf.linux.rulez.org/mlf/ezaz/ntfsresize.html
http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/ntfsprogs.htm

i thought parted might make use of these tools the way mkfs uses the respective mkfs tools. i guess not though.

Im facing this same problem at work right now and am trying to find a solution. If you do find one let me know and Ill do the same.

Well at this point I have totally blanked myself in the blank. I found a tool that has worked excellent on other boxes, and it's shareware. It's called BootItNG and is about 30 bucks if you buy it. I played around with the Linux stuff and looked at the 800 dollar options. In this case, the disk was converted to dynamic by me on a whim that windows would be able to adjust the volume size.

That is what I get for assuming what could be called a "common sense" item. Now I can't change it back and according to MS archives Windows 2000 does NOT support converting a boot drive from dynamic to basic and almost NO tools on the market support dynamic drive manipulations. BootITNG is friggen cool though. You won't get near the suport as with something like Volume Manager, but at a couple thousand times the cost savings, who cares! On the linux side I just didn't feel confortable with the documentation. BootItNG comes with a tool to build a bootable ISO image and worked like a charm on a test install I did on my laptop.

Microsoft's workaround from dynamic to basic disks..... copy down the partition sizes, reload windows, restore from backup. BootItNG people also have am image tool, I might try that and see if it supports restoring an image on a different size partition. They have a cheap tool that can burn and image to a bootable cd volume. Sweet.

Cheers...


BootITNG Home

//EDIT forgot to mention, you can make a bootable Linix ISO from the same package. For a small fee you get Linux and Windows Support.

With Ghost you can ghost up an image and bring it back down again on a larger drive or partition, although I can't remember if I've ever done it with a server version. Anyone out there know for sure?

Hmmm I may try ghost... That might be better than my friggin crazy idea of playing in the MBR. I was looking at some old notes I have on the System ID from Windows. Check it:

0x01 FAT12 primary partition or logical drive (fewer than 32,680 sectors in the volume)
0x04 FAT16 partition or logical drive (32,680–65,535 sectors or 16 MB–33 MB)
0x05 Extended partition
0x06 BIGDOS FAT16 partition or logical drive (33 MB–4 GB)
0x07 Installable File System (NTFS partition or logical drive)
0x0B FAT32 partition or logical drive
0x0C FAT32 partition or logical drive using BIOS INT 13h extensions
0x0E BIGDOS FAT16 partition or logical drive using BIOS INT 13h extensions
0x0F Extended partition using BIOS INT 13h extensions
0x12 EISA partition
0x42 Dynamic disk volume
0x86 Legacy FT FAT16 disk *
0x87 Legacy FT NTFS disk *
0x8B Legacy FT volume formatted with FAT32 *
0x8C Legacy FT volume using BIOS INT 13h extensions formatted with FAT32 *

That is taken right out of the horses mouth. Now I looked on a basic disk system and it has 0x07 and my dynamic disk system has 0x42. I have done nothing special with the disks that require Dynamic support so I am thinking, why don't I get in there and switch 42 to 7??? Then boot into BootITNG and resize it? Could work!

I have Partition Magic 8, and like a million old versions of it, and I have System Commander (I bought it because I liked ebing able to boot over 100 OSs with it heh) and I've used everything from parted to fdisk to cfdisk.

Out of them all, resizing NTFS is not only a bitch, it's got rabies. I didn't read your whole thread because frankly I only skim to make sure what I say isn't already said, but if you have some cash and some time, send both to me.... I mean, get system Commander AND partition Magic 8.

After this, buy SUSE Linux, and boot from the CD or DVD, and resize your NTFS Partition with this, and you're done ;)

(In other words out of every tool I've used SUSE has been the only hing I've seen resize an NTFS partition properly without screwing it up, because DAMN I hate fixing a MBR in Hex).

I am messing around in the MBR right now. I have SuSE here on my desk.

//EDIT I have partition Magic 8. It will not run on a server os, I would have to figure out how to trick it. Besides, this thing was converted to a dynamic disk and Partition Magic 8 won't work on that, and I doubt SuSE will.

There comes a point in time, personal pride aside, where it is actually fiscally more responsible to say "screw it" and back up the data, make the appropriate notes and start from scratch with a spiffy new hard drive....

If you haven't reached this point yet you are reaching the "tipping point"..... ;)

If this was a file server I would. But it's the domain controller they used to migrate NT about 2 years ago and it functions as the primary DNS for there internal lan and probably the FSMO. SO I set here, wonder just which would be easier... fixing this or installing a new hardrive and then fixing active directory issues for the next week. :D

But there comes a time when, about now. You just give up and go to the pub.

A few times I've used it for that purpose, I've successfully created and restored an image file from a Win2K Server Hardware RAID 1 drive using Acronis True Image. I think the version was 7.x. The RAID hardware couldn't even tell I had done the dirty. It has a linux based bootable recovery disk too, beside Windows support for only around $50
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1746192,00.asp

I have version 8.0 now but haven't tried creating and restoring a Win2K server drive with this version, though. The website doesn't say it can do Servers, but version 7.x did work.

As mentioned, Ghost might help ya. I've used it so many times in the past but like you don't remember what I did or didn't do with it.

Gore, using the right tools, NTFS expanding, shrinking, cutting up, splicing, has been a piece of cake. Like I said, I'm using Acronis True Image and I'm working with NTFS disks all day long. Never a problem.

If you want to convert dynamic disks to basic disks and do the NTFS dirty work, then look into Casper XP, http://www.fssdev.com/products/casperxp/
It says it can do all that and more.
It also states "Not designed for Win2x Server products", but I remember some vague reading that it does work, it's just not specifically designed for it.
If you have the time, shoot the Casper XP people an email or call them direct http://www.fssdev.com/about/contact.asp

[Casper XP excerpts]
1) Does Casper XP support Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server or Windows XP 64-bit Edition? Not officially.

2) Does Casper XP support copying of Windows Dynamic Volumes?
While Casper does support copying of Dynamic Volumes, it does not support cloning of Dynamic Disks. This means Casper will not allow you to copy an entire hard disk to or from a Dynamic Disk even if the Dynamic Disk is fully self-contained (e.g. defines a simple volume that is not striped, mirrored, or spanned across multiple disks). However, Casper does support copying of dynamic volumes to other volumes and Basic Disks where possible. When copying a dynamic volume, Casper will copy only the contents of the volume. It will not copy or recreate the actual data structures to reproduce the dynamic disk(s) by which the volume is defined. Dynamic Volumes include volume sets, stripe sets, stripe sets with parity, and partitions located on disk mirror/duplex sets configured using the Windows Disk Administrator.

Hope this helps some.

[Edited for clarity]

Basically once you go dynamic, you are STUCK with MS products. I played around some more last night after being side tracked with explaining on a white board what a boot sector is and why hex and binary are used and why it's a good idea to learn how to convert between the two; all to my MCSE and A+ certified tech who also has a college degree in I.T.

Okay....

Here's a little ditty I created on Dynamic disks I think you should all know:

1. Dynamic disks cannot contain partitions.
2. Dynamic disks cannot contain logical drives.
3. Dynamic disks cannot be accessed using MS-DOS.
4. Dynamic disk cannot be accessed Windows operating systems other than Windows 2000 or higher.
5. Dynamic disks are not supported when using some 3rd party disk/partition software. If it doesn't specifically say, it's supported, it isn't.
6. Any disks to be upgraded must contain at least 1 megabyte (MB) of free space at the end of the disk for the upgrade to succeed.
7. You cannot upgrade a basic disk to a dynamic disk if the sector size of the disk is larger than 512 bytes.
8. You cannot mark an existing dynamic volume as active. Meaning your multi boot software won't work unless it supports dynamic volumes.
9. After you upgrade a basic disk to a dynamic disk, you cannot change the dynamic volumes back to partitions. Instead, you must delete all dynamic volumes on the disk. Reinstall all programs too.
10. Dynamic disks are not supported on portable computers. If you are using a portable computer and right-click a disk in the graphical or list view in Disk Management, you will not see the option to upgrade the disk to dynamic.
11. If you're running Windows XP Home Edition the option for Dynamic disks is unavailable too.
12. They have a learning curve and the chances of screwing something up is substantially higher than working with basic disks.
13. Lots of disk backup software do not support dynamic disks.

Now ....does anyone wanna make a dynamic disk?


[Didn't know where to put this as it's not enough info for a tutorial]