I goofed when creating my partition size on my Exchange 2010 and need to reduce the size of the partition that holds the data store. The partition that contains the data store needs to be reduced in size. Would it cause problems with registry entries, or Exchange 2010 in general, if I were to simply copy all contents of my partition to another server, delete the necessary partition, recreate it (smaller) and copy the data back using the same drive letter? Or would I be better off using a third party tool to reduce the size of the partition?absolutezero273c

On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 18:09:38 +0000, absolutezero273c wrote: > > >I goofed when creating my partition size on my Exchange 2010 and need to reduce the size of the partition that holds the data store. > >The partition that contains the data store needs to be reduced in size. Would it cause problems with registry entries, or Exchange 2010 in general, if I were to simply copy all contents of my partition to another server, delete the necessary partition, recreate it (smaller) and copy the data back using the same drive letter? > >Or would I be better off using a third party tool to reduce the size of the partition? Why not just use the O/S to do that? --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP

On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 18:09:38 +0000, absolutezero273c wrote: > > >I goofed when creating my partition size on my Exchange 2010 and need to reduce the size of the partition that holds the data store. > >The partition that contains the data store needs to be reduced in size. Would it cause problems with registry entries, or Exchange 2010 in general, if I were to simply copy all contents of my partition to another server, delete the necessary partition, recreate it (smaller) and copy the data back using the same drive letter? > >Or would I be better off using a third party tool to reduce the size of the partition? Why not just use the O/S to do that? --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP

Hi, If you can attach more disk, then I recommend you to move Exchange database and logs to the new disk. Move the Database Path http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd351168.aspx After that, I think you can try to implement retention policy to manage the mailbox folders. Configure Storage Quotas for a Mailbox http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998353.aspx Understanding Retention Tags and Retention Policies http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd297955.aspxXiu Zhang TechNet Community Support

Hi, If you can attach more disk, then I recommend you to move Exchange database and logs to the new disk. Move the Database Path http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd351168.aspx After that, I think you can try to implement retention policy to manage the mailbox folders. Configure Storage Quotas for a Mailbox http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998353.aspx Understanding Retention Tags and Retention Policies http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd297955.aspxXiu Zhang TechNet Community Support

Rich, I'm building another server to test how this would work on my scenario. Unfortunately I'm running in a virtual environment and need to delete my virtual disk in order to make more room on my LUN for snapshots. I made the virtual disk too large and didn't correctly calculate the necessary space required for taking snapshots. absolutezero273c

Xiu, Storage quotas and mailbox retention is not really a problem at this point. In fact I assigned too much free space to my server. I'm in the middle of building a test server to perform the following in that order: 1. use the OS and virtual environment management console to reduce the size of my volume and virtual disk, respectively. 2. if 1 doesn't work I will test a 3rd party partition tool to reduce the size but then will have to deal with reducing the size of the virtual disk. 3. if 1 and 2 don't work I will look at moving my data store to a new virtual disk and reinstall exchange on the new disk. absolutezero273c

My question really revolved around the unknown, or at least my understanding, of this: If I would end up having to delete the volume\virtual disk would the registry on the OS (disk 1), and the server (exchange) installation, have issues if I were to simply move all files from the original larger disk (disk 2) and then move it to a new smaller disk (disk 3)? Since I do have my exchange 2010 installed on disk 2 and not on the OS disk (disk 1). absolutezero273c

Hi, In fact, I do not know whether any unexpect issue would occur if you do disk partition. But if I were you, I can reset the current Exchange Server and then install a new Exchange Server with Setup /m:RecoverServer Recover an Exchange Server http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd876880.aspx Simply to move Exchange folder to another disk would have unexpected issue, I think. Since we do have the configuration which may base on the file location stored in Active Directory. Maybe same disk volume would be the trick. Note: Please do backup of the Exchange database and logs before you do any test. Other similar thread to share with you: Recover Server - Failed Install Disk http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/exchange2010/thread/05ff5f39-8bbc-4c6b-90bb-e851d0920665Xiu Zhang TechNet Community Support

Hi, In fact, I do not know whether any unexpect issue would occur if you do disk partition. But if I were you, I can reset the current Exchange Server and then install a new Exchange Server with Setup /m:RecoverServer Recover an Exchange Server http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd876880.aspx Simply to move Exchange folder to another disk would have unexpected issue, I think. Since we do have the configuration which may base on the file location stored in Active Directory. Maybe same disk volume would be the trick. Note: Please do backup of the Exchange database and logs before you do any test. Other similar thread to share with you: Recover Server - Failed Install Disk http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/exchange2010/thread/05ff5f39-8bbc-4c6b-90bb-e851d0920665Xiu Zhang TechNet Community Support

Xiu, Please stop marking yourself as the answer in this thread. When I am done testing I will select. Thank you.absolutezero273c

Rich, Thank you for pointing me in the right direction. I just completed my testing and I was able to use the O/S to shrink the volume and then was able to reduce the size of my virtual disk as well. absolutezero273c

Why not just use native tools to shrink the partition?

Hi, John. That is what Rich was referring to earlier. That is what I ended up doing. Thanks.absolutezero273c

Ok, Since we have 2 day answer policy, so if the thread has not been responsed for two days, we will try to mark the possible answer. Thanks for your understanding. Xiu Zhang TechNet Community Support