Sign in
Microsoft.com
 
Resources for IT Professionals
 
 
 
Resources for IT Professionals > Forums Home > Windows Home Server Forums > Windows Home Server Hardware and Installation > Can someone confirm the process for replacing a failing system drive
Ask a questionAsk a question
Search Forums:
 

Proposed AnswerCan someone confirm the process for replacing a failing system drive

  • Thursday, November 05, 2009 5:14 PMkujay Users MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
     
    Sign In to Vote
    0
    Sign In to Vote
    First some info - I have 3 1TB drives in my WHS. the system Drive is a Samsung the other two are Hitachis. I do not have enough HD space to enable folder duplication for everything stored on the WHS - so I only have it enabled for pictures.
    My Samsung system drive is being reported by WHS as "unhealthy" - Although I am able to repair it, I recently had an identical Samsung drive fail completely and lost everything. So, I would like to replace it before it dies completely - and takes my shares in the D:data partition with it.
    Rather than clone the drive (which I understand is not 100% reliable) I plan to do the following:
    1. shut down whs and physically remove the failing system drive (the Samsung)
    2. Install a new 1tb drive in its place
    3. Boot from the WHS OEM DVD and choose server reinstallation
    4. confirm that WHS has found the original shares from the original two drives.
    5. connect the old, failing samsung system drive to another computer and manually access the shares in the hidden /DE folder and copy them over to the WHS

    Can someone confirm that this will work ?
    Is there a better way to get the shares off of the sying system drive back into WHS?
     

All Replies

  • Thursday, November 05, 2009 5:30 PMKen WarrenMVP, ModeratorUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
     Proposed Answer
    Sign In to Vote
    1
    Sign In to Vote
    That will work, and represents the supported recovery method. You can also try cloning the entire system drive to the new drive. This is unsupported and, as you've noted, doesn't always work perfectly. If you decide to go this route, I would do this:
    • Clone the drive, expanding the second (D:) partition to fill all available extra space. Leave the system partition at 20 GB.
    • Perform a server recovery/reinstallation.
    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
     
  • Thursday, November 05, 2009 7:33 PMOlaf EngelkeMVP, ModeratorUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
     
    Sign In to Vote
    0
    Sign In to Vote
    And if you clone the drive, this should include the physical disk information, because otherwise the DATA volume on the system disk will be shown as "missing".
    Best greetings from Germany
    Olaf