Caveman

Fantastic - thanks for that - given the issues with the drives I have decided that a completely clean start is the way forward so I won't be using the DE->DP transfer. I am in the process of transferring the last of the non-critical data to my new 4tb drive - once that is done I will use the wiki guide you posted to add it to the new (clean) server build. I'm going to treat that as the dress rehearsal - it it works smoothly I can then use the same system to move the critical stuff!

Thanks for the quick response - glad I decided to go with drivepool - legendary customer service swung it for me! Shortly after posting I found Shane's excellent post on migrating from WHS v1 to 2011 - typical - but TBH I have so many issues with the WHS v1 box now that I'm happier wiping what I can (2 of the drives are now critical and they are littered with CRC errors and broken / unreadable files.) So - could you just idiot check my current plan for me: Backup vital files to 2Tb sata drive (done!) Remove broken drives from the WHS v1 DE pool Disconnect all drives - insert new drive and install 2011 Reconnect old DE drives and follow the advice in Shane's post Reconnect the Backup drive (with the "can't lose" data") - it's photos / documents / music - I promise I will RTFM - but is it a simple process off adding the drive to the DP and then moving the directories to the new share locations? Sacrifice chicken to server gods and pray?

I am in the (long, slow and painful) process of moving from WHS v1 to Whs 2011. As I have more data than spare drives I am having to take the long and painful route of copying all my data from Whs v1 (Box A) to a clean install of WHS v2 (Box B ) and finally take WHS v2 back onto Box A. I found the thread HERE which suggested I could simply take the drives out of Box B and plug them into Box A and the machine would take care of all the driver issues. The suggested procedure was: 1. Release license on drivepool/scanner 2. Build new system 3. Plug all the drives in and everything will be just as is Being that (in my painful experience) nothing is ever that simple - has anyone successfully moved hardware this way (ie. simply move the drives piecemeal)? Do I need to use sysprep first to generalize the hardware (I assume this forces the new machine to re-install / rebuild the drivers from scratch - avoiding conflicts?) I'm in the process of copying all the files from WHS v1 to 2011 (2 day and change according to the estimate...) Once that's done I see three options. Fresh install of WHS 2011 on Box A and copy all the files back again (another 2-3 days) Backup the WHS 2011 install on Box B and restore it to Box A; then move the hard drives across and hope they are recognised Use the system above and simply move the HDDs across from Box B to A once the copyin is done. I really don't want an unstable build so if anyone has done this could you let me know what you did and how well it worked?