Need to move C: partitions to larger drives

[PPettit]

I've got two servers that need larger C: partitions. Can anyone recommend a product that will allow me to backup both partitions and then restore them to larger partitions on new drives?

I'd like to be able to backup to (and restore from) an external USB drive or networked storage device. Also, this should be a one-time only job. I don't need something that is intended for regular image backups.

 

[Roadki11]

I use ghost to do this, done it a few times with no issues. Other products can do it also like Acronis but ghost is cheap and easy. I usually slave an IDE drive into the chassis save the images to that then restore from that. Ive used ghost 2003 and ghost 11 to do this, newer versions of ghost took away the stand alone DOS exe.

RoadKi11

"This apparent fear reaction is typical, rather than try to solve technical problems technically, policy solutions are often chosen." - Fred Cohen

 

[SimonDavies]

Ghost for sure, out of interest do the drives have sufficient space on them to increase them or are you actually going to replace the drives? The reason I ask is that you may be able to use something like Server Magic or Boot Magic to do this (old products but they should still be around).

Simon

The real world is not about exam scores, it's about ability.

 

[PPettit]

SimonDavies, neither server has sufficient space to increase the size of the partitions. I'll be replacing the current drives with larger ones.

Am I correct in assuming that both Ghost recommendations were for Ghost Solution Suite 2.5 since that's the only current version that shows to be compatible with Server 2003?

Can GSS be used without installing it on the machine I want to clone? I'd rather just boot off of the CD/DVD if it will allow me to access a USB drive or a network share.

 

[Roadki11]

Like i said ghost 2003 will do it, ghost 11 is GSS 2. GSS 2.5 should have ghost.exe in its file dir somewhere, i just created a windows boot cd with nero and included the ghost.exe on it. Boot up the cd change dir and execute the ghost.exe, nothing fancy. USB drivers can be tricky so i dont mess with them, thats why i slave a big IDE drive in to write the image to.

RoadKi11

"This apparent fear reaction is typical, rather than try to solve technical problems technically, policy solutions are often chosen." - Fred Cohen

 

[baddos]

Is the machine you are doing this on have a raid controller or is it software raid?

If it's a raid controller, you could possibly (depending upon the raid array obviously) replace the current drives one by one (waiting for the array to rebuild before replacing the next disk(s)). Once the array has been rebuilt with new disks, you can expand the lun to fill up the whole disk. Then you can use diskpart.exe to expand your c: partition to use the new space.

 

[TechyMcSe2k]

Acronis has the ability to create a boot up disk for manual backup and restore.

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/

They even have a 15 day trial period. The home edition will do server os's from the boot "recovery" disk u create.

_______________________________________
Great knowledge can be obtained by mastering the Google algorithm.

 

[JoeJTaylor]

I Used Acronis Tru image to move entire servers to dis-similar hardware.
I have also used it in disk replacements. It works a charm. Just out of interest what product did you use and how did it go?

 

[mofusjtf]

I have used StorageCraft ShadowProtect to do this. I personally try to avoid using Symantec products.