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PE2800 RAID 5 Storage expansion
I have a PERC 4e/Di with 4 300gB drives setup as a single 840gB virtual disk. The virtual disk is partitioned into C (system) and F (data) drives running Win2003 Std. I am running out of space. I purchased 2 additional 300gB drives (exact same models as originals). I want to expand the virtual drive to include the two new drives and then repartition to increase available storage.
I am using OpenManage to access the Perc 4e/Di. When I open the virtual disk, I can see the original four physical drives. If I just plug in the new drives, will they appear? Do they require formatting? How are they added to the virtual disk? Once the virtual disk contains the new drives do I use Partition Magic or something similar to expand the existing drives?
theflash1932
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March 27th, 2013 09:00
Are you trying to extend C: or F:? or both? If you are only trying to add space to F:, then it isn't necessary to delete/recreate it after reconfiguring to add the two new drives - even Windows' diskpart can extend the F: drive (it cannot extend C:) into the new unallocated space. You certainly can delete/recreate, but you don't need to if only extending the data partition.
DELL-Geoff P
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March 27th, 2013 08:00
Thanks for your question. You have a few options, I will give you the following:
1. Back up your data on both C: and F: drives.
2. Once its backed up and confirmed, you will delete your F: drive
3. Add the new drives, and using OpenManage, you can add the drives to the array, using the reconfigure option. Here is a link to assist:
http://www.dell.com/support/troubleshooting/us/en/04/KCS/KcsArticles/ArticleView?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&docid=DSN_3BEEFADBF3214B40A91E06AD63788106
4. You will have a large unallocated space once its finished.
1. In the Disk Management window, do one of the following:
* To create a new partition, right-click unallocated space on the basic disk where you want to create the partition, and then click New Partition.
-or-
* To create a new logical drive, right-click free space on an extended partition where you want to create the logical drive, and then click New Logical Drive.
2. On the Welcome to the New Partition Wizard page, click Next.
3. On the Select Partition Type page, click the type of partition that you want to create, and then click Next.
4. On the Specify Partition Size page, specify the size in megabytes (MB) of the partition that you want to create, and then click Next.
5. On the Assign Drive Letter or Path page, enter a drive letter or drive path, and then click Next.
6. On the Format Partition page, specify the formatting options that you want, and then click Next.
7. On the Completing the New Partition Wizard page, verify that the options that you selected are correct, and then click Finish.
5. Once finished, reboot the server and launch your third party partitioning tool to expand your C: drive and recreate the DATA drive.
6. Make sure the server will reboot to the OS, then restore your data.
Regards,
ISSMike
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March 28th, 2013 20:00
I added the two new drives using the reconfigure option (12 hours of degraded performance!). The PERC controller is performing "Background Initialization" at this time. The "C" drive is sized well. If I simply want to add another data partition or extend the "F" drive, can this be performed without copying the data off, destroying the original partition and copying data back on to the new partition?
theflash1932
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March 28th, 2013 20:00
As I said, if you are only adding space to extend F:, then you do not have to backup/delete - you can extend it using one of many tools (diskpart, Dell's extpart, gparted, or even a Windows 2008/Vista or later DVD). You can also simply create a new partition with the new space instead of adding it to F: ... if you wanted (this would obviously not affect existing data on C: or F:.