How do I recover after a system drive failure?

rvc

Simple system.

One IDE 500GB system drive.  2 partitions. C is the system.  second partition is unassigned.

15 Sata Data drives.  Pooled as one drive (D). No duplication.

No other drive assignments. Just 2.  C and D.

Ran perfectly until the system drive smoked...literally.

No reason exists to think that the sata drive assembly was affected since it was offline when the system drive failed.

2008R2/WHS2011 will not allow a full system restoration to a drive size smaller than the drive that was originally backed up.

I intend to replace the failed drive with a small 64GB SSD.

That mandates a new install.

Can anyone tell me EXACTLY how to proceed so as to recover my multiple drive D pool with it's data intact?

Thank you

Philmatic

I went through this exact same issue, luckily it's as simple as:

1. Disconnect your data drives
2. Reinstall WHS on your new system drive
3. Install DrivePool (Preferably the same build you had before)
4. Shut down, reconnect everything and turn the computer back on

DrivePool will see everything as if you never lost your OS drive.

Philmatic

Oh, another tip... when you restore everything, if there's anything you need to recover from your old installation. Look inside the server backup disk, there's tons of files, but look for the largest .VHD file, that file is an image of your old C:\ drive.

Mount it (Using disk management), and you will have have complete access to your old system, recover whatever files you need. I used that trick to recover my MySQL database backup and a few important files that were on the Desktop.

rvc

Thank you Philmatic.

You indicate "Install DrivePool".

Will DrivePool reinstall using the original installation key or do you have to communicate with Covecube to reset it?

I am sorry, but I am simply a user. I do not know where the "server backup disk" is located.

Thanks again Phil!

Philmatic

You will have to coordinate with Alex to reset the license. It'll use the same activation key, he'll just deleted the stored install on his end. I did this and it worked fine, he responded within a hour. Worst case is that you can activate it as a trial and still get all your data back then take care of the licensing later.

Finding the server backup disk is somewhat straight forward, you can find more information here, but the way it works is that you find the server backup disk in the list of disks, assign it a drive letter and navigate to it as you would any disk.

dbailey75

Ok, I'm cotinuing my testing, and have just installed WHS fresh from the original disc, installed drive pool, and then reinstalled my pool disc.  how do I remap the pooled folders such that they show backup in the dasboard?  I guess I can cheat and delete the default folders and then remap to the pool, but I've added other folders.

 

A reinstall works great from a backupimage of a previous state of drivepool, but fresh install of WHS, I'm scratching my head here.  The data on the drive is there, but on the pool drive tab, it show that there are no folders in the pool.

 Update:

OK, I found part of the answer here, http://forum.covecube.com/discussion/343/help-no-access-on-shared-folder-after-migration-from-m3-to-m4/p1, was able to follow the instructions and add back the folders I created, and for the default, I just deleted them from the d drive, and remapped them, not the ideal method, but it works, all is good

rvc

If you have a system drive failure DON"T do steps 1 thru 4 as indicated above.

I did, and I lost 15 - 2tb drives full of movies.

The process turned the entire folder/drive stucture into a mess.

Back up your data because you can plan on loosing it if you sustain a hardware failure.

 

rvc

Whatever you do, DON'T do this.

It has caused a collosal mess.

Philmatic

What exactly happened? I did exactly what I suggested you do and I didn't loose anything. In fact I didn't even have to migrate my pooled drives, DrivePool saw them as if they never left.