Partitioning Software for upgrade from NT4 - 2000

[zoeythecat]

Hi All,

Was not sure where to post this. Hopeful you can point me to the right direction. Our Company is planning on upgrading from an NT4 environment to Windows2003 Server. We have 6 servers that need upgrading. 3 of the servers do not have enough available disk space to perform the Windows2003 install. The obvious solution is to reinstall each server but i'm trying to look for an alternative to that. I researched a product called "Volume Manager"from Veritas. What I was told is if I installed this "Volume Manager" on an NT4 Server I could repartition the drive. But, when upgrading from NT4 to 2003 it will not work because NT4 would not be able to encapsulate the disk image. To make a long story short, does anyone know of a product that would allow me to resize the disk partition on my NT4 server and be able to upgrade to Windows2003 Server with the disk partition changes staying in tact?

Thanks in advance,
Zoey

 

[jrbarnett]

Have you looked at ServerMagic from PowerQuest (the same people that do PartitionMagic)?

John

 

[zoeythecat]

Yes, but I believe the product they have is for Novell. I didn't see one for NT/2000/2003

 

[wolluf]

Acronis Partition Expert?

 

[zoeythecat]

Wolluf,

I'm researching that company right now.

Thanks,
Zoey

 

[jrbarnett]

NT 4 was first around in 1996. It is now 2003 (obviously). I would check to ensure that the servers you are considering installing Win2003 server on meet the minimum specs, otherwise you may find yourself in a sorry state where your shiny new Win2003 installation runs slower than NT4 because of higher requirements.
This is especially true if you want to host other applications on either of them such as Exchange or SQL server.

John

 

[zoeythecat]

Jbarnett,

The servers we have our High End PIII processors and P4 processors with plenty of RAM and enough horsepower. I have already looked into the minimum specs. When some of these servers were installed (3 of them) they were installed with a 2GIG partition on the C drive so this is why i'm looking towards an alternative rather than reinstalling. But if I can't find any software that will do this I will reinstall to increase the c partition from 2 gig to 4 gig. To answer your question though. Our servers do have enough horsepower and exceeds the minimum requirements.

Regards,
Zoey

 

[jrbarnett]

Just a thought, I know of several companies where servers were plenty fast enough for NT4 but only adequate for Win2K.

John

 

[klb123]

There is a product from PowerQuest (the makers of Partitionmagic) called Volume Manager for NT. You are right that the ServerMagic product was for Novell Netware. However Volume Manager is for NT and 2000 servers.

Regards
KLB

 

[zoeythecat]

Klb123,

Re-Read my first post. You will see that I mentioned "Volume Manager". The problem with "Volume Manager" is that you can resize the disk partition for example in NT4 but once you upgrade to Windows2000 Server your screwed because the OS would not recognize the disk image. This was confirmed by Veritas. So PLEASE, anyone reading this and is interested in purchasing Volume Manager you should know that if you have an NT4 enviroment and you are interesting in resizing the disk partitions then GOOD, but if you plan on upgrading this from NT4 to 2000 then BAD.


I am purchasing "Acronis Partition Expert" as Wolluf noted. This company claims there is no problems upgrading from NT4 to 2000 after resizing the disk while in NT4. I will test this and post back in the future. The good thing is that this product is only $50 whild "Volume Manager" I believe is close to $500

Thanks for your reply.

 

[klb123]

re-read my post. I mentioned VolumeManager from Powerquest not Veritas. The VolumeManager from powerquest will do what you are looking for. However, I am curious how Acronis Partition expert works for you?

 

[zoeythecat]

Ok...Sorry about that. I may have mentioned Veritas mistakenly....I think it is powerquest. Could 2 companies have the same exact product name? My mistake.

I will let you know on the Acronis.

Thanks

 

[JimPonder]

Perhaps you should go to Windows2000 server first. Its disk manager is suited for this much more than NT4 ever was.
-Jim

 

[zoeythecat]

Jim,

You are right but my free disk space does not meet the requirements (400MEG Free on 1 server, 500 MEG on 2nd server). The whole idea is to repartition the disk partitions while my servers are at NT4. I could of course reformat and reinstall everything but i'm looking for an alternative because of time constraints.