Expanding a basic GPT disk

Hi All,

I have an existing 2.2TB basic disk, formatted with NTFS, partitioned with GPT. This is physically an HP array connected via fibre. The server is Windows 2003 SP2. It is not the system partition, and does not contain the page file.

I need to add more space, so I added more disks to the array, expanded the array, and extended the logical disk. In Windows I can now see that the disk is 3TB with 838GB unused space.

If I try to extend the disk using diskpart I get the error:

DiskPart failed to extend the volume.
Please make sure the volume is valid for extending.

These is the disk with the free space on it:

  Disk ###  Status      Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  ----------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online        34 GB      0 B
  Disk 1    Online       838 GB      0 B
* Disk 2    Online      3073 GB   838 GB        *

This is the volume that I want to extend:

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     E   Data         NTFS   Partition    838 GB  Healthy    Pagefile
  Volume 1     C                NTFS   Partition     34 GB  Healthy    System
* Volume 2     F   MSA Data     NTFS   Partition   2235 GB  Healthy
  Volume 3     D                       CD-ROM          0 B  Healthy

Can anybody explain why I can't extend it? My only thought on a solution is to convert it to a dynamic disk, but I don't understand why I'd need to.

Cheers,

AP3


May 14th, 2013 1:46pm

You need to convert it to a dynamic disk so that it supports spanning,

The following operations can be performed only on dynamic disks:

  • Create and delete simple, spanned, striped, mirrored, and RAID-5 volumes.
  • Extend a simple or spanned volume.
  • Remove a mirror from a mirrored volume or break the mirrored volume into two volumes.
  • Repair mirrored or RAID-5 volumes.
  • Reactivate a missing or offline disk.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa363785%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

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May 14th, 2013 2:24pm

My understanding was that I could extend a basic disk (primary partition): http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc771473.aspx

Could this be because it is a GPT disk, and thus the partition information is at the end, so the extra space isn't contiguous with the existing partition?

Spanning is creating volumes across different disks, which isn't what I'm trying to achieve (yet!).


May 14th, 2013 2:28pm

Well, I dont believe a Dynamic disk is required.

MS KB325590 says:
If an NTFS volume resides on a hardware RAID 5 container that can add space to the container, you can extend the NTFS Volume with Diskpart.exe while the disk remains a Basic disk.
For Basic volumes, the unallocated space for the extension must be the next contiguous space on the same disk.

What does the system say if you do a detail on the disk?

diskpart
select disk 2
detail disk
select volume 2
detail volume
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May 14th, 2013 2:35pm

Disk Detail:

HP LOGICAL VOLUME SCSI Disk Device
Disk ID: 50F14D62-4B14-49DC-B283-AE2962861574
Type   : FIBRE
Bus    : 0
Target : 4
LUN ID : 0
  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 2     F   MSA Data     NTFS   Partition   2235 GB  Healthy

Volume Detail:

  Disk ###  Status      Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  ----------  -------  -------  ---  ---
* Disk 2    Online      3073 GB   838 GB        *
Readonly               : No
Hidden                 : No
No Default Drive Letter: No
Shadow Copy            : No

I don't see anything out of the ordinary, other than it being a GPT disk rather than MBR. I've extended plenty of MBR basic disks before, but never GPT.
May 14th, 2013 2:38pm

To add some more detail; I checked the cluster size, and it is 4KB, so I should be able to extend the NTFS volume up to 16TB

C:\Documents and Settings\Admin>fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo f:
NTFS Volume Serial Number :       0x3ae6588ee6584c6f
Version :                         3.1
Number Sectors :                  0x0000000117598fff
Total Clusters :                  0x0000000022eb31ff
Free Clusters  :                  0x0000000001e176b6
Total Reserved :                  0x0000000000000000
Bytes Per Sector  :               512
Bytes Per Cluster :               4096
Bytes Per FileRecord Segment    : 1024
Clusters Per FileRecord Segment : 0
Mft Valid Data Length :           0x00000000597e0000
Mft Start Lcn  :                  0x00000000000c0000
Mft2 Start Lcn :                  0x00000000117598ff
Mft Zone Start :                  0x000000001a167cc0
Mft Zone End   :                  0x000000001b2c59e0

Can anyone offer any further advice on why I'm unable to extend this volume?

Cheers,

AP3

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May 15th, 2013 11:14am

Hi,

You mentioned it is a 3TB RAID with 838GB unused space.

and you currently situation is:

volume 0: E: 838GB

volume 1: C: 34GB

volume 2: F: 2235GB

Am I I correct that you are trying to expand drive F to include Drive E (volume 0)?

If so, it seems that volume 0 is in the front of volume 2 but not behind. (unallocated space for the extension must be the next contiguous space on the same disk)

Could you provide a screenshot of the disk management which shows the disk 2, to help us understand the current situation and sequence of these volumes on the disk?

May 16th, 2013 9:28am

Hi Shaon

If you look at the disk and volume details he sent over at Tuesday, May 14, 2013 11:38 AM. You will see that the disk contains 1 volume, and there is free space.

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May 16th, 2013 11:11am

Hi Both,

Oscar is correct, the other 838GB disk is a red herring; it just happens to have the same size as the free space on the disk in question.

Disk 2 is the 3TB disk (recently expanded); Volume 2 is the 2.2TB volume on this disk, which I need to expand to the full 3TB of space available on this disk.

So we have 1 basic GPT disk, and 1 NTFS volume, and extend isn't working.

I will try to convert it to dynamic this evening, as I'm running into space issues rapidly. Shame though - I would have liked to have found a reason/solution.

I hope that dynamic will allow me to extend the volume!

Cheers,

AP3

May 16th, 2013 1:18pm

Well I converted it to dynamic, and now things are even stranger. I no longer see any free space on the disk:

  Disk ###  Status      Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  ----------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online        34 GB      0 B
  Disk 1    Online       838 GB      0 B
  Disk 2    Online      2235 GB    13 KB   *    *

It is definitely a 3GB logical disk according to the HP ACU, and my previous posts who windows recognising it.

Help!

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May 17th, 2013 11:23am

For anyone that stumble across this thread with the same issue - somehow the MSR had been created after the data partition on the disk, so the free space was not contigious and hence I couldn't extend the disk.

In the end I had the clean the disk with diskpart, convert to GPT, create a new volume, then restore all the data.

Checking after this, the MSR is at the beginning of the disk where it's supposed to be. I've got no idae how it had ended up at the end of the disk before.

July 3rd, 2013 6:22am

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