0

I've inherited a Dell server that is running out of space on C:. I'd like to quickly and painlessly resize the C drive with partitioning software. However, the RAID card is causing me some troubles. I've resized plenty of desktops in my time, but never a server with hardware RAID.

Can anyone recommend software that is GUARANTEED to work with the Dell PERC 6/i? Hopefully someone has resized the system partition with this RAID card before! :)

Of course, proper backups are available but I'd be more comfortable with a tried and true solution to save the headache of the restore....

Thanks in advance!

1
  • Dell's management tools can do this for your, look to install OMSA. This can be used to grow a virtual disk over free space on the RAID (or add in an additional drives/swap out existing drives, then grow the virtual disk). Windows can resize its own drives or boot from a live CD like gParted for Partition Magic.
    – Baldrick
    Feb 13, 2012 at 21:56

3 Answers 3

2

I have resized disks on three different Dell servers with EASEUS Partition Master 9.0.0 Server Edition. One with Perc 4i, one with Perc 4s and one with SAS s300 controller.

If you have a full backup beeing able to restore if something wrong happens, I would try that software...

2

We ended up going with Paragon Partition Manager, it worked like a charm!

1
  • Glad you resolved this issue. Please be sure to mark your answer as "accepted" when you are able.
    – jscott
    Jul 14, 2012 at 17:21
1

I needed to expand the OS partition to upgrade my Dell server with a PERC array from Windows Server 2003 to 2008.

Dell publishes a custom utility, ExtPart.exe (32-bit), to extend the OS partition on a PERC array.

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverid=R64398

Notes: 1) It does not run under 64-bit; you need to boot a 32-bit system to use it. 2) It only works on Basic volumes. 3) You need free space directly adjacent to the C: partition to proceed.

Copy/expand the ExtPart utility to the C:\Dell folder. BACKUP and delete the D: part. Boot the server into Safe Mode. Open a command prompt, go to the folder where ExtPart is located, run it.

Extremely simple. It will ask you for the drive letter of the part you want to extend, then how much space to add (in MB). Press Enter. Boom, partition is bigger. Reboot and restore your D: partition.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .