Can I upg windows server 2003 R2 standard edition to windows 2003 enterprise edition (enterprise CD is sp1) ?? The standard edition will not see all 8GB of memory installed. I also need to upg 32GB HDrive mirror (Raid 1) with larger disks. If I pull out the plugable hard drives (one at a time) and break the mirror, and replace it with larger hdrives, the smart array will rebuild the mirror. Once its mirrored with the large drives i can extend the added space to the logical drive (which is the one volume windows system, boot parition). Will that work? or will windows recognize the extra space as unpartition? and i will then need to repartition or add space with some thrid party software? Please advise. thx. -HR HR

1.) You can slipstream the installation media prior to the upgrade. http://exchangeserverpro.com/slipstreaming-service-pack-2-into-your-windows-server-2003-r2-media 2.) diskpart will not work on system / boot partition in server 2003 so you must use some sort of third party tools. Of course no guarantees and backups recommended but you might give this a go. http://ftp.us.dell.com/App/ExtPart.txt http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R64398&formatcnt=2&fileid=83929 Regards, Dave Patrick .... Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft MVP [Windows]

don't think i want slipstream,,, i have windows 2003 R2 standard and i want to upgrade it to windows 2003 enterprise... when i view the microsoft supported paths for upgrades, i only see "from windows server 2003 R2 standard to windows 2008 standard or enterprise" i do not see "from windows server 2003 R2 to windows 2003 enterpise" can this be done? Also, i do not have a dell system, i have an hp dl360 g3 server with a smart array, 2 disks raid 1 mirror. the whole logical drive 32GB is the system, boot volume. and i need to make it larger.. thanks again. -HR HR

The upgrade should work but probably not downgrading the service pack level so I think slipstream is the only option (assuming standard is now at SP2). You can non-destructively start the upgrade to see what options you're presented with. The ExtPart tool works regardless of server manufacturer. HP site may also have tools available. Regards, Dave Patrick .... Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft MVP [Windows]

Hi CocoFlor, What's the type of your RAID 1, Software-based or Hardware-based?

Hi, Yes, you may perform an In-Place upgrade to upgrade Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition to Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition. For more information, please refer to the following Microsoft KB article: Supported paths for upgrading to Windows Server 2003 or to Windows Small Business Server 2003 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/810613 For the detailed steps of how to perform an In-Place upgrade, please also refer to the following Microsoft KB article: How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows Server 2003 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816579 In addition, we can only perform an In-Place upgrade from the same Service Pack level and the same architecture (x86\x64). For the question regarding RAID, please use the following forum: File Services and Storage http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverfiles/threads Regards, Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

i'm confused, i currently have windows server 2003 R2 SP2 standard edition. But I have windows 2003 enterprise editon SP1 CD (not R2). *must i have windows 2003 enterprise R2 SP2 to be able to upgrade from this standard to enterprise? -also, i was able to extend the logical drive with the array configuration utility. However, now i need a third party software to extend the c:\ windows system boot partition. the only option in windows is to convert to dynamic. don't know if converting to dynamic will give option to add the unallocated space. -If i have to use a third party, browsing thru the forums, i see "Parition Magic Server Software".. any known issues with that software? thx. HRHR

Hi CocoFlor, You had better not convert to dynamic disk, even if be converted, the system boot partition cannot be extended, either. You will receive error message:"The selected volume is a system or boot disk or was created on a basic disk in an earlier version of Windows and cannot be extended". There are many Partition Magic Server Software, such as Acronis Disk Director and Aomei Partition Assistant: http://www.partition-magic.org/windows-server-2003/extend-system-partition-windows-server-2003.html