The Easy, Simple, and Free Method
For Upgrading Hard Drives
 on Netware 3.12, 3.2, 4.10, 4.11 and 4.2 Servers

So, you want to replace that old hard drive in your Netware server with something, well... larger.

There are several methods and tools available to accomplish this task.  You can purchase software utilities such as Portlock or ServerMagic, which although they are excellent third-party utilities, are also very expensive.  Alternatively, I offer this method which has successfully cloned many Netware drives, requires no costly software, and is surprisingly easy.

Before beginning, you will need a bootable DOS diskette.  I suggest either MS-DOS 6.22 or DR-DOS.  DR-DOS can be downloaded here.  This bootable diskette, in addition to the usual operating system files, should contain the FDISK.EXE, FORMAT.EXE and XCOPY.EXE utilities, in order to create a bootable DOS partition on the new disk drive, and copy the contents of the old DOS partition.  You will also need a copy of the RESIZE.EXE utility, which will be used to expand the size of the Netware partition to make use of the additional space on the new drive.  RESIZE.EXE is included as part of the free SnapBack Disaster Recovery Toolkit, which can be downloaded here.

Additionally, if you are using IDE disk drives, make certain that you have applied the most recent IDE drivers.  If you do not, you may find yourself unable to utilize any of your new disk space above 8GB.  Interestingly, this 8GB limitation with older IDE drivers does not apply to SCSI drives.

An interesting situation arises when the older motherboard BIOS cannot see the full size of the new IDE drive.  In this case, RESIZE.EXE will not be able to expand the Netware partition beyond what the BIOS can see.  You might be able to update your BIOS, or you may use ServerMagic to expand the partition instead.  ServerMagic has the benefit of being a Netware Loadable Module (NLM), and as such, does not depend on the system BIOS to determine your disk geometry.  Again, this problem does not affect SCSI drives.

1. Down the server.  Are you presently mirroring or duplexing two drives?  If so, first break the mirror by removing one of the mirrored drives.  Properly add the new, larger disk drive to the system, following the appropriate instructions for cabling, power connections, and jumper selections.  If your system BIOS can't see the new drive, neither will DOS.

2. Boot the server to DOS.  Use FDISK.EXE to review the size of the DOS partition on the old hard drive, and create a similar partition on the new drive.  The size is not critical, and you may make it larger or smaller than the original if beneficial.  Exit FDISK, shut the computer off, and remove the power cable to the old disk drive.  Insert the bootable DOS diskette in the diskette drive, and restart the computer.  Now use FDISK again, this time to set the new drive's DOS partition active.  You must disconnect the first drive in order to do this, however, since FDISK will only allow you to set a partition active on a first drive.  Exit FDISK, and shut the computer off again.

3. Reattach the power cable to the old drive, and boot the server to DOS again.  Format the new DOS partition using the /S switch in order to copy system files to the new drive.

4. Use XCOPY.EXE with the /S/E/V switches to copy the directories and files of the DOS partition from the old drive to the new.

5. Remove the bootable diskette, and restart the Netware server normally.  Load the INSTALL.NLM module.  Carefully review and write down the size of the data and redirection blocks of the old drive's Netware partition, and exactly duplicate that on the new Netware partition that you create on the new drive.

6. Still using the INSTALL.NLM module, carefully add the new drive to mirrored set.  This will begin the mirroring process, which may take several hours to complete.

7. When the mirroring process is complete, down the server, and remove the old drive from the server.  Boot to DOS, and run the RESIZE.EXE utility to expand the Netware partition to encompass the full size of the new drive.

8. Remove the RESIZE diskette.  Boot the server from the new disk drive.  Load INSTALL.NLM, and create new volumes and/or volume segments to make use of the additional space offered by the new disk drive.

9. You may, if desired, use ServerMagic for Netware version 4 to merge multiple segments for individual volumes.  Since there is a maximum of 8 volumes or volume segments for a Netware partition, merging volume segments may allow you to create additional volumes.

10. Finally, you may mirror a second new drive to the first if desired, following the usual mirror or disk-duplexing procedures.