Safest way to increase the 'C' partition on primary server?

[ajbritton]

One obvious way of saving space, especially on servers with large amounts of RAM is to move the page file off the system volume. The page file is usually at least as big as the total RAM in the system, if not more.

In theory, you should be able to repartition as follows;
1 - Back up the entire system (including SystemState) and verify ops:
2 - Wipe the entire disk
3 - Create a C: partition of 20GB and install Win2K3 to C:\WIN2K3
4 - Boot into the new installation and restore the original system
5 - Modify boot.ini to allow access to both old and new systems
6 - Boot into the original system
voila!

I have NOT done this on a Windows 2003 system yet. Can anyone confirm or refine this method?

[tarquel]

Nice theory.

Would indeed be handy to know if this works. Just a shame it would put back all the junk onto the partiton.

A digression (start another topic if you know the ansewr please) but would be nice if there is a (virtually) fully-proof way of getting everything off a 2003 AD and then after a fresh install of 2k3 (i.e. a UA 2003 CD install with hotfixes/SPs integrated) import the settings from the old setup?

[sorry if that sounds confusing lol]

Shame PQ's (now Symantec's) Drive Image / Partition Manager isn't compatible with 2k3 It was well handy on Server NT 4

Regards
Nath

[E1uSiV3]

Ive found one of the biggest killers of disk space is the pagefile, i have a SQL server with 3GB of ram so the pagefile is (by default) 4.5GB in size alone!

After installing SP1 and some other patches space gets eaten very quickly, my SQL box has a dedicated 36GB drive for the system and a 74GB for data, and runs nicely, some might say overkill but i personally think the performance hit from running partitioned drives is too great.

also being a paranoid freak that i am i wouldnt want to put hte system and data on one disk, odds are only 1 disk will fail at a time so is a lot smaller task to fix, and usually if its the system drive i can cheat and relocate the disk in another box instantly to keep the ball rolling after a bit of path changing

[browolf]

you can move the spool folder:
http://support.microsoft.com/Default...23120121120120

[zippy]

I've only ever run out of space from making too many ghost images.

You keep the images on the very same hard drive that might actually fail?
Do I read that right?

Z

[Geoff]

No, I keep them on a USB HDD if I can.

[Dos_Box]

Once external SATA drives become the norm then it will open up a whole new world where external drives can take up the slack on demand. Imaging is a task in which large external drives are particularly well suited.

[ChrisH]

Ive got a few USB2/SATA combo external drives. It's not true SATA as it goes to a PATA but certainly faster than the USB2 connection.

[Dos_Box]

We have just taken delivery of some new motherboards and they have true SATA backplanes connecting to the SATA controller on the motherboard. Its a pity I don't have anything to connect to them

[StewartKnight]

I've just got one large c: drive, as at my last school the technician didn't partition enough space, and we had a hell of a time!