Re: Resizing the C drive

spacemancw <> wrote:
> I have a Dell PowerEdge 1850 with a 67GB RAID-1 set runing Windows
> Server 2003
>
> The C drive is 12GB and I want to extend it to 20GB

I would, too. 12 is too tight nowadays - your Windows update cache alone
will start taking up tons of space.

>
> I can blow away the D and E drives and recreate them later
>
> What is the best way to extend the C-drive.
> I do not want to rebuild this server as it has apps that I did not
> install or configure and I don't wanna have to figure them out.
>
> I have Partition Magic 8
> I have Ghost 7.5
> There is also NTBACKUP with ASR
>
> I thought I read that ASR doesnt restore Applications, just OS. This
> can't be true.

But it doesn't.
>
> If I use ghost I will have to leave the domain, ghost and then rejoin
> the domain

Why? This is just for a backup. Or, should be.

> (I've found in the past that ghosted when on the domain
> just puts the new machine into a reboot loop).

That's a SID problem and depends on how you're doing your restore. However,
in this case, you wouldn't be doing a restore unless the server went belly
up.
>
> The question is, if I make a ghost image of this 12GB C-drive, when I
> burn to the server again will it just recreate the 12GB partition or
> can I rezise to 20GB.
>
> Thanks

You need ServerMagic (or the nicer equivalent Acronis tool) to do this - and
taking an image backup first is an excellent idea.

Lanwench [MVP - Exchange] wrote:
> spacemancw <> wrote:
>> I have a Dell PowerEdge 1850 with a 67GB RAID-1 set runing Windows
>> Server 2003
>>
>> The C drive is 12GB and I want to extend it to 20GB
>
> I would, too. 12 is too tight nowadays - your Windows update cache alone
> will start taking up tons of space.
>
>> I can blow away the D and E drives and recreate them later
>>
>> What is the best way to extend the C-drive.
>> I do not want to rebuild this server as it has apps that I did not
>> install or configure and I don't wanna have to figure them out.
>>
>> I have Partition Magic 8
>> I have Ghost 7.5
>> There is also NTBACKUP with ASR
>>
>> I thought I read that ASR doesnt restore Applications, just OS. This
>> can't be true.
>
> But it doesn't.
>> If I use ghost I will have to leave the domain, ghost and then rejoin
>> the domain
>
> Why? This is just for a backup. Or, should be.
>
>> (I've found in the past that ghosted when on the domain
>> just puts the new machine into a reboot loop).
>
> That's a SID problem and depends on how you're doing your restore. However,
> in this case, you wouldn't be doing a restore unless the server went belly
> up.
>> The question is, if I make a ghost image of this 12GB C-drive, when I
>> burn to the server again will it just recreate the 12GB partition or
>> can I rezise to 20GB.
>>
>> Thanks
>
> You need ServerMagic (or the nicer equivalent Acronis tool) to do this - and
> taking an image backup first is an excellent idea.
>
>

Lanwench,

Can you clarify what folder you are referring to when you say "Windows
Update Cache"?

Are you referring to the DLLCache, ServicePackFiles, or something else?

Thanks,
-Lee

leew [MVP] <> wrote:
<snip>
>>
>>
>
> Lanwench,
>
> Can you clarify what folder you are referring to when you say "Windows
> Update Cache"?
>
> Are you referring to the DLLCache, ServicePackFiles, or something
> else?
> Thanks,
> -Lee

All of the above! All of the update uninstallers go in C:\Windows. You can
move them, but then you can't uninstall updates. Plus, with more RAM, a
larger page file. 12GB is not unworkable, but I'd personally prefer more.
Yes, one should first try to clean up what's on there to make as mush space
as possible, but sometimes that doesn't work well enough.

Lanwench [MVP - Exchange] wrote:
> leew [MVP] <> wrote:
> <snip>
>>>
>> Lanwench,
>>
>> Can you clarify what folder you are referring to when you say "Windows
>> Update Cache"?
>>
>> Are you referring to the DLLCache, ServicePackFiles, or something
>> else?
>> Thanks,
>> -Lee
>
> All of the above! All of the update uninstallers go in C:\Windows. You can
> move them, but then you can't uninstall updates. Plus, with more RAM, a
> larger page file. 12GB is not unworkable, but I'd personally prefer more.
> Yes, one should first try to clean up what's on there to make as mush space
> as possible, but sometimes that doesn't work well enough.

Honestly, I do not find those to fill up that fast. In my web page, and
in all instances to date where I have checked, the entire C:\Windows
folder on installs that are fresh or 3 years old, don't exceed 6GB.
Then the program files folder is another 2 at most (in most cases), and
Documents and settings are 1 GB or less (I tend to consider anything
over 500 MB to be excessive on a non-Terminal Server).

Add these up and that totals less than 9 GB, leaving more than 25% on a
12 GB drive.

I always move the pagefile off the C: drive and most other things that
can be moved. I tend to leave the DLLCache, ServicePackFiles, and
related stuff on C:, though I do periodically clean up 9 months or so of
old $NTUninstalls... (meaning any that are older than 9 months).

Now, in fairness, I WOULD make my C: drives 15-20 GB TODAY, but for a
drive that's already in use, 12 does not bother me... may require a
*LITTLE* more attention... but hardly enough, in my opinion, to justify
resizing, considering that resizing CAN cause corruption...

Anyway, that's my take...

-Lee