Time to replace the main "C" drive - WHS 2011 - Drivepool + Scanner.

[britgeezer]

Long time user of WH1 and WHS 2011 with Drive pool and Scanner.

 

It works so well, I'm no expert.

 

Anyway scanner is reporting my main HD (2TB) has some smart issues and its now my smallest drive.

 

I have a spare Samsung 256GB SSD and would like to have the reserved partition and C drive on the SSD (I have never like the boot and information partitions being on a drive also used for storage.

 

Then I would like to pool a bunch of 3 and 4 TB  drives (much duplication).

 

Any thing special I need to do?

 

I am almost finished back with a backup of 7 TB of data so I'm prepared to start from scratch if I must. 

 

Thanks

 

BG

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Depends on how you restore/reinstall the OS.

 

 

To be honest, the best option here is to run Server Backup (if you're not already) and restore at least the C:\ drive to the SSD. Once that's done, you'll probably need to "Transfer" the licenses (refreshes the hardware profile).  

 

However, if you're doing a clean install... Then deactivate the licenses prior to reinstalling the OS. Then, reinstall WHS, reinstall the programs and activate. And that's basically all there is to it.

There is an utility to restore the shares which you may want to run afterwards as well:

http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Utilities

[britgeezer]

Thanks.

 

I'd rather not do clean install but it remains an option. Good job you reminded me about the Covecube licenses

 

I have  a server back up on a different HD, but how would I run it to restore to an SSD.  The SSD would have no OS so how would I access the HD with the backup? From the original WH2011 CD's I guess - will take a look, but a link to step by step would be great.

 

Also my C drive and the WH2011 stuff on D looks bigger that 256GB. I removed all backup records last night so maybe its smaller now.

 

Do you think its worthwhile trying to get WHS 2011 and the Covecube add-ons on to the SSD?   

[Christopher (Drashna)]

I wasn't sure how you were migrating, so I wanted to make sure that was covered.

 

As for restoring, you would need to boot from the install disk, and select the "repair an installation" option. This will load up the restore wizard. You do need to have your backup disk attached at this point (or prior to it).

 

However, you do need to make sure that the original partition/disk is smaller than the destination disk in question. That shouldn't be an issue. But if it is.... boot into the system, clear off the contents of the "data" partition on the system disk, then delete the partition (in diskmgmt.msc), and then manually run a backup (wbadmin.msc). Then you should be able to restore properly.

 

That's at least how I've done it in the past. I've actually migrated SBS2011E (the "small business" version of WHS2011) from a 500GB HDD to a 128GB SSD that way. So I do know it works.

 

Alternatively, you could close the "System Reserved" partition and the system partition to the new disk. Once you've verified that's bootable, delete said partitions on the HDD. This way, you can continue using that disk in the pool, and run for the SSD.

 

 

And I'm not sure what you mean by the last question. But it's definitely worth running the system from an SSD. If only for the fact that the dashboard will be a lot smoother and run better overall. And overall, the system will be "snappier".

[britgeezer]

I appreciate the help.

 

Restore created too many driver issues, so I made a new install on the SSD.  Might be better overall.

 

So on the 256GB SSD, I have:

 

100MB NTF

(C:) 60 GB NTFS, Boot, PF, CD, Primary Partition.

(D:) 178GB NTFS Primary Partition, (contains Folders)

 

Plus a different HD

(E:) 3.9TB Primary Partition. 

 

Can I just delete the D drive (having copied the folders to current E:) and then just delete partition D and extend the space to C: 

 

Thanks

[Umfriend]

I would suggest to "move" the serverfolders from D: to E: using the wizard from the Dashboard.

 

AFAIK you can extend C: but I *think* that is not best practice/advised. Can't remember why that is unfortunately.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Actually, there should be no issue with deleting the "D:\" partition and extending the drive. Since the "space" is after the system partition, it will just merge the same into it. No worrying about if it converts the disk to dynamic or not (umfriend, that's probably what you were thinking about).

 

And it shouldn't matter if you move the shares or not first. If there is nothing in them, the dashboard will want to recreate the shares instead of moving them.

[britgeezer]

Thanks guys, I hope this will help others as well.

 

Moved the folders as suggested, now will delete D and expand C.

 

Then I need to go back to the original drive and uninstall Drive pool and Scanner 

[Abula]

I just moved my shared folders on a fresh WHS 2011 install to z:/, all folders were empty and the move went perfect.... now moving 10tb of info with old hdds that are failling... thats another story.

[Umfriend]

Actually, there should be no issue with deleting the "D:\" partition and extending the drive. Since the "space" is after the system partition, it will just merge the same into it. No worrying about if it converts the disk to dynamic or not (umfriend, that's probably what you were thinking about).

Nope, I must be suffering dainbrammage. I believe I once read there would be an issue with a BMR restore of the OS drive, perhaps in that it would first create a 60GB partition and then not be able to recover the drive as it had more than 60GB data. But I could be very very and totally wrong here. If anyone has succesfully done a BMR of a > 60GB OS Drive on WHS2011 then I'll go to a 128GB SSD (and find out how to install on a <160GB drive to be prepared for clean install in case of real messed up situation).

[Christopher (Drashna)]

I had a 500GB HDD that I shrunk the partition (using Disk Management) to fit on a newly bought solid state disk. Shrunk it, and let Windows Server Backup run. Then I did a BMR onto the SSD. Worked just fine, and even aligned the disk properly. I do believe that I had to reconfigure the backup, but aside from that, it worked great.

 

It wasn't WHS2011, but SBS2011E. But that's just the "Active Directory Domain" version of WHS2011. So it is identical for this purpose.

 

As for how to install to a drive smaller than 160GB:

http://connecteddigitalworld.com/2011/09/20/installing-whs-2011-or-sbs-2011-essentials-on-ssd-or-sata-hard-drives-smaller-than-160gb/

I just moved my shared folders on a fresh WHS 2011 install to z:/, all folders were empty and the move went perfect.... now moving 10tb of info with old hdds that are failling... thats another story.

I'm sorry to hear about the failing disks. That's never pleasant.
And I do hope that you can remove all the data from them before anything bad happens.

 

Thanks guys, I hope this will help others as well.

 

Moved the folders as suggested, now will delete D and expand C.

 

Then I need to go back to the original drive and uninstall Drive pool and Scanner 

Don't forget to deactivate them before uninstalling them.

[britgeezer]

I forgot to bring up a question and now I don't remember which version I used.

 

After deactivating the licenses .......

 

When I went to reinstall Drive Pool and Scanner I saw there were dedicated WHS2011 versions as well as W7/ WHS2011, I could find no discussion on why or what was best for my WHS 2011 server (64bit) on an otherwise W7 network (it was very late) and I went, I think; with the W7/WHS 2011 version. I say that since the GUI was different, how can I tell? DP says its version 2.1.1.561.

 

Should I have used the Scanner for the same version and how can I tell what I used? it shows version 2.4.0.2929.

 

Update, I found the answer I used the W7 for DP and WHS2011 for scanner, however I see the beta scanner  versions have the same number - it that indicating a merge and the best way for me to have the same version of both?

 

Was there ever a discussion of what version was best for mixed WHS2011/ W7?

[Christopher (Drashna)]

If you tried installing the beta version and it's still showing the old version, ..... uninstall Scanner completely:

 

http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_Scanner_Q8964978

http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_Scanner_Q8964978B

 

And then install the WHS2011 version.

[britgeezer]

OK, thanks got it.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

If you have any issues with that, let us know.