Splitting a partitioned drive

[mattlyon]

Here is the issue:

The Admin (and I use that title VERY loosely) before me setup this server as follows:

Drive 1 (70 gig mirrored): Partitioned into the C: (12 gigs) and F: Drives (58 gigs).
Drive 2 (70 gig mirrored): D: Drive (70 gigs)

Windows 2003 SBS w/raid card for fault tolerance.

The C: Drive has the OS, the D: Drive has the SQL Server data and the F: drive has user files on it. He was running backups to a removable 200 gig HD. So I installed a tape library and 2 pair of mirrored 140 gig drives.
My intention is to:
Give the OS it's own 70 gig mirror.
Move the user data on to the other 70 gig mirror.
Setup department folders on one of the 140 gig mirrors.
Move the SQL server data on to the other 140 gig mirror.

First, I ghosted the D: drive to the 140 gig mirror and had no issues. It worked like a charm. Then I tried using Ghost (10) to copy the C: to one drive and the F: to another, but ran into a problem. Ghost ten will will only do one partition or drive at a time. I am thinking of making an image of the c: and putting it onto the removable drive and then making an image of the F: drive and putting that on the removable drive. lastly, ghosting the two onto their new drives. The only drawback I see to this is Windows not recognizing one or both of the drives in Disk Management. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[djtech2k]

If you have separate partitions doing separate things then you should use ghost to ghost each partition separately, not the whole disk. Ghost acts funny with entire disks in an array.

So I would ghost off the C: partition first. When ghost prompts, choose partition not disk. Then do each other remaining partition. Then, reconfigure the disks/arrays on your server the way you want them. Setup your partitions, and finally re-ghost the stored images to partition.

I have reconfigured disks like this before and everything went fine.

 

[mattlyon]

Please reread my original post. That is what I am trying to do, but the C: is on the same drive (as a partition) as the F:

I am sorry if I am not being clear. Let me try another approach.

Logical Disk 1 (70 gig mirror) C: Drive (O.S.) & F: Drive (user data)
Logical Disk 2 (70 gig mirror) blank
Logical Disk 3 (140 gig mirror) D: Drive (Sql database)
Logical Disk 4 (140 gig mirror) blank
Removable Disk 5 (Removable USB drive)

If I try to ghost the C: partition from LD1 to LD2, I will either have:
LD1 C: & F: drives + LD2 C: drive
-OR-
LD2 C: drive and no F: drive

So my plan is to Ghost an image of C: to RD5, then ghost an image of F: to RD5, then restore the image of C: to LD2 and finally F: to LD4

The only problem I see is Windows Server Disk Manager not recognizing the new drives and puking. I just hate to spend the time on this just to fail. I was hoping that somebody here might have been through this and share their experience.

 

[mattlyon]

I reread your post a third time and think I am missing something in Ghost. Can you do your ghosting in the DOS environment. It seemed to me that you had to do everything in Windows. I also tried using an older version of Ghost (5, I think it was) and that only allowed the ghosting of complete disks (or drives) in the DOS environment.

 

[djtech2k]

If you use like Ghost 8 or newer, you should be able to ghost by partition.

And mattylon, you are correct. You will need an external disk to ghost the partitions out to.

As for ghost, I usually use it bundled with winpe. If you do it in windows, then it sets the parameters and then does the action in DOS.

Essentially, you want to first do "From Partition to Image" and put the destination on the external. Then to put it back on the disk after its reconfigured, you will do "From Image to partition".

 

[mattlyon]

That's what I thought. No issues with disk manager?

 

[djtech2k]

Well, if you are using the exact same drive letters before and after, but just changing the size of the disks, then windows should never know the diff.

As long as you are using the same drive letters and you are ghosting out the partitions, I think you should be fine.

 

[mattlyon]

I hope so!!