Move Exchange from one drive to another

[gilligan]

I have run into trouble with my exchange box. The 8.5 gig drive that it sits on, is near full. (81mb remaining) I plan on installing an 18.5 gig drive into that server tonight. Can I move Exchange from one drive to another in the same machine? Is it feasible to do this by backing up the current drive fully with Backup Exec and then restoring to the new drive? Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Guest_imported]

First a couple questions: RAID or none? IDE or SCSI? Partitions? I did this without too much a while back. Give me a little more info and maybe I can give you a couple tips.

Alex

 

[gilligan]

No raid. SCSI. Currently an 8.5 gig partition, going to 18.5 gig drive and partition.

 

[Guest_imported]

There are a couple things you could do. Easiest is to drop in the 18.5 GB HDD and start the server and run the Performance optimizer. The Optimizer will recognize the added drive and move Databases and logs files accordingly for the best perfofmance.

If you would like to get rid of the 8.5 Gig drive all together, I would install the 18.5 drive and go to Disk Administrator, create a mirror of the 8.5 with the 18.5 drive, reboot the server wait till the mirror has been established and is healthy, down the server, pull out the 8.5 Gig drive, reboot and you should be up and running (any problems booting, I would check the Boot.ini and change settings as needed). At this point you're in the same boat, either run Disk Admin and create a second partition and run the optimizer or shell out the $500+ for Server Magic and resize the existing partition.

I AM NOT AN EXCHANGE EXPERT, if anyone else has a more efficient process, please post. I have done this and it was relatively painless. Of cource make a good Back up, you can never go wrong starting off with a good back up. I would also consider buying a second 18.5 gig HDD and at least doing some software mirroring.

Good Luck. Please post with the results

 

[TimothyCox]

This IS the easiest way to do it.
trust me-I've done it SEVERAL times.

I have to make some assumptions:
Because you stated it's an 8.5 gig partition, Either you are running NT4.0 and this is a second HD,with exchange 5.0/5.5 or:
You are running 2000 server w/ exchange 5.0/5.5/2000
In either case, the instructions below will work.
(unless this is 2000 and you converted from a "basic" disk)

go to:

http://www.powerquest.com

download the free demo of "drive image pro" (It's fully functional!)
Install it on a workstation, make the 2 diskettes when it prompts you.

Install the new HD in the server,
boot off of diskette one, Insert diskette 2 when prompted.
Image the data from the old drive to the new one, Let it automatically resize the partiton to fill the new drive.
when done, Pull the old drive and boot.
Run diskadmin so NT can mark the drive, and reset the drive letter correctly, if need be.
But all should be well, And now 18 Gigs. Simple.
You can reinstall the old drive if you want, Just put it further down the SCSI chain (ID#) and fdisk the sucker (well, Format it with NT).

Note:
If this is your boot partition, and this is NT4.0, Then you are NUTS to go over the 7.5 gig limit! (you are there already) but,
If it's 2000 server, Then no prob.

If there is a detail that was not addressed above, Email me.
If you need to truely migrate Exchange, That's a whole different ball of wax, and a SCARY one!

Timothy Cox
tcox@pcbytc.com
When in doubt.............FDISK!

 

[Zelandakh]

Put new disk in. Get it seen by Explorer.

Use Exchange optimiser. When you get the "New settings" window, ensure ALL the bits detail the new drive not the old one.

Assuming Exchange is the only thing using the drive, it can come out.