Easeus is Jesus
A couple months ago I was all ready to update our domain controllers to Windows 2008. However I was stopped dead in my tracks when I found out that in order to upgrade an 03 server you needed to have a RIDICULOUS 12 gig of free space on the system drive. Standard practice for the longest time was a 4 gig C partition and more recently maybe I did a few with a 10 gig C drive with the rest of the RAID volume dedicated to data. Well I had nowhere near the free space required. I stopped the upgrade process and my first thought was I would have to back up all the data, reinstall the OS with larger partitions for C and then restore the data. It would be a pain in the ass for sure and time consuming.
Well during my training last week I came up with another idea. I was familiar with the tool Partition Magic that has been around for years although I never used it. What the software does is allow you to dynamically resize your partitions. It shifts your data over, allowing additional space to do neat things like expand your C drive. Well when I went to find the latest and greatest version of Partition Magic I found that it was gobbled up by Symantec, like so many other software companies and apparently was discontinued since then.
I did a search on alternatives and stumbled across something called EASUS Partition Master. We bought the enterprise version of it and I tried it out yesterday. The procedure used to increase the system drive isn’t exactly intuitive but it does work. Basically you carve extra space off your data partition which creates free space, that free space is then able to be added to the system drive. You do this by dragging around graphical representations of the space in a rather confusing manner. After doing so the system reboots and a boot level program is launched that moves the data around as requested.
After it launches to the OS another reboot is required to recognize the different partition sizes and then poof, all is well. Instead of spending hours using the method I originally described I instead spent a half hour total getting the partitions resized on two domain controllers. I’m all set to reattempt my Windows 2008 upgrade. EASEUS is a GREAT tool for those admins that find themselves in a similar predicament. Of course it goes without saying that you want to make sure you have a good backup of your data before proceeding, just in case.
Yesterday in general was a very productive day at work. I addressed and fixed a number of issues, some of which that were the long term nagging variety. At this point our Exchange 2007 migration is almost complete. I deleted the connector between the 03 and 07 server yesterday and have the 03 server turned off right now. The only thing left to do is uninstall Exchange 03 from the box. Turning off that server pointed a spotlight at a number of devices like copiers and other software that were still pointing to the old Exchange server to send mail. I am addressing them as they come up.
Last week since I was home all week I didn’t shave. As a result I had a good faceful of hair going on. I decided I wanted a crazy moustache looking deal so I shaved my face but left the hair above the lip and let it extend down to my chin. It was sort of goatee with the chin section missing. Ali hated it and thought it looked ridiculous. To be honest I thought it looked ridiculous as well but I decided to go into work yesterday still sporting the mean looking moustache. As expected it generated many comments. I was asked if I was trying out for a new porn role, if I was trying to look like a biker along with various smirks and smiles. It was a brief lived experiment, I shaved it off last night much to Ali’s delight.
I still have this desire to shave my head….