Extend NTFS Volume fails but appears succesful

[fitz]

So.. I have three questions for you all at the end.. but first, the story:

I added a 4th 36GB drive to an existing 3 disk RAID 5 array in an old HP ML370 server running windows 2000 Server (Standard Edition). I used the HP Array tools to expand the array to the added drive. Went into disk manager and saw the empty space for the volume.

I then dropped into diskpart like I normally do and tried to extend the volume to use the rest of the empty space. Diskpart gave me some error that it failed but when I went into Disk Manager, it showed all the drive being used and no empty space. Went into diskpart and Disk Part thinks it has used up all the space (went from a ~60GB volume to a ~90GB volume listed).

Unfortunatly, that's the only places that shows the space used. The disk itself in DOS/Windows/etc.. is still showing only 2GB free.

These symptoms are exactly like the issue listed in this article (KB329826).

When you try to extend an NTFS file system volume on a basic disk, or when you try to extend a dynamic NTFS volume, the operation is not successful. In Disk Management, the partition appears to be extended and appears to use the additional free space, showing that the volume was successfully spanned across disks. However, the NTFS on that volume is still the original size that it was before the extension. In My Computer, the properties of the volume show that the volume is the same size that it was before the extension. If you run Chkdsk on the NTFS volume, it reports the volume size that existed before you tried to perform the extension.

While there is a hotfix that I can pull down from Microsoft that would fix the issue, my problem is the article also states

This fix will not correct an already extended partition whose volume size is inaccurately reported. This hotfix is preventive in nature and must be installed before you extend the volume. To correct the volume size if this problem has already occurred, contact Microsoft Product Support Services.

Which means, since I already tried to extended the partition, I'm screwed. To go on a slight rant: "What's the use of coming with a hotfix to fix a problem you won't know you have until it's over and not providing another way to fix it?!??!"

Now, I've heard that there is a Microsoft utility out there called fsextend which is different than diskpart that has had good success in the past. Unfortunatly, Microsoft is choosing to now deny it's existence. They are also choosing to not help us with our current issue.

So, my first question is: Has anyone else encountered this issue?

My second question is: Does anyone know if the fsextend utility will work?

And my third question: Does anyone have a copy of fsextend or know of where I can get one?

 

[American Zombie]

Found an article dated 2004 but.....maybe they still have the tool.

I've got the FSEXTEND tool and it fixed my problem mentioned above.
Email me on amanzimtoti at gmail.com

From here

 

[LordOfLA]

why not license acronis disk director suite?

 

[fitz]

because I'd rather not license a whole suite of applications for something that will be very limited in use for us and for something that the free utilities provided (if they worked correctly) work very well.

 

[LordOfLA]

AKA being hard headed 🙂

Go get disk director. Save yourself some hassle.

 

[fitz]

yes.. being hardheaded 🙂

maybe i'll just convince them to replace the old server with a new one that has a warrenty and push it up to win2k3.. *sigh*

 

[kcnychief]

You mean win2k8, right? 😉

 

[fitz]

LOL.. we're still running half our severs on win2k.. what chance to I have of pushing them to a new server OS that hasn't even been released yet? 🙂