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    I am not sure if this is right, so I need help, I am wanting to upgrade the hardware for my V1 WHS (I know about the EULA) OEM.

    Anyway I find the memory I need for my older hardware is way more expensive and can't get the amount I need cheap anymore, so what I am proposing is buying a new processor, motherboard and DDR3 Ram.

    So to this.... I am aware that the Hard drives tied to WHS V1 DE require the new motherboard to be virtually the same, so what I am wanting to know is since the South Bridge Controller handles the storage drives would it be possible to get a motherboard with the same SB Controller even if the motherboard is not the same.

    Motherboard at present is a Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2H

    Motherboard wanting is a Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P

    both been different boards, both having different North Bridges but having the same South Bridge. So any help will be appreciated. I also know that I will require a server re-installation, which is fine with me also.

    Saturday, June 23, 2012 11:22 AM
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    It's unlikely that the drivers required for the motherboard will be identical. Since Windows Home Server V1 is built on Windows Server 2003 R2, which is very similar to Windows XP, you will have the same troubles if you try to just change out your MB that you would have with XP: probable bluescreen when you boot, a need to get drivers updated, general flakiness if it does run without new drivers and possibly even after driver updates.

    That said, you're already buying into reinstallation, which nukes the system partition, so all that is somewhat irrelevant. Instead, you will need to be able to get setup to present you with the reinstallation/recovery (depending on the age of your installation media) option, which is dependent on your BIOS presenting the correct drive to setup as the boot drive, and is also dependent on you supplying the correct storage drivers to setup at the correct times. Much has already been written in these forums around this topic (please use the search feature), but to condense it, you can give reinstallation a try, supplying the correct drivers at appropriate times. (You may need both Vista and XP drivers, supplied at different times.) If you can't get the recovery option presented, give up early rather than late, read the FAQ (in the FAQ section) about recovering data from a failed server, and implement that by disconnecting all your data drives, doing a new installation, then copying data back to your server one drive at a time.

    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)

    Saturday, June 23, 2012 12:22 PM
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    Well I think what I will do then is remove then is remove the boot drive, insert it onto the new motherboard and test it without formatting the drive just to see if the recovery option is present,that way I can continue to add everything else. If it is not present then the only option would be to remove everything off the drives and then apply them to the new system and new install.

    Saturday, June 23, 2012 12:56 PM
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