Reclaiming unknown partition and EISA partitions in WIndows Server 2003

[albertwt]

Hi All,

I've just migrate my Exchange Server 2007 and Domain Controller+GC (All In One role) from 4x 500 GB RAID-5 into new server with 5x 500 GB RAID-5 using Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery (BESRO) 8.5.3,

by doing the restoration to a bigger LUN size I am expecting to get a bigger free space but instead I'm having problem with the 3x EISA partition (I don't know what is that ? possibly Dell Utility Partition ?) and one unknown partition which cannot be use at all.

any idea please in re arranging the partition without breaking the current Exchange Server + Domain Controller configuration ?

thanks.

[SYNACK]

From doing a bit of reading I think that those partitions are the old configuration partitions from the original four drive RAID configuration. RAID controllers often store configuration information at the start of the drive so that the disk set can be moved between identical controllers. Problems Managing EISA Partition on Dynamic Disks
Ultimate Ultra-Mobile PC Blog: Deleting your Q1 EISA Partition
Laptop EISA Configuration Partition - The PC Guide Discussion Forums

After killing off these partitions you may need to point the boot.ini file to a different partition number to boot the OS as it will have changed. There is a recovery command in the repair console to do this automaticlly.

You should then be able to expand the dynamic partition using the diskpart command line tool and then expand the individual partitions inside it as you see fit using the same command.

I would suggest a full backup before hand though just in case.

[albertwt]

Hi Synack,

Thanks for the suggestion yes BESRO 8.5.3 is really hard to understand When i create the backup using BESRO cold backup (boot CD) each partition is stored in a single v2i and then when i tried to restore, i have to go back and forth through the wizard to select the partitions, moreover if i select Dell utility partition firstly, the restore FAILED miserably !

first of all I'm going to perform full backup of my current Exchange Server 2007 + DC and then try your suggestion.