I have a 2003 Server , 3 SCSI HDs setup as a RAID 5, so 1 disk, and three partitions, C: E: and F:. I want to change from basic to dynamic so I can combine E: and F:. I know how to do this but am wondering if I need to worry about anything? I can't afford to loose any data as this server is accessed all day long, constantly. Has anyone done this and know of any situations I should watch out for? Thanks for any help The reason for this is because E: is running out of space and F: is almost empty. All the computers are setup to access E: drive for everything they need so I think this would be easier than changing everyone's box.

Your plan for combining e and f is a bad one. This creates a volume set and as such is not fault tolerant. This means you can lose all the data these contain even if you are doing hardware raid5 if the volume pointer gets hosed. You should be doing backups. If not, check your sanity and ready your resume since it won't be long before you will be looking for a new job. Here is what you do when you have good, tested as good backups: 1. go into Disk Manager and delete e: and f: 2. create a new partition using all the available space. 3. format it ntfs 4. restore the data from backup. You would of course schedule this for office off hours so impact to productivity is minimized. Give a person a fish, they eat for a day. Suggest they internet search and they learn a skill for a lifetime.

Agreed. That's the way to do it. Please help survivors of Hurricane Katrina! www.redcross.org

nice call wanderer, very thorough and accurate

...but in answer to the question...Mark Minasi, in the Mastering Windows Server series, states that the main disadvantage is incompatibility. Test your applications and drivers first with dynamic disks on a test machine. "If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure." - BILL CLINTON

Thanks for the response. That does sound like the way to go. There are backups and I will do it after hours. Thanks for the advice