How hard/easy is this to do. If I want to change the primary hard drive in my home server to a larger hard drive, what steps do I need to follow. Is there an easy way to do this?
The only supported method is a server reinstallation. This is a special installation mode which will preserve the files in any duplicated shares. Replacing the system drive with a larger one is logically the same as replacing it because it failed, and there is no guarantee that there will be no unduplicated files on the drive. You may lose your backup database, and you will need to recreate users, reinstall add-ins, and re-join computers to the server.I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
Marked as answer bykariya21ModeratorSunday, February 8, 2009 4:47 PM
The only supported method is a server reinstallation. This is a special installation mode which will preserve the files in any duplicated shares. Replacing the system drive with a larger one is logically the same as replacing it because it failed, and there is no guarantee that there will be no unduplicated files on the drive. You may lose your backup database, and you will need to recreate users, reinstall add-ins, and re-join computers to the server.I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
Marked as answer bykariya21ModeratorSunday, February 8, 2009 4:47 PM
Curious as to what you want to get out of doing this exercise. You do not specifically state you have a second disk already which you will need in order to preserve the existing shared folders. Changing the disk will still leave you with the same system partition size as there is no option to modify the partitions created by the installation process.
The remainder of the 1st HDD then forms part of the drive pool so is there a specific reason why you cannot just install the new disk as an extra disk and add the whole thing to the pool. Obviously this depends on having the space to fit the HDD.
As to how to do it, fit the new disk, boot from the cd and select the reinstallation option when in text mode setup. As Ken has said although the shares should be protected you will have to recreate the users, reinstall PP1 and add-ins. To re-join PCs to what is effectively a new server go to %systemdrive%\Program Files\Windows Home Server on each client PC and run Discovery.exe as this avoids having to re-install the Connector application.
One caveat to be aware of, as you are replacing the HDD and therefore the Primary Data Partition (the second partition on the new HDD) the Drive Extender has to rebuild what have been referred to as "tombstones" which are pointers to the files on the Secondary Data Partition (additional drives). This can take a considerable time.
