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    Greetings to all!

    I've had my WHS system since Nov 2007 and it has served me well over the last 14 months. My current system looks like this:

    Gigabyte motherboard with only 3 SATA ports <-this is too little.

    Port 0 has a Seagate 500gb hard drive (Primary Drive with system)
    Port 1 has a Seagate 500gb hard drive
    Port 2 has a Seagate 1tb hard drive

    ... for a total of 2tb and now I only have 16gb free space available. (Yes I have that much data!). Folder duplication is turned on.

    My case has a fourth hard drive bay but I do not have another SATA port available. I could replace the 500gb hard drive with a 1tb drive but I don't want to have to go through this exercise anytime soon. (Note: I only use "Enterprise" quality drives in so the current Seagate 1.5tb drive is not a consideration.) I could also purchase a SATA card as well...

    What I want to do is this:

    New ASUS motherboard with 6 SATA ports

    Port 0 with a new 1tb hard drive
    Port 1 with a new 1tb hard drive
    Port 2 with the existing Seagate 1tb hard drive
    Port 3 with a new 1tb hard drive

    First question I have is this:

    Can I reinstall WHS and have it retain my data if I was to change motherboards and only use my current existing drives?

    Port 0 has a Seagate 500gb hard drive (Primary Drive with system)
    Port 1 has a Seagate 500gb hard drive
    Port 2 has a Seagate 1tb hard drive
    Port 3 EMPTY

    Second question is:

    Can I reinstall WHS on a new motherboard and new system drive and still have it retain my data? I do have folder duplication turned on currently.

    Port 0 with a new 1tb hard drive
    Port 1 has a Seagate 500gb hard drive
    Port 2 has a Seagate 1tb hard drive
    Port 3 EMPTY

    I was thinking to do the reinstallation in this manner, have it recognize my data then add in the new 1tb drive in Port 3. Once WHS has recognized this drive, then I would then remove (through WHS) the 500gb drive on Port 1 and replace it with another 1tb drive.

    Do you think this would work?

    Or should I just start from scratch? (Which is a little bit more of a hassle but not that big of a deal.)

    What do you folks think? All comments are appreciated! Thanks!

    Russell
    "The Computer Guy"
    Friday, February 6, 2009 8:43 AM

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    You should be able to do server reinstall both ways. Just make sure the intended system drive is also recognised by the system as the first drive.

    As for the drives WD has 2TB Greenpoint. Personally I use 500 MB and 1 GB WD greenpoints and IMHO these are enterprise quality. Also very low energy consumption, and extremely quiet, I can not hear the drive at any moment in my otherwis also very quiet system, even when putting my ear to the case
    Friday, February 6, 2009 8:56 AM
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    tcghawaii said:

    Greetings to all!

    I've had my WHS system since Nov 2007 and it has served me well over the last 14 months. My current system looks like this:

    Gigabyte motherboard with only 3 SATA ports <-this is too little.

    Port 0 has a Seagate 500gb hard drive (Primary Drive with system)
    Port 1 has a Seagate 500gb hard drive
    Port 2 has a Seagate 1tb hard drive

    ... for a total of 2tb and now I only have 16gb free space available. (Yes I have that much data!). Folder duplication is turned on.

    My case has a fourth hard drive bay but I do not have another SATA port available. I could replace the 500gb hard drive with a 1tb drive but I don't want to have to go through this exercise anytime soon. (Note: I only use "Enterprise" quality drives in so the current Seagate 1.5tb drive is not a consideration.)
     

    My Seagate 1.5 TB works fine.  Just make sure you have the latest firmware for it and you're good. ;)

    tcghawaii said:

    I could also purchase a SATA card as well...

    What I want to do is this:

    New ASUS motherboard with 6 SATA ports

    Port 0 with a new 1tb hard drive
    Port 1 with a new 1tb hard drive
    Port 2 with the existing Seagate 1tb hard drive
    Port 3 with a new 1tb hard drive

    First question I have is this:

    Can I reinstall WHS and have it retain my data if I was to change motherboards and only use my current existing drives?

    Port 0 has a Seagate 500gb hard drive (Primary Drive with system)
    Port 1 has a Seagate 500gb hard drive
    Port 2 has a Seagate 1tb hard drive
    Port 3 EMPTY

    Yep.

    tcghawaii said:

    Second question is:

    Can I reinstall WHS on a new motherboard and new system drive and still have it retain my data? I do have folder duplication turned on currently.

    Port 0 with a new 1tb hard drive
    Port 1 has a Seagate 500gb hard drive
    Port 2 has a Seagate 1tb hard drive
    Port 3 EMPTY

    Yes as well.

    tcghawaii said:

    I was thinking to do the reinstallation in this manner, have it recognize my data then add in the new 1tb drive in Port 3. Once WHS has recognized this drive, then I would then remove (through WHS) the 500gb drive on Port 1 and replace it with another 1tb drive.

    Do you think this would work?

    Or should I just start from scratch? (Which is a little bit more of a hassle but not that big of a deal.)

    What do you folks think? All comments are appreciated! Thanks!

    Russell

    "The Computer Guy"



    The main thing to remember in your scenario is that no matter which way you go, it sounds like you have data to salvage on your old primary drive unless you have Folder Duplication active on all shares.  If not, you will need to connect the old primary drive to another computer (not your server) and copy whatever data you find inside x:\DE\shares (where x is the letter assigned to the drive) to your new installation.
    Friday, February 6, 2009 1:39 PM
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    Hi Russell,
    transplantation of a new motherboard to an existing Windows Home Server is always a game of luck.
    If the chipset and the CPU are similar, you may be lucky enough that the system boots and you can add the necessary hardware drivers later.
    A server reinstall may or may not work, especially if the SATA controller is not in IDE mode, but in native SATA mode, you will have to provide the mass storage drivers and have the primary disk to be recognized as disk 0 (attached to the first SATA port, proper sequence in Bios).
    If a server reinstall is not offered, you can still perform the hard way as described in this FAQ (in case you have enough spare storage on external drives or a network share you can also copy the backup database before).
    Best greetings from Germany
    Olaf
    Friday, February 6, 2009 8:55 AM
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    You should be able to do server reinstall both ways. Just make sure the intended system drive is also recognised by the system as the first drive.

    As for the drives WD has 2TB Greenpoint. Personally I use 500 MB and 1 GB WD greenpoints and IMHO these are enterprise quality. Also very low energy consumption, and extremely quiet, I can not hear the drive at any moment in my otherwis also very quiet system, even when putting my ear to the case
    Friday, February 6, 2009 8:56 AM
    Moderator
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    tcghawaii said:

    Greetings to all!

    I've had my WHS system since Nov 2007 and it has served me well over the last 14 months. My current system looks like this:

    Gigabyte motherboard with only 3 SATA ports <-this is too little.

    Port 0 has a Seagate 500gb hard drive (Primary Drive with system)
    Port 1 has a Seagate 500gb hard drive
    Port 2 has a Seagate 1tb hard drive

    ... for a total of 2tb and now I only have 16gb free space available. (Yes I have that much data!). Folder duplication is turned on.

    My case has a fourth hard drive bay but I do not have another SATA port available. I could replace the 500gb hard drive with a 1tb drive but I don't want to have to go through this exercise anytime soon. (Note: I only use "Enterprise" quality drives in so the current Seagate 1.5tb drive is not a consideration.)
     

    My Seagate 1.5 TB works fine.  Just make sure you have the latest firmware for it and you're good. ;)

    tcghawaii said:

    I could also purchase a SATA card as well...

    What I want to do is this:

    New ASUS motherboard with 6 SATA ports

    Port 0 with a new 1tb hard drive
    Port 1 with a new 1tb hard drive
    Port 2 with the existing Seagate 1tb hard drive
    Port 3 with a new 1tb hard drive

    First question I have is this:

    Can I reinstall WHS and have it retain my data if I was to change motherboards and only use my current existing drives?

    Port 0 has a Seagate 500gb hard drive (Primary Drive with system)
    Port 1 has a Seagate 500gb hard drive
    Port 2 has a Seagate 1tb hard drive
    Port 3 EMPTY

    Yep.

    tcghawaii said:

    Second question is:

    Can I reinstall WHS on a new motherboard and new system drive and still have it retain my data? I do have folder duplication turned on currently.

    Port 0 with a new 1tb hard drive
    Port 1 has a Seagate 500gb hard drive
    Port 2 has a Seagate 1tb hard drive
    Port 3 EMPTY

    Yes as well.

    tcghawaii said:

    I was thinking to do the reinstallation in this manner, have it recognize my data then add in the new 1tb drive in Port 3. Once WHS has recognized this drive, then I would then remove (through WHS) the 500gb drive on Port 1 and replace it with another 1tb drive.

    Do you think this would work?

    Or should I just start from scratch? (Which is a little bit more of a hassle but not that big of a deal.)

    What do you folks think? All comments are appreciated! Thanks!

    Russell

    "The Computer Guy"



    The main thing to remember in your scenario is that no matter which way you go, it sounds like you have data to salvage on your old primary drive unless you have Folder Duplication active on all shares.  If not, you will need to connect the old primary drive to another computer (not your server) and copy whatever data you find inside x:\DE\shares (where x is the letter assigned to the drive) to your new installation.
    Friday, February 6, 2009 1:39 PM
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    Thanks to all that replied!

    I should have my new hard drives next week and plan to migrate the server shortly thereafter.  The ASUS motherboard is from an existing workstation which I no longer use.  I know that WHS has to be reinstalled as the existing MB has a nVidia chipset while the ASUS uses the Intel P965 chipset.

    Folder duplication is on for all folders so I'll see how this goes.  I'll back up my data onto various workstations and hard drives in the meantime as a safety measure.

    I'll let you folks know how it goes.  Thanks again!

    Russell

    "The Computer Guy"
    Friday, February 6, 2009 5:39 PM
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    tcghawaii said:

    Thanks to all that replied!

    I should have my new hard drives next week and plan to migrate the server shortly thereafter.  The ASUS motherboard is from an existing workstation which I no longer use.  I know that WHS has to be reinstalled as the existing MB has a nVidia chipset while the ASUS uses the Intel P965 chipset.

    Folder duplication is on for all folders so I'll see how this goes.

    In that case, you shouldn't even need to worry about data from the network shares.  The only part you might lose is your backup database (and that's only if any portion of it is currently stored on your primary hard drive).

    tcghawaii said: I'll back up my data onto various workstations and hard drives in the meantime as a safety measure.

    I'll let you folks know how it goes.  Thanks again!

    Russell

    "The Computer Guy"



    Friday, February 6, 2009 5:47 PM
    Moderator