Extending c: drive on Raid 5, poweredge 2500

[lfolden]

We have a Poweredge 2500 with Raid 5, windows 2000, four hard drives, 2 partitions. We are finding the c: drive (basic, system, healthy partition) is currently filling up faster than anticipated and would like to add to the available space.

We do not have any unallocated space for this purpose.

Can we add another hard drive to the array and then add the unallocated space to the c: drive?

Or should we add a second array and add that unallocated space to the c: drive? I have seen different indications as to whether this is possible. We do not want to lose any information on the hard drives and I do not trust to backup alone.

My best alternative so far is to remove the existing hard drives and then add new drives. Configure them with the correct OS and then restore from backup, keeping the original drives as insurance.

Please let me know the best way to proceed--short of purchasing another server!

Thank you
Laura Folden

 

[technome]

A little more info would be great,

Like how much system ram
..c: partition size
..how many users, workgroup or AD
..roughly how many directories on D:, is this a highly secured server ( mucho directory/group/user rights?)
..which raid adapter perc2/perc3

If you have a least a 3 Gig c: partition
1)you can move your page file to d:, or create a smaller one on c: another on D:, if smaller than system ram, you won't get a full system dump.
2)uninstall your programs from c:\program files, reinstall them to your D:, 95% of programs don't care where they reside.
3) search and destroy all *.tmp, they hide, goes for *.dmp files
4)I take all Ms update patch folders in \winnt, move them to D:, be aware you may need them at some point in the original location.
5)I asked about the number of directories and the security because it sound like you have an easily rebuildable system.
I just duplicated a 12 user network, 140 gig raid over a 2 day period. Heavy user/directory security but few directories. Would be tempted to get roughly 72-100 gig as an array, not 36 gig.

As far a adding drives to an array, a mixed bag, and a conversion from "basic" to "dynamic ( natively)" is necessay. Personally, I have had only a couple of bad experiences with disk settings, only with dynamic disks.

For more info on raid expansion, go to this thread and read very carefully.

Mark Manasi's Website

http://x220.win2ktest.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2127

 

[ChuckCraig]

You can add drives to the aray (call dell techsupport for help), the problem here is to expand the C: partition, you will either need to backup all your data, and repartion, re install the OS then restore the system, or try somthing like partition magic (server edition).

But techgnome is right, if you have 4 gig or more on the C: drive, see what you can offload to the data partion.