Error: "Unable to Create Volume Snapshot"

[johnharr]

Hi, All,

I'm hoping someone/anyone can help me through this...

This is an IBM xSeries 355 server, running Win2K with mirrord 74 Gig drives. The first of the drives was cloned from an 36 Drive, then cloned again to a 74 Gig drives, resulting in two mirrored 74 Gig drives both holding a 36 Gig copy of the smaller original drive. Got it?

So, what we'd like to do is stretch the last partition on the drive to use the remaining unallocated space, but no matter how I try (Auto vs. Manual), I am unable to resize the last partition to utilize the space. If I have only the unallocated space, it's not available for selection on the "Select where to get the free space from" window. If I format the space into another partition, it allows me to select the new partition as a place to get the space from (nothing on it, so it's ALL free space), but then says the partition is already the maximum size.

Eventually, I get a red "X" on the drive I want to expance, and the error says "File System Error: Unable to Create Volume Snapshot." No explanation I can find in the user guide nor online, so I'm turning to you.

Disk Manager in Win2K sees the unallocated space and I can create a partition on it if I'd like, but either I'd need to merge (not an option in the OS or Disk Director it would seem), or resize and I'm having the problem you see above.

Any, absolutely ANY! help/advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm dead in the water until this is resolved and I'm really starting to think that Disk Director isn't up to the job. (We bought this product over Veritas' product because (1) we were assured it would work with the IBM raid (LSI) and (2) it's a lot less expensive. Now we're thinking we might have made a mistake and Veritas may be the way to go after all...)

Thoughts?

TIA,

John H. ~removed email address to prevent harvesting - snap~

[johnharr]

Okay, I have more info and insight into what (I think) is going on. In simple, basic, terms Acronis seems to be splitting the Mirror and seeing both drives. I'm attaching a screenshot to illustrate my point.

First, notice that the end point of Drive E (the one I want to resize to use the entire 74 Gig drive) ends around the 71-Gig mark. In actuality, it ends around the 34-Gig mark and we WANT it to end at the full 71 Gig mark. When we try to Resize it, we're told the partition's already at it's maximum size. Now, at least, we know why it thinks so, but that's not really the case.

Secondly, notice the "Unallocated Space" in the Detail View (upper half of image). It shows the 34 or so Gigs we want to add to Drive E. HOWEVER, the start and ending info on the same line shows it starting at 71 Gigs and ending around 143 Gigs. If Acronis were properly seeing the two drives as mirrored (as both the IBM ServeRAID and Win2K Disk Management), the beginning would be at 34 Gigs and ending around 71 Gigs. Instead, it seems to be seeing the second drive as an unmirrored drive as we've suddently gone from 71+ Gigs to 143 Gigs. Another way of stating it: It's capacity is 34.5 Gigs, yet it starts at the 71 Gig mark and ends at around the 143 Gig mark, which by my calculations says it has a capacity of 72 Gigs. Two different capacities on the SAME LINE of the interface! Confused? So are we.

Add to the mix, the inability to create snapshot and our inability to resize the E Drive to use the remainder of the unallocated space, and we have a very screwed up situation...

Any thoughts at this point? BTW, if we could merge two partitions (ala Veritas Partition Magic), we could simply create a new partition using Win2K Disk Management, then merge it with E to use the remainder of the space, but that's apparently a no-go, too.

John H.

[TheQuest]

Hi, johnharr

Acronis DD is not seeing your Raid correctly as you can see.

To make your Partition the full 71GB use the DiskPart command.

If you do not not know, you will find it in the Disk Management help file>Concepts>Using Disk Management>Managing disks and volumes from the command line.

Hope this is of some help.

Take Care,
TheQuest 8)