V
Virtually Matt
Scenario:
Windows Server 2012 64 Bit with a 30 TB E: drive - dynamic disk on a GPT partition style with ReFS file system (Not NTFS). This is a virtual machine on a vSphere/ESXi 6.0.0 cluster. Did our due diligent research, determined max size Volumes for VMware and Windows OS using ReFS and such.
We are attempting to add another 20 TB of disk space and expand the E: volume to 50 TB and to keep the current data on the E: drive in place. Initially we added a third virtual hard drive 20 TB in size with VM powered down. Through disk management I selected the existing 30 TB volume and ran through the wizard to Extend Volume and selected the Unallocated 20 TB of disk space. This process failed and I was presented with an error message "Only the first 2TB are usable on large MBR disks. Cannot create partitions beyond the 2TB mark, nor convert the disk to dynamic." We double checked and our disk is not MBR it is GPT and the disk is already dynamic.
Performed the usual searching online for an answer. Thinking back, we should have shut down the OS and instead of adding a third hard drive, should have increased the space on the second virtual hard drive (that houses the E: partition) and then expanded the Volume with the free disk space being on the same hard drive compared to a new drive. We will attempt this process during our next scheduled maintenance window as this is a production machine.
Just looking for any feedback or thoughts on other solutions if my other process does not work or if anybody has encountered the same error we did in a similar exercise and how they got past the error.
Cheers.
Continue reading...
Windows Server 2012 64 Bit with a 30 TB E: drive - dynamic disk on a GPT partition style with ReFS file system (Not NTFS). This is a virtual machine on a vSphere/ESXi 6.0.0 cluster. Did our due diligent research, determined max size Volumes for VMware and Windows OS using ReFS and such.
We are attempting to add another 20 TB of disk space and expand the E: volume to 50 TB and to keep the current data on the E: drive in place. Initially we added a third virtual hard drive 20 TB in size with VM powered down. Through disk management I selected the existing 30 TB volume and ran through the wizard to Extend Volume and selected the Unallocated 20 TB of disk space. This process failed and I was presented with an error message "Only the first 2TB are usable on large MBR disks. Cannot create partitions beyond the 2TB mark, nor convert the disk to dynamic." We double checked and our disk is not MBR it is GPT and the disk is already dynamic.
Performed the usual searching online for an answer. Thinking back, we should have shut down the OS and instead of adding a third hard drive, should have increased the space on the second virtual hard drive (that houses the E: partition) and then expanded the Volume with the free disk space being on the same hard drive compared to a new drive. We will attempt this process during our next scheduled maintenance window as this is a production machine.
Just looking for any feedback or thoughts on other solutions if my other process does not work or if anybody has encountered the same error we did in a similar exercise and how they got past the error.
Cheers.
Continue reading...