Unable to resize target disk

[Meppy]

When trying to restore a C: drive to a new disk the resize disk option is unavailable in BESR 7 for Small Business Server.  This was to a new array that was empty, it basically created the same partition size of the original backup.  The option to delete disks is also unavailable... although I am confused at this option and it's purpose.

We are testing the process we are going to use to move to a bigger disk array so this is an essential.  Can anyone suggest what I might be doing wrong.

Have tried with a backup from the live server that has a registered copy as well as a backup of the test server that does not have the license key installed (it keeps saying the slf is invalid so assume this is because the test server is not running SBS?).

[Bill_Felt]

Hello,

When performing a restore of a recovery point from the Symantec Recovery Disk (SRD), one of the last screens of the restore wizard allows you to select a radio button that unlocks the ability to resize the volume during the restore.

You are then allowed to enter a new target size for the volume being restored in megabytes.

Was this option disabled at the time you did your restore?

If the target array was empty (no volumes or partitions defined), then the resize option should be available.  If a destination partition of some kind already exists on the target drive/array, and was selected as the destination for the restore, then the resize option will be greyed out in favor of the existing target volume size.

Thanks.

[Meppy]

That is correct, it is this radio button that was greyed out, even when the array had been cleared and there was a bigger empty logical drive being restored to.  I expected to see the button available but it was not and it created a new parition the same size as the original.

I will test it againt to make sure I did not miss something, but given that I went from RAID 5 to RAID 0 on the array on the test server (to simulate a larger drive)  I don't see how I could have?

[Meppy]

Created a 7.01 recovery disc and this time when I browsed and selected the backup file it only brought up that drive and not the system.  Then when I went to recovery the drive on it's own it let me change the size.

Going back and experimenting if I browsed for systems not files then it behaved differently (The backup was done as a whole system).  This is not clear in any documentation so was a bit of trial and error.

Now that I have tested this I am going to do the live migration this Saturday, if it goes as well as todays test then it will be done a lot quicker than I expected (unless there are any issues with resizing C:).

One thing I did notice is that I lost previous Event log history, unsure why at this stage.

[RossM]

I'm interested in how this turned out.

I have a server where the boot drive is runing low on space & alos getting a lot of disk errors (bad blocks), so wanted to use this software to migrate to new hard disks & increase boot volume size at the same time.

Also intereted if anyone has a good disk synchronisation tool? I am using disk-to-disk-to-disk backups (live disks to internal abckup disk to a series of USB transportables - cheaper & faster than tape!) The current backup software is designed to synch the abckup disk to USB removable drives. If I switch to LiveState I will need to synch the back drive to the external drive & have it automatically re-synch when the office satff swap the external drives.

[Meppy]

Well I am doing this in a few hours so I will report back as to how it went.  However I do not have a dying disk like you do, so your results will be affected by that.  I would say you need to move off that disk as a matter of urgency!  Are these SCSI disks?  Are they in a RAID array?  If not then I would highly recommend moving to a RAID array (either mirror or RAID 5) to remove the chance of a single drive failure bringing your server down and ruining your week.

I am using this software to do this as I have read a few glowing reports of doing exactly what I need (move to a new bigger disks) online and so it seems like a good way to do it.  My tests showed this to be true also (Even going to new Hardware which was interesting).

I would imagine you could configure BUESR to backup your backups to external disks, you might be able to configure Windows to give a different drive letter to each external disk you use so that it doesn't get confused?  Or just have a batch file that is run that uses ROBOCOPY or similar to backup the files.

[RossM]

Thanks - I'll look forward to seeing your results. Any chance you could post a screen shot of the area where you were confused with the options that prevented you re-sizing the disks?

The disks in this server are SATA & mirrored using a hardware  RAID 1 controller (Dell CERC controller  - OEM from Adaptec, I think) I have had quite a few of these servers from various clients reach the 3 year mark & the disks fail - must have a built in warramty timer :) Despite the RAID, the OS is reporting large numbers of bad blocks. The array has not degraded, so I suspect that both array disks are close to failing. As you point out, I need to move this ASAP!

I was looking for a utility that provided replication of disks (or folders), as a scripted solution will not keep the removable disks in sync in close to real time.  I was also wanting some level of error reporting & maybe email notification. I could write something based on RoboCopy, but I hate re-inventing the wheel! I expect there are utilities out there - just a matter of finding them. When one disk is removed & another connected as a part of the off-site rotation, they will re-mount with the same drive letter, so that is not an issue.

[Meppy]

The whole process went very well.  The server is now up and running with much more free disk space (all the drives in the array were replaced).

When doing the restore you just select view by filename instead of date or system and you can then restore indiviual drives and change the disk size.

Had to do a couple of restarts when the system reported that some settings had changed, it ran an automatic chkdsk on the data partition, and I had a couple of errors in the event log because the original drive was dynamic and not basic.

Oh and the server thought it had been shutdown as it prompted to enter details about the unexpected restart which was interesting.

Otherwise it was very quick and very easy... almost too easy!  All the testing and preperation was worth it though.  I definately will recommend this product for people needing to move to new bigger disks or different hardware from now on.