HELP: Can I move the OS to another drive?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Matthew Speed
  • Start date Start date
M

Matthew Speed

I was setting up a 2K3 server machine and installed to the wrong
partition of a drive. Since I have already added workstations and
users to the domain wiping it out and reinstalling isn't an option. I
would like to merge the two drive partitions and put the existing OS
on the single merged C drive. Is this something I can do? BTW...I
have an external USB 2.0 drive of sufficient size to store the entire
system if needed for transfer purposes.

Note: This is an SBS installation so it is everything. DC, Exchange
server, you name it.

Any advice?

TIA
 
Matthew said:
I was setting up a 2K3 server machine and installed to the wrong
partition of a drive. Since I have already added workstations and
users to the domain wiping it out and reinstalling isn't an option. I
would like to merge the two drive partitions and put the existing OS
on the single merged C drive. Is this something I can do? BTW...I
have an external USB 2.0 drive of sufficient size to store the entire
system if needed for transfer purposes.

Note: This is an SBS installation so it is everything. DC, Exchange
server, you name it.

Any advice?

TIA
Click to expand...

What's your drive/disk setup? Hardware or software RAID?

I think you're really going to want to reinstall if this is a real need for
you (at the very least, make sure you have a verifiably good full backup of
*everything* before you proceed). How many workstations do you have? It
can't be that difficult to add them back in if you use the SBS wizards (as
you really have to, even if you think you know better - trust me). You might
also be able to set up a temporary, additional domain controller running
Win2000 or Win2003 server....

Try posting in microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs for good help with
SBS2003 - this group is for W2000, and SBS always does stuff its own way,
anyway.
 
Server Magic.
The server version of Partition Magic, will drop down into DOS mode, and
merge the partitions, resize what ever you choose.
 
Matthew Speed said:
I was setting up a 2K3 server machine and installed to the wrong
partition of a drive. Since I have already added workstations and
users to the domain wiping it out and reinstalling isn't an option. I
would like to merge the two drive partitions and put the existing OS
on the single merged C drive. Is this something I can do? BTW...I
have an external USB 2.0 drive of sufficient size to store the entire
system if needed for transfer purposes.

Note: This is an SBS installation so it is everything. DC, Exchange
server, you name it.

Any advice?

TIA
Click to expand...

Yes, it can be done. Here is how I would do it:
1. Boot the machine with a Bart PE CD.
2. Zip up the system drive to some other disk, e.g. to your USB disk.
Include hidden & system files, and permissions.
3. Repartion the disk.
4. Unzip the zip file made in Step 2.
5. Restore the boot environment.
6. Make some adjustments to the registry in order to maintain
the correct boot drive letter.

This is not a trivial operation. If my life depended on it then
I would do a practice run on some workstation before starting
the job on a fully configured server.
 
Pegasus (MVP) said:
Yes, it can be done. Here is how I would do it:
1. Boot the machine with a Bart PE CD.
2. Zip up the system drive to some other disk, e.g. to your USB disk.
Include hidden & system files, and permissions.
3. Repartion the disk.
4. Unzip the zip file made in Step 2.
5. Restore the boot environment.
6. Make some adjustments to the registry in order to maintain
the correct boot drive letter.

This is not a trivial operation. If my life depended on it then
I would do a practice run on some workstation before starting
the job on a fully configured server.
Click to expand...

Server Magic is So much easier. Takes all of 10 seconds to resize a
partition.
 
TheDragon said:
Server Magic is So much easier. Takes all of 10 seconds to resize a
partition.
Click to expand...

Yes, I know. But how will ServerMagic cope with the change
of drive letter? The OP's system is currently installed on a
drive other than C:. After the merge, it will be drive C:. Windows
won't like this very much!
 
Pegasus (MVP) said:
Yes, I know. But how will ServerMagic cope with the change
of drive letter? The OP's system is currently installed on a
drive other than C:. After the merge, it will be drive C:. Windows
won't like this very much!
Click to expand...

You can change the drive letter to what ever you want. So he could set it to
what it needs to be to keep windows happy.
 
TheDragon said:
Server Magic.
The server version of Partition Magic, will drop down into DOS mode,
and merge the partitions, resize what ever you choose.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure that leaves you in a "supported mode" w/r/t Microsoft. I get
nervous about stuff like that.

Then again, I don't use software RAID, either, and make sure my system
partitions are at least 10GB now, so I've never run into this need myself.
 
TheDragon said:
You can change the drive letter to what ever you want. So he could set it to
what it needs to be to keep windows happy.
Click to expand...

Have you tried this on one of your systems? Personally? Are
you aware that there are hundreds of references to the system
drive in the registry? That Windows will not run properly unless
they are all set correctly? That there are also some drive letter
references in some files that need to be changed?

Perhaps you can provide a step-by-step recipe to tell us
how to port an existing installation of Windows from drive D:
to drive C:, a recipe that can be tested by anyone reading
your reply. You would have a highly interested readership.
 
"I havent tried the drive re numbering on a system drive.

Only offering the suggestion the software has the capability.

The only situation we have done is install a new drive, copy the 2nd
partition from the 1st (System drive) to the new installed drive. Then
re-size the existing system partition to fill the space left behind. Took
about 20 mins, 19 of this was moving the data over to the new drive.
 
TheDragon said:
"I havent tried the drive re numbering on a system drive.

Only offering the suggestion the software has the capability.

The only situation we have done is install a new drive, copy the 2nd
partition from the 1st (System drive) to the new installed drive. Then
re-size the existing system partition to fill the space left behind. Took
about 20 mins, 19 of this was moving the data over to the new drive.
Click to expand...

I suggest you try it some day. You'll find that Windows does
not like it at all when you change the system drive letter.
 
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