>>Also periodic warnings ***NOT*** to trust the NTFS drivers of any linux distribution on partitions RAID was used on under windows. Danger of RAIDED partitions not viewed as a unit and separately accessed, and even more so if HW-specific drivers were needed under Windows.
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>I've had some good success with NTFSCLONE for backing up Win2000/XP/Server2003 (i.e. success being able to restore from a compressed image backup ;)). Also using QTPartEd on Knoppix and GPartEd on the Gnome Partition Editor LiveCD to resize system (C:) partitions on all of the above.

I did not use Knoppix in real emergencies, but on some test shots on machines with no relevant data everything worked fine. But I have some "rules of conduct" when working with expensive data:
1) throw HW at the problem - before resizing partitions I just buy a larger spindle, partition it the way I need and clone the data. Since every machine is dual-boot, even the System partion of the other system gets copied without hassle.
The old disk can always be used in one of the other systems after one week of security time. I save myself the step of backing up before <g>. If I have many compressed folders I "copy" via disk imaging software.

2) stay inside the tools I am fmiliar with: Acronis Trueimage and Diskeditor (Partition expert if paragon has a problem) and Paragon for EXT-FS, Partitioning (Drive-backup if true Image has a problem). If the machine croaked, murphy says you are under heavy time pressure as well so don't get into situations you need to scout <g>.

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>The last 3 Server2003 systems I system partition resized were all Dell servers, all with the Dell PERC4 RAID controller. Two of them had 2xSATA drives in RAID1, the other 5xU320 15K SCSI drives in RAID5. I think all these worked well because in each case the controller presents the array as a "virtual disk" to the hardware, at the BIOS level.

a 5 disk array is for speed - but for safe operations I'ld schedule downtime and a backup to 300 GB SATA, which will not take long. Or use the operators backup proedures before<g>. A 2-way RAID for me makes only sense as for RAID1 if the data MUST be secured and will be lost otherwise.

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>Interestingly, a version of GPartEd about 6 months old couldn't see the array for any of these servers. But QTPartEd on Knoppix 5.0.1 (which is somewhat older) worked fine. I've now upgraded to the newly released Knoppix 5.1.0 LiveCD - see how that goes.

In lieu of a good Win-LiveDVD with all my tools loaded I have the "clunker" HD whose OS I just "repare" to the current HW. But one of these days I will build my own WinLiveDVD with my tools. Nearly all of my work involes Wintel, so linux attempts are mostly for my own learning. But it does work, as MS did not want to create LiveDVD's for fear of loosing revenue. Stupid IMHO, just the same with all the DRM bull$hit encroaching on VISTA. This gives so much control over your machine into foreign hands that i can imagine security minded admins to argue successfully against using it.

my 0.02 EUR

thomas