Can you move C: to another virtual disk

Question

I have a R310 with a Perc H200 controller, (2) 900GB SAS drives in Raid 1 config. Windows 2008 R2

The H200 doesn't support Raid 5 so I can't add disks and reconfigure to raid 5 for more space. My plan is to add 2 more HDDs, create a 2nd virtual disk, move the data from the c partition to the 2nd VD.

Could anyone suggest a good way to do this?

theflash1932 · Answer

That depends.  I would use OMSA to configure the new disks from the OS.  If you are moving folders with special permissions, make sure to use robocopy/xcopy to move them.

theflash1932 · Answer

You aren't wanting to move the entire C: drive to the new array, are you?

FieryPhoenix · Answer

Looking to use Acronis Disk Director Adv (or something like it) to image it. So, that is an option?????

theflash1932 · Answer

I think you'd need the 'recovery' portion of Acronis to do this, but, yes, as long as your software is capable of doing it, it should work.  Sometimes the software will save the backup in some proprietary file format that will not function normally when you try to access it in that state ... so it would need to be able to write the recovery image directly to the target disk (rather than the backup image - if there is a difference).

FieryPhoenix · Answer

Yes, I was hoping to move c: in it's entirety to the new virtual disk(array) of course created by OMSA.

I heard it was possible, but I'm not sure about the system partition move & changing where the OS boots from.

theflash1932 · Answer

You can, but it is basically doing a backup/restore ... instead of backing up to an external disk, then back to an internal disk, you would be backing up (or cloning) the image directly to the other array.

FieryPhoenix · Answer

I had a chat with Acronis and it appears Disk Directory 11 Adv. server may do the trick. I'll have to test it first, but this may be my only option. Can you think of any other possibility that may work TheFlash1932???

pcmeiners · Answer

Don't mean to take upsert the thread, but I use Acronis a good bit...

Used Acronis True Image Server (older version) to clone one array to another new array approximately fifty times. The only issues I had a couple times, check the source disk for chkdsk errors, best to do a manual Patrol read if possible before hand, I rarely check the new array; if there are errors on the source array, the clone will fail, though it will not harm the source array. Be aware, once the necessary reboot takes place and the cloning processes proceeds it may appear to be frozen for up to a couple hours ( rarely happens though). A couple times I needed to manually change which disk array boots, due to not following the correct procedure. As to safety, unless you have not had sleep for more then 50 hours, it would be hard to screw up. There are free cloning softwares out there highly rated, but I have not tried them. The recovery part is for going between server setups with different hardware ( different motherboard).

Assuming you boot from C drive, this what you need, not the Disk Director. You need a sector by sector copy (cloning or image), any form of a file by file copy will not work for a system partition. The personal version does not work on servers

Without Universal restore, $ 859. , you do not need the addon at this time. Darn, this software is getting ridiculously price, considering the free or near free competition.

http://www.acronis.com/backup-recovery/smallbusiness.html#products-windows-server

Considering the absurd pricing of Acronis, I would try this, almost a clone of Acronis, I have used this personal version of this with no issues

http://www.easeus.com/disk-copy/

Anomei partition assistant pro....... Only used it for partition manipulation, but it does sector by sector for cloning, can't bet the price.

http://www.partition-assistant.com/index.html?gclid=CJjv9cLr-7sCFeFlOgodYwYA0g

PowerEdge HDD/SCSI/RAID

Can you move C: to another virtual disk

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