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    Hi,
    I'm at the end of my 180 Day Trial of WHS and I have my full version.  The trial is installed on a fairly old computer (Dell Optiplex GX400).  The Hard Drive is fairly old as well, so I thought I would change the hard drive before I install the new version.  If I do that, can I somehow keep my old SHARED Files?  I don't necessarily need the backups of the computers, but I have 600GB of files in the shared files area that would be a real pain to move before reinstall.

    Thanks for any help you can provide.--Brian

    Oh, I currently have an 80GB HD that I want to replace and a 1.5TB HD that is used as additional storage.  I want to replace the 80GB with something new.  I believe that the shared files are on the 1.5TB drive.  Thanks!
    Friday, July 3, 2009 7:27 PM

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    Actually, everyone should know that any SHARED FOLDERS get wiped on reinstall.  I was happy because I saw everything was there, but I was wrong.  The FOLDERS were all there, but the pictures, music, video, and software was ALL GONE!!  I didn't have anywhere to easily backup the 1 TB of files.  EVERYONE SHOULD BACKUP EVERYTHING before reinstalling over the trial version.  I wasn't worried because I had reinstalled the trial over itself without any loss.  Installing the paid version over the trial version is a TOTAL LOSS!!  So Ken, #2 is the ONLY way!!
    • Marked as answer by OhSoCheesy Monday, July 6, 2009 2:33 AM
    Monday, July 6, 2009 2:33 AM

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    The files in your shares are just stored as files, there's nothing special about the storage pool. As a result, you'll have several options:
    1. Replace the system drive and do a server reinstallation.
      This effectively simulates what would happen with a system drive failure. Windows Home Server should present you with the option to reinstall; you would choose that and everything should be fine at the end.
    2. Buy all new drives and do a new installation.
      This has the advantage of getting you new hardware. You would set up your server, then take the old 1.5 TB driver, copy everything to your new server, and then (if you want) add the old 1.5 TB drive to the storage pool as well.
    3. Try "cloning" the system drive onto the new drive, then do a server reinstallation.
      This will allow you to keep your backup database (you will probably preserve it even if you replace the system drive, but there are no guarantees). Cloning a Windows Home Server system drive isn't supported, however.
    There are a lot of variations on the above. My personal recommendation is to go with either #1 or #2, with a slight preference for #1..
    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    Friday, July 3, 2009 7:56 PM
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    Hi Ken,
    Thanks for the reply.  I tried #1 of your suggestions and it didn't work.  It only offered the option of a new install instead of a reinstall.  So, I cloned the drive with xxclone (a free utility for those interested), which seemed to work, but when WHS starts it says I have only 1 day left and then promptly shuts down. I assume that means I have run out of time on the trial, which is fine because the installer offers to let me reinstall. 

    My issue is I have a VIA SATA RAID PCI card that I use for my 1.5TB HD.  When trying to install the full version of WHS it asks if there are any other disks not shown, which there is.  It says locate the driver for it, but I have no idea where to look for it.  Any ideas?  Do I need to have it installed from the beginning or can I add it later without losing the shared folder data?  I appreciate your help!--Brina
    Sunday, July 5, 2009 4:14 PM
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    OK, I found the driver and everything installed albeit with 27 errors.  Everything is going ok now, but FYI...I lost all of my previous computer backups and had to reconfigure each computer again even though they had WHS installed.

    MICROSOFT...It would behoove you to make it easier to convert from the Trial Version to the Full Version.  All I should HAVE to do is to input the new key.  Why would you make us reinstall EVERYTHING and lose all of our previous data.  Why wouldn't you make PAYING for your product EASY??  It just makes no sense.
    Sunday, July 5, 2009 8:17 PM
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    OK, I found the driver and everything installed albeit with 27 errors.  Everything is going ok now, but FYI...I lost all of my previous computer backups and had to reconfigure each computer again even though they had WHS installed.

    MICROSOFT...It would behoove you to make it easier to convert from the Trial Version to the Full Version.  All I should HAVE to do is to input the new key.  Why would you make us reinstall EVERYTHING and lose all of our previous data.  Why wouldn't you make PAYING for your product EASY??  It just makes no sense.

    You can suggest that on Connect (although I doubt that will ever change as none of their OSes are like that due to obvious piracy issues).
    Sunday, July 5, 2009 11:45 PM
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    Actually, everyone should know that any SHARED FOLDERS get wiped on reinstall.  I was happy because I saw everything was there, but I was wrong.  The FOLDERS were all there, but the pictures, music, video, and software was ALL GONE!!  I didn't have anywhere to easily backup the 1 TB of files.  EVERYONE SHOULD BACKUP EVERYTHING before reinstalling over the trial version.  I wasn't worried because I had reinstalled the trial over itself without any loss.  Installing the paid version over the trial version is a TOTAL LOSS!!  So Ken, #2 is the ONLY way!!
    • Marked as answer by OhSoCheesy Monday, July 6, 2009 2:33 AM
    Monday, July 6, 2009 2:33 AM
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    MICROSOFT...It would behoove you to make it easier to convert from the Trial Version to the Full Version.  All I should HAVE to do is to input the new key.  Why would you make us reinstall EVERYTHING and lose all of our previous data.  Why wouldn't you make PAYING for your product EASY??  It just makes no sense.
    This (buy and enter a product key to unlock the Windows Home Server trial) won't happen, primarily for revenue protection reasons. It's too easy to generate a "valid" product key for a product; there are numerous utilities that you could find online that will crank them out all day long, and believe me, if it was easy to convert, many more people would pirate Windows Home Server than probably do today.
    Actually, everyone should know that any SHARED FOLDERS get wiped on reinstall.  I was happy because I saw everything was there, but I was wrong.  The FOLDERS were all there, but the pictures, music, video, and software was ALL GONE!!  I didn't have anywhere to easily backup the 1 TB of files.  EVERYONE SHOULD BACKUP EVERYTHING before reinstalling over the trial version.  I wasn't worried because I had reinstalled the trial over itself without any loss.  Installing the paid version over the trial version is a TOTAL LOSS!!  So Ken, #2 is the ONLY way!!
    I'm not clear why you would have lost data. I've gone through several server reinstallations without any data loss at all, including converting trials to fully licensed software. Did you supply any storage drivers needed for your drives? Did you choose the reinstallation option when it was presented? Was a reinstallation option presented?
    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    Monday, July 6, 2009 3:25 PM
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