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Windows 2008 r2 mirrored disk space dropped


bestibnu

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Hi all, am facing disk space crunch only 6% left as it was a mirrored disk drive on C:\ can anyone help me to avoid less disk space, whether i have to choose to  insert new 

disk drive or else can we extend it by adding network disk with it.

 

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I am not aware of a way for you to add space to a RAID1...

 

- what is your RAID controller?

- why are you running out of space on C: drive?

As it is an dell poweredge sc1435 rack server with a built in single hard drive of 111.79 gb of mirrored disk and i found the usage of applications and users comes around 45 gb but i still have to find the remaining disk space whether it is occupied by windows updates or hidden files. In the command prompt chkdsk i found

 

117210208 kb total disk space

107952124 kb in 366452 files

   232972 kb in 65125 indexes

        0 kb in bad sectors

  1983920 kb in use by the system

    65536 kb occupied by the log file

  7041192 kb available on disk

     4096 bytes in each allocation unit

  29302552 total in each allocation unit

   1760298 allocation units available on disk

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Well it looks like your server is a 1U, and you likely can't even add any additional disks into the system.

 

Certainly you can add a network drive to the system.

 

What is the purpose for this server? What roles and applications are installed that could potentially be taking up this space?

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You might could make use of one of the tools listed here - Visualize What Takes Up Space On Your Windows PC - to see what is taking up the space.  Then you might be able to reclaim part of that space.  I have used WinDirStat in the past, but one of the other tools might be better for you.

 

Cheers and Regards

 

... unless you want to try prying SequoiaView from my dead hands...  ;)

http://w3.win.tue.nl/nl/onderzoek/onderzoek_informatica/visualization/sequoiaview//

http://w3.win.tue.nl/nl/onderzoek/onderzoek_informatica/visualization/sequoiaview/download_sequoiaview/

 

The Author of the mentioned article - with all due respect :) - from the photo seems like he was in kindergarten when the good guys at the University of Eindhoven released the final version, which is a sign I am getting really old :(, at this rate I may even get older than bphlpt  himself :w00t:

 

jaclaz

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Well it looks like your server is a 1U, and you likely can't even add any additional disks into the system.

 

Certainly you can add a network drive to the system.

 

What is the purpose for this server? What roles and applications are installed that could potentially be taking up this space?

I found there were more downloaded files and some how managed to increase upto 10% , this rack server consist most of the office software and rdp services and with the same server brand another rack server along but it too has single c drive in the same domain. With respect to your answer is that 1U's space can't be extended and the second rack server is not listed on the network location rather it was in the device and printer list although its accessible. How can i revert it back to N/W location and suggest servers other than 1U's for enhancement. 

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I'm guessing it is your server that can't add more disks. I looked at pictures online of your model and it appears that it only has room for two disks, and you have two already in your RAID1. It is not true that all 1U chassis can only have 2 disks! 2U gives you more flexibility as maybe you can have 4-6 disks if no ODD, or some may allow for this with slim-type drive used in notebooks.

 

Anyways, it would appear that your current usage of the server is outliving its original design. Small pedestal servers may give enough options for future expansion... or there are the 3U and larger types used for LARGE data storage (outside of library systems)....

 

Another option, (maybe) without having to buy new servers... maybe you can look and see if you can start storing some of this data on a network share of another computer?

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I'm guessing it is your server that can't add more disks. I looked at pictures online of your model and it appears that it only has room for two disks, and you have two already in your RAID1. It is not true that all 1U chassis can only have 2 disks! 2U gives you more flexibility as maybe you can have 4-6 disks if no ODD, or some may allow for this with slim-type drive used in notebooks.

 

Anyways, it would appear that your current usage of the server is outliving its original design. Small pedestal servers may give enough options for future expansion... or there are the 3U and larger types used for LARGE data storage (outside of library systems)....

 

Another option, (maybe) without having to buy new servers... maybe you can look and see if you can start storing some of this data on a network share of another computer?

It seems single (Physically),not sure about two disks unless i remove the cabin cover and it shows single disk (mirrored) in the disk management(technically), also am in the plan to change the server as it is AMD by intel although i found no performance lag so far but heard that it will not as intel. Even though files are stored externally the applications and the windows folder took 75% of disk. What if the other disk unit is vacant whether it can be placed by a disk and be extended ?

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It likely isn't. A mirror uses 2 disks. Even if you are using Software mirror from Disk Management, this is the case. A mirror means that one disk is copied to another disk, hence creating a mirror. This design is for a redundancy so that if one disk fails, it can be replaced and recreate the mirror. If you had a server with the OS on a JBOD and that disk failed, you would lose all the data and have to start over unless you kept a disk image backup.

Even on the higher-end RAID controllers (which I doubt you have) you can't extend a RAID1 that I have seen. Personally, I ran into a space issue on a server a couple years ago. It had a RAID5 and there was no way for me to add space to it based on software and controller limitations. My only option was to build a new server with more space and then copy everything over. Sometimes that is just the way things work out, especially when you don't get to use the best (scalable) options because of cost or time (implementation) considerations.

So for your specific problem, I would start doing some research on what exactly is taking up that space and see if it can be removed. You might be dealing with files that are not necessary, like temporary files or leftover installers.

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It likely isn't. A mirror uses 2 disks. Even if you are using Software mirror from Disk Management, this is the case. A mirror means that one disk is copied to another disk, hence creating a mirror. This design is for a redundancy so that if one disk fails, it can be replaced and recreate the mirror. If you had a server with the OS on a JBOD and that disk failed, you would lose all the data and have to start over unless you kept a disk image backup.

Even on the higher-end RAID controllers (which I doubt you have) you can't extend a RAID1 that I have seen. Personally, I ran into a space issue on a server a couple years ago. It had a RAID5 and there was no way for me to add space to it based on software and controller limitations. My only option was to build a new server with more space and then copy everything over. Sometimes that is just the way things work out, especially when you don't get to use the best (scalable) options because of cost or time (implementation) considerations.

So for your specific problem, I would start doing some research on what exactly is taking up that space and see if it can be removed. You might be dealing with files that are not necessary, like temporary files or leftover installers.

Yes you are right but still the disk space issue persist, it again went back to the space  6%  left and i cant get to replace the server immediately i need to figure out soon to resolve either by shifting the application to any other rack server or to find any network share instead as am in the verge of serious disk space issue please let me know any other way to extend it atleast for 10% now. Is there any way to do in external drive?

 

Also i found a link: http://blogs.technet.com/b/askpfeplat/archive/2014/05/13/how-to-clean-up-the-winsxs-directory-and-free-up-disk-space-on-windows-server-2008-r2-with-new-update.aspx

 

Disk Management shows : C:\(System, Boot, Page File, Crash Dump) 

Edited by bestibnu
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Like I said, you probably can't extend a mirror.

 

The WinSxS thing is one example of what could be temporary or unneeded files.

Yep i knew that it cant be xtended but i'll go with that least choice as of now and to upgrade the server very soon

or else any way to shift the application to network drive or external drive. The point is is that a good idea ??

Edited by bestibnu
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What is "the application" and how is it installed?

Adobe acrobat, ms office and some file conversion softwares also the windows folder alone occupies 38.9 GB of space i have no idea why its taking such amount of disk space?

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