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    Hello everyone,
    I have been using my Home Server for a while and am very happy with it.  I was wondering if there is a practical way to test the bare metal restore functionality.
    Other than the obvious method of wiping my local drive and attempting it, which would cause serious problems if it doesn't work.

    Can a full restore be done to a virtual PC configuration?  Would that really prove that the restore function would work properly on physical hardware?
    I suppose the second best test would be to get another hard drive, place that in the machine and attempt a bare metal restore that way.

    Thanks.
    Peter
    Friday, August 28, 2009 6:14 PM

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    Hi Peter,
    you can restore to a virtual hardware (depending from the software used you need to provide working network drivers), but be aware, that the restored system will usually not boot. Different processor architecture - multi or single core, different disk controller - SATA or IDE - will happily greet you with a BSOD and reboot in many situations.
    The easiest way would be to get another harddisk for the restore attempt. This needs to provide enough space to make a volume in at least the same size as the original.
    Best greetings from Germany
    Olaf

    • Proposed as answer by kingslaye505 Friday, August 28, 2009 7:51 PM
    • Marked as answer by ruadog Tuesday, September 1, 2009 8:14 PM
    Friday, August 28, 2009 6:25 PM
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    Hi Peter,
    if you restore a single volume, the size of that volume is enough for the drive.
    Best greetings from Germany
    Olaf
    • Marked as answer by ruadog Tuesday, September 1, 2009 8:14 PM
    Monday, August 31, 2009 11:25 AM
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    Hi Peter,
    you can restore to a virtual hardware (depending from the software used you need to provide working network drivers), but be aware, that the restored system will usually not boot. Different processor architecture - multi or single core, different disk controller - SATA or IDE - will happily greet you with a BSOD and reboot in many situations.
    The easiest way would be to get another harddisk for the restore attempt. This needs to provide enough space to make a volume in at least the same size as the original.
    Best greetings from Germany
    Olaf

    • Proposed as answer by kingslaye505 Friday, August 28, 2009 7:51 PM
    • Marked as answer by ruadog Tuesday, September 1, 2009 8:14 PM
    Friday, August 28, 2009 6:25 PM
    Moderator
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    Hi I just did a restore on my Company Laptop I have hooked up to my WHS box for like a year now
    and my laptop drive crashed on me it was a hard ware failure ...I put a new Harddrive in it a much bigger one  [ it had a 60 gig and I put a 250gig in it ] did a restore on the laptop threw the lan port [ RJ45 ] it only took 45 min to restore the laptop to Original condition b4 the crash ...it`s been restored for a month now and all is great no problems what so ever..

    I to was a little leary about the restore feature but I will tell you I had no choice to play around to see if it worked or not
    did not have the time ....Thank god it worked b/c with out that laptop I prob would have lost my job !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    So put in a test drive and give it a whirl IT REALLY WORKS !!!!!!!

    WHS has got to be the best thing Microsoft has come out with for the Consumers .........

    Just wanted to add my 2 cents :-)
    Sunday, August 30, 2009 10:49 PM
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    Olaf,
    Thanks for the information.
    Does the new drive have to be the same size as the original drive or just large enough to hold the volume I want to restore?  (I have my drive partitioned into several volumes)
    Thanks.

    Peter
    Monday, August 31, 2009 11:14 AM
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    Hi Peter,
    if you restore a single volume, the size of that volume is enough for the drive.
    Best greetings from Germany
    Olaf
    • Marked as answer by ruadog Tuesday, September 1, 2009 8:14 PM
    Monday, August 31, 2009 11:25 AM
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    Olaf,
    I did a test restore over the weekend to another hard drive and it worked perfectly.  I had a large enough drive to restore all my volumes and everything restored properly.  The system threw some errors upon first boot, but rebooting solved all that.
    It's always good to know your backup solution is going to work when you really need it.
    Thanks for the help.
    Peter
    Tuesday, September 8, 2009 1:09 AM