[thelist] recommendations for repartitioning windows 2000 server C:drive without data loss.

Ken Schaefer Ken at adOpenStatic.com
Sun Nov 20 04:47:57 CST 2005


-----Original Message-----
From: thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org
[mailto:thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org] On Behalf Of VOLKAN ÖZÇELIK
Subject: [thelist] recommendations for repartitioning windows 2000 server
C:drive without data loss.

> I used to use partition magic to solve the problem 
> on my windows98 box. But when I read the most recent 
> version's specs it says that:
> 
> "PartitionMagic does not support Windows NT Server or 
> Windows 2000 Servers."
> 
> Do you have any recommendations that work on w2k server?

There's a version called "ServerMagic" that's for server OSes. Basically it
does the same thing, but costs more. There are other apps out there as well
that will do partitioning for you. There are a number listed here (including
some free ones). I don't know how good they are. Use at your own risk:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/Windows_Server_2003/Q_20861
878.html

> Or will I need to back-up my data, format my drives and repartition
> them, re-install a brand new System, install a new service pack,
> install .net framework, then install the patches which will take ages
> to complete.

The alternative is to do a backup/restore. I.e. backup the existing
partition. Create a new partition and put down a barebones OS, and then do a
restore. Alternatively, some backup programs support a "bare metal restore"
that doesn't require an OS to be there to allow the restore to occur. Not
sure what backup software you are using.

Another alternative is imaging apps like Ghost or Acronis True Image. You can
image the existing partition, create a new partition, and restore the image
to the new, larger partition.

> As a side note, I install all my program files in another drive (to
> F:\Program Files) so that they do not eat system partition's space. So
> the 5gig data mainly belongs to MS-specific "Application Data"
> (
> That's because windows insists on putting its application stuff under
> C:\documents and settings\my profile folder\ regardless of where the
> actual program setup is installed. That's annoying.

Application Data is actually for /any/ application (not MS specific
applications) to store their application specific information. And you can
/redirect/ this folder to any location. There's another folder called "local
settings" which should not be redirected to a network share (it's for local
settings only), but you can certainly store that on another part of your
local disk.

> And don't get me started about the huge mess under C:\WINNT which is
> around 1+ gig. Why on earth does an operating system need over one
> billion bytes of data to run properly?
> )

Check what you have there. I reckon about 100MB will be driver cache. Another
300MB will be service pack uninstall files (if you have that enabled).
Another 100MB is there is support the .NET Framework.

If you need space in a hurry, you could optionally, compress some files if
your partition has compression enabled. By default you should find that patch
uninstall files are automatically compressed (if you look in c:\winnt the
files/folders are coloured blue by default

Cheers
Ken 



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