A good disk partitioning tool.The disk tool included with server 2008 RTM isabsolutely worthless.Today I installed RTM on a 20 GB simple volume in a dynamic disk. Then I decided I really wanted 30 gigs. Rebooted the install DVD, and it wouldn't let me install on the dynamic volumes.. Or delete them. In fact, the only thing I could do after enabling theAdvanced Disk Options was format the volumes.Which didn't help. It still wouldn't let me delete them and make new ones with the sizes I wanted. So I rebooted the DVD and got a command prompt up. DISKPART let me delete the dynamic volumes, but then wouldn't allow me to delete the partition they had been on.Okaaayyyy.... Now what?I booted back to the install screen, which wouldn't let me create a new volume in the dynamic partition. Everything was ghosted out --nor would it allow metojust install to the entire 500 gig disk so that I could shrink the volume once the install finished.It won't install to a dynamic volume, and it won't let you delete the volume either. Great.I eventually just booted a damned Linux rescue CD. fdisk /dev/sda allowed me to delete the dynamic partition and start all over.Doesn't it bother you that a utility written 15 years ago by a nameless volunteer is far more capable than this OS which cost you billions of dollars to write?Doesn't it worry you that the toolson the boot disk can actually render a system unbootable, without even the possibility to format the drive and start over?? It's not like I was doing something bizarre or obscure: I decided I wanted my system partition to be a bit larger, and Windows decided I could go to hell.Whycan't youwrite a good disk partitioning tool, like the ones included on Linux install disks? A tool that lets you do pretty much anything you want: create/delete partitions, set active/bootable flags, fix up MBR's, etc.. A good backup tool.Why can't Microsoft figure backups out? Here's what I want:-- I want to back up my system partition manually from time to time, in case I break something.-- I want to back up my data partition every night, tossing out older backups as the disk fills up.Honestly, that seems pretty reasonable to me. And it's completely impossible for Windows Server 2008 to accomplish thisvery simpletask. Why?Windows Server Backup absolutely will not allow you to just back up data partitions. You must back up your C: drive, like it or not. What is up with that?Haven't the people writing these tools used any other backup tool? Ever?Is Microsoft aware that most people are much more concerned about backing up data than they are about backing up their system partition?Another thing:why the heck can't I backup my system partition to another partition on the same disk?? There's absolutely no reason it shouldn't be possible, but the backup tool won't let you. I've been waiting for both of these things since before Windows 2000. Have the people working at Microsoft ever used a UNIX system to see how they should work?Neither of these things is even hard to do. For goodness sake, the Linux fdisk command (which saved my bacon today) is all of 94 kilobytes. It was probably written in a few weeks by one guy.

Heh well I havent come across that partition issue. But the server backup tool is quite a bit disappointing. The old NTBackup from 2000,2003, and XPhad a lot more functionality than this thing. Hope it is because 08 isnt a finished product why it sucks so bad.

Daryl, I very much empathize...I just got off line from a service chat with a Dell rep. My problem is very simple really it's just communications across partitions. Dell sells the Vostro 200 and several other machines with the promise of two drives (which if you read the fine print are really just partitons on the same drive) the main driveC:/ of about 60 Gigs and a larger one (160Gigs or up), but there's no simple way I've found so far to simply SEND across the drives, if you want to move material. These days it's easy to accumulate over 60 G just on a developed MS OS and the assorted necessary programs from the manufacturer of the system so if access to the main bank of memory is difficult leaves things a bit tight. I don't want to repartition, but the only solutions I could out of DELL were copy and paste from one 'drive' to another. (Which is time consuming and often risky of lost data.),,and to blame Microsoft for the way it has Windows deal with partitions as opposed to say external drives. I'm sure MS does deserve some criticism here, but Dell is just giving me a blow off, too. They advertise computers with two drives and then only deliver one partitioned and difficult to deal with one. I'm a relative newby so I'm sure there is a practical solution to this somewhere in all the technical articles, blogs, and all but so far I haven't found it, and I may be shorter on experience than a manufacturer's tech representative, but I do know when I'm being sold snake oil in this case borderline false advertising and when a front man for a company is trying to pass the buck for a design flaw instead of trying to help me. As far as I can tell MS wants to collect $60 just to tell the company I have a problem. I'm one unsatisfied consumer right now, but it really helps to know there are more knowledgable and still honest people like you out there. Thanks, Darrelarchaeology of the future