Is Vista smart enough to do this?

[Qu0ll]

My system currently has 2 U320 SCSI HDDs in a RAID 1 configuration. I am
going to retire the SCSI disks and go with 2 SATA II HDDs also in a RAID 1
configuration. The partitioning will basically be the same and I have
images of each partition using Acronis True Image.

The question is, is Vista "smart" enough to handle swapping the HDDs and
re-imaging them using Acronis? I mean the RAID controller is different and
obviously will use a different driver and the IDs of the disks will be
different so there's some figuring-out by the OS to be done. I don't fancy
doing a fresh install and spending hours getting my system back to the way
it is now - just right.

What do you think?

--
And loving it,

-Q
_________________________________________________
(e-mail address removed)
(Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me)

 

[Kerry Brown]

My system currently has 2 U320 SCSI HDDs in a RAID 1 configuration. I am
going to retire the SCSI disks and go with 2 SATA II HDDs also in a RAID 1
configuration. The partitioning will basically be the same and I have
images of each partition using Acronis True Image.

The question is, is Vista "smart" enough to handle swapping the HDDs and
re-imaging them using Acronis? I mean the RAID controller is different
and obviously will use a different driver and the IDs of the disks will be
different so there's some figuring-out by the OS to be done. I don't
fancy doing a fresh install and spending hours getting my system back to
the way it is now - just right.

What do you think?

It will be a good experiment. Let us know how it works out

I would install the SATA RAID controller and drives (and setup the array)
before creating the image to make sure the driver is in place and Vista
recognizes the array. I would then boot from the TI recovery CD and clone
the old array to the new array adjusting the partition sizes as needed. Shut
down, remove the old array, boot from the Vista DVD (possibly adding a RAID
driver if needed) and do a Startup Repair. Note that sometimes you have to
do a Startup Repair twice.

 

[MICHAEL]

* Kerry Brown:

It will be a good experiment. Let us know how it works out

I would install the SATA RAID controller and drives (and setup the array)
before creating the image to make sure the driver is in place and Vista
recognizes the array. I would then boot from the TI recovery CD and clone
the old array to the new array adjusting the partition sizes as needed. Shut
down, remove the old array, boot from the Vista DVD (possibly adding a RAID
driver if needed) and do a Startup Repair. Note that sometimes you have to
do a Startup Repair twice.

Having to do the Startup Repair twice is, indeed, necessary sometimes.

I'm sure not many users know this and some may even give up on this
simple fix after it fails the first time. Which results in them having to do
a reinstall of the OS. Or, wasting a lot of time trying other ways to fix
the problem.


-Michael

 

[Richard Urban]

I would suspect that you are looking at a reinstall on the new drives.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Qu0ll]

I would suspect that you are looking at a reinstall on the new drives.

Why is that? I really don't want to spend the hours to get my system back
to where it is now. Is there some way of fast-tracking or streamlining that
procedure like perhaps keeping a copy of my profile or something similar?

--
And loving it,

-Q
_________________________________________________
(e-mail address removed)
(Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me)

 

[DanS]

My system currently has 2 U320 SCSI HDDs in a RAID 1 configuration. I
am going to retire the SCSI disks and go with 2 SATA II HDDs also in a
RAID 1 configuration. The partitioning will basically be the same and
I have images of each partition using Acronis True Image.

The question is, is Vista "smart" enough to handle swapping the HDDs
and re-imaging them using Acronis? I mean the RAID controller is
different and obviously will use a different driver and the IDs of the
disks will be different so there's some figuring-out by the OS to be
done. I don't fancy doing a fresh install and spending hours getting
my system back to the way it is now - just right.

What do you think?

I think I've been looking for a U320 SCSi controller for a while now for a
15K RPM U320 drive I have. Are both of the HD's you have 15K RPM by any
chance ?

 

[Qu0ll]

I think I've been looking for a U320 SCSi controller for a while now for a
15K RPM U320 drive I have. Are both of the HD's you have 15K RPM by any
chance ?

Yes, they are.

--
And loving it,

-Q
_________________________________________________
(e-mail address removed)
(Replace the "SixFour" with numbers to email me)

 

[Alun Harford]

My system currently has 2 U320 SCSI HDDs in a RAID 1 configuration. I
am going to retire the SCSI disks and go with 2 SATA II HDDs also in a
RAID 1 configuration. The partitioning will basically be the same and I
have images of each partition using Acronis True Image.

The question is, is Vista "smart" enough to handle swapping the HDDs and
re-imaging them using Acronis? I mean the RAID controller is different
and obviously will use a different driver and the IDs of the disks will
be different so there's some figuring-out by the OS to be done. I don't
fancy doing a fresh install and spending hours getting my system back to
the way it is now - just right.

What do you think?

I don't see any reason it wouldn't work, as long as you load the drivers
*before* you swap disks (if Vista doesn't have a driver to access the
disk it resides on, it won't boot)

Alun Harford