System drive almost full

[lunatiic]

Hi all! I have a Dell PowerEdge 2550 with windows 2000 sp 4 installed.

It has a Dell Perc 3 RAID array.

There is two disks set up as virtual disks (C= 4 GB and D=65 GB).

Now it complaints about low disk space on C. Is there any way for me to "expand" c using some of the empty space from D:\..?

Thanks in advance!

 

[markdmac]

Sure, it is called a system reload....

Seriously, you have a very small partition size. I typically go with a minimum of 12GB for the system partition.

Best you can do is to free up disk space. Delete the hidden uninstall folders in the Winnt directory that are created by service packs and hotfixes. that will free up conisderable space. Move any local copies of the I386 folder to the second disk. Clear out all temp files. reduce IE cache size and empty temporary Internet files. Remove any application install files.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[markdmac]

I guess I should point out that if you are adventuresome, you could use Partition Magic from Symantec.

I have used the product successfully a number of times, however I've always been sure I was prepared to do a complete data restore or system rebuild before using it.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[lb63640]

I cast my vote with markdmac. Partition Magic or Acronis Disk Director would be good choices to expand the smaller partition.

Take heed to part where Mark cautions you to be sure you have your vital data backed up BEFORE you mess with the partition. It might save some tears later, if things go south on you.

 

[Seaspray0]

As a short term solution, move the page file to your d drive.


A+/MCP/MCSE/MCDBA

 

[markdmac]

Just a warning on moving the page file, you will not be able to get debug info for a crash if you do remove it.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[Seaspray0]

Very true, mardkmac. I would only consider doing it if my back was against the wall and I needed any method I could use to provide me with a small slice of space to keep me going while I devised a more permanent solution. BTW, is there anyone who can actually understand the info provided by the memory dump other than a microsoft programmer?

A+/MCP/MCSE/MCDBA

 

[markdmac]

I took a class on that about 3 years ago but never got to practice so I lost the skills.

The thing witht he dump is that it lets you contact Microsoft for assistance for critical systems.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[nsantin]

I thought Partition Magic didn't work on servers, there was a product called server magic, but I don't see it on the powerquest/symantec website anymore.

Will Parition Magic work on a W2K3 server (just a simple SATA drive, no RAID)? and if so, do I run it from the bootup CD instead of installing it? (my version wont install on server)

 

[markdmac]

You would need to see what Symantec site says since they now own partition magic.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[gravedigger2]

Try Acronis Disk Director to resize your partiton/disk and after use Acronis True Image Server for a easy backup. It´s better then BackupExec, Ghost or PQMagiq. It works great with servers like IBM Xseries or Dell PowerEdge 2850 and have support for Raid5.

George Gammelgard
-----------------
Computers make very fast, very accurate misstakes!

 

[bran2235]

Partition Manager works well too...
I've used it here on my servers.

Just another option...!



Brandon

 

[DaveFarquhar]

Whether Partition Magic or a similar program will work depends on whether you created your virtual drives as partitions (using Windows setup when you installed), or the RAID tools. If you created them in RAID, these tools won't help you.

I once escaped from this type of issue by creating an image of the server using Ghost, reconfiguring the RAID array, then laying the image back down. Then I had to reboot and re-join the domain again, of course. It's best to take the server out of the domain before you do this. It's a crude method with lots of opportunity to mess up, but if it's your only option, it's better than nothing.

Short-term, to gain some space, I would recommend doing a search (Start->Find->Files or Folders), type * and hit OK. You'll get a list of every file on the drive, of course. Sort by size, and start looking for duplicate/no-longer-necessary files, such as old service packs or IE installation files. Banish those and you can quickly gain a little breathing room.

Dave Farquhar

http://dfarq.homeip.net

 

[nsantin]

Here is another short term tip, move your eventlogs:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q216169/

I saved 200mb (security log gets HUGE!)

 

[nsantin]

Plus you can move %SYSTEMROOT%\ServicePackFiles (this is huge as well)

Just update 2 Reg keys:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/274215/EN-US/

 

[SoonerNation]

I'm in the same boat as the original poster. We are considering using Paragon Partiton Manager 7.0 Server Edition.

The point I wanted to make is that everyone who uses a Dell Poweredge out of the box will soon be in this same boat. They create this small partition (minimum) size when they configure the system.

In our case we have a Dell Power Edge 4400 with RAID-5, two 33 gig SCSI-II mirrored drives and our c: was partitioned to be 4 gig!!!

After reading this and several other threads this seems to be a theme with Dell server products.

Beware of this issue if you are in predeployment planning.

Lyndon

 

[nate2345]

Guys,

I have the exact same server (dell poweredge 2550, win2k sp4 - domain controller) and the sys partition has 4 GB and the data partition has 29 GB (basically a 36GB drive). There is only mirroring. There are 2 more bays(slots) available.

In my case I need to replace the original drive with a larger one or add a larger disk to the second bays and then expand the sys partition somehow. What suggestions can you recommend?

Partition magic?
Or
Reinstall and then restore sytem state?
Or......

I have less than 800 MB left on that drive - Please help!

Thanks,
Nate

 

[markdmac]

My honest opinion is that it would be considerable easier if you were to reload the system.

I would suggest backing up all of your data on the server and rather than doing a system state restore, I would suggest that you install a temporary server, could just be workstation hardware, to replicate your AD. That way you can DCPROMO the server out of AD gracefully then rebuild it and you could even rebuild with the same name.

When you bring it back in to the domain as a DC it will get the AD info from the temp server. You can then gracefully remove the temp server.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[nate2345]

Thanks for the response. I would prefer not going through dcpromo. Is there a problem taking down the server and relying temporarily on the secondary DC. Then reinstall the original server and do a restore of the system state? Have you had a bad experience with that?

Thanks,
Nate

 

[markdmac]

First, I am of the opinion that AD should only be restored as a last resort. Use replicaiton instead.

For your specific need, I think you will run into problems.

I guess you could try breaking your mirror and setting the new disk as the active partition to see if you can get that to boot by modifying your Boot.ini file. I think the risk of downtime is too great.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark