Boot problem with dynamic disk / partition

Configuration:
HP Proliant Server
Windows 2000 Server SP4
2x 34GB UW-SCSI HDD

1. Disk (dynamic):
HDD C: Partition 1, 4GB
HDD D: Partition 2, 30GB

2. Disk (dynamic):
is in a RAID-1 (mirror) with disk 1

Problem: Drive C: is running out of space.

Solution 1: increase disk c: and decrease disk d:
but: acronis software can't do that! any other that can?!

Solution 2: install two new harddisk (each 74GB)
but: acronis can't clone dynamic disks!

Solution 3: install two new harddisk (each 74GB)
create images of each partition and restore them to the new drive!
this worked fine... but windows won't boot from the 74GB drive!

What I did exactly:
1) installed ONE 74GB disk
2) created one 20GB partition, and one 54GB partition
both DYNAMIC (the disk is dynamic too)
3) created images from the old disk c: and d:
4) restored the images to the new partitions on the 74GB disk.
5) removed the old disks and tried to boot from the new one.
but windows won't boot at all.
what am I doing wrong?

thanks for suggestions!

[vortex]

Here a picture how it looks exactly:

[mareke]

I'm no computer expert but it's not surprising that it didn't work as you went from raid to non raid and 2 disks to 1. Acronis is meant to be used to restore images to the same hardware. Sysprep is supposed to be used when an image is restored to different hardware such as different sized disks but even using it I'm not sure it would work going from raid to non raid. There are by the way programs such as Partition Magic that can change the size of partitions without having to format. There may even be an Acronis program that can do this.

[vortex]

I think the RAID can't be the problem, because it has to work with one disk. Let's suppose, that one disk failes... then you have to change that disk and recreate the RAID (mirror).

Partition Magic isn't a solution, becaus it doesn't work with Windows 2000 Server. And I'm not shure it supports dynamic disks.

[MiniMax]

Hi vortex - Using hard disk images are a very convenient way of making (physical) backups that can be used to restore a system, but sometimes you have to bite the bullet and do it in a more cumbersome way.

I have no experience with Win2K Server and Dynamic Disks, but I assume that Microsoft must have some tools (perhaps even good ole' NTBackup) that can make a (logical) file level backup of both the system, the registry and the data partitions. Since it is a file level backup, you can then re-build the hardware with bigger disks, install a temporary copy of Win2K and then restore from the backup onto the new hardware.

It will not be as convenient as an image backup, but it should work.

Hello,

sorry for my english.
Cloning dynamic disk don't boot- it's normaly...
This disk haven't a partition table, you must create a partition table with diskpart.
Basic disk have a partition table, after convert to dynamic disk boot this disk with this partition table. New or cloning dynamic disk haven't partition table.
Use diskpart or workaround: restore as basic disk, boot from CD in recovery console und use fixboot and fixmbr, boot and convert to dynamic disk.

[vortex]

Originally Posted by Germany

Use diskpart or workaround: restore as basic disk, boot from CD in recovery console und use fixboot and fixmbr, boot and convert to dynamic disk.

Thank you for that idea! I will try that next week!

[Acronis Support]

Hello vortex,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software for Server.

You can try to make the following workaround: create the image of the entire hard drive then restore it as basic disk without resizing and then restore each of the partitions separately setting the proper size for it and overwriting the previously restored one, then convert to dynamic disk.

Thank you.
--
Irina Shirokova