How To: Migrating from WHS v1's Drive Extender

RogerT

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Shane,

Thanks for your reply ... good to know.

I read through this process again (more carefully this
time) along with another post from Drashna at WeGotServed. I think I've
captured what I need to do. I'll go ahead and post, then ask a few more
questions. Again, this would be to install Windows 7 + DrivePool as a
replacement for WHS v1 and to move all my data over.

Installing Win 7 + SB DrivePool:

- Write down the EXACT spellings of my WHS v1
"Shared Folders"

- Move my data off of Operating System drive in WHS v1

- Remove  data
drive HDDs

- Install Windows 7 64-bit (I will be doing this on a new
2.5" HDD)

- Add new drivers, etc

- Install SB Drivepool

- Change the DrivePool drive letter to Z:

- Install 3TB HDDs, add to drive pool (these are new bare
drives)

- Add WHS v1 DE data drive HDDs

Data Migration:

- With WHS v1 DE data drives installed, enable "Show
hidden files, folders, and drives" in Explorer for each drive

- Right-click and go to Properties, Security tab,
Advanced, open the "Owner" tab and set the owner of the
"shares" folder to "Administrators" and check the
"replace child entries" option, then OK

- Right-click and go to Properties, Security tab,
Advanced, add full privileges to "Administrators", and again,
"replace child entries", and OK

- Add each DE data drive to the SB DrivePool pool … which
creates the "DrivePool.GUID" folder on each drive

- Use Explorer to move (not copy) eachdrive:\DE\Shares to
eachdrive:\"DrivePool.GUID" folder

- Rename the "shares" folder to
"ServerFolders" (see Q below)

- Move the shares to the locations in the storage pool
(see Q below)

- After moving the Shares folder out of each drive,
delete the old WHSv1 DE folders

- Repeat for rest of drives, check data to ensure copied

- Run the "check consistency" or wait till
night to verify all the files and check duplication

Just a few questions:

- When preparing for the transition from WHS v1 to Win7 +
SB DrivePool, do I need to shut off folder duplication in WHS v1?

- Do I need to install one fresh HDD for the pool first,
then copy all the files from the first DE data drive before reformatting it and
adding it back to the pool as a fresh drive? Or will all the HDDs simply stay
installed as the data is migrated into the pool?

- Where will I find eachdrive:\"DrivePool.GUID"
folder when moving the files from the DE share folders on each drive into the
pool?

- What are the “shares” folder that I am re-naming to the
“ServerFolders”?

- What does it mean to “Move the shares to the locations
in the storage pool”?

Sorry if I am missing things ... and as always thanks a
ton for your help. -- RogerT

RogerT

 Not sure what's up with the formatting, I keep trying to fix to no avail.

Shane

Looks like you've pasted it from an MS Office document? Try re-pasting as plaintext (if your browser doesn't offer plaintext paste, try pasting into notepad first then copy-paste the result into your browser)? The post formatting bar also offers a "Remove Formatting" button (looks like a T followed with a red subscript x; highlight the offending text before clicking).

Shane

You're welcome.

A1: No, you don't need to shut off folder duplication.

A2: You can just leave the drives installed as part of the pool, there is no need to reformat them (unless you're wanting to take advantage of GPT or something like that)

A3: It is PoolPart.GUID - not DrivePool.GUID - and they are root folders (with the "hidden" attribute set) on each pooled drive.

A4: Why are you renaming the Shares folder to ServerFolders? This would be problematic on a WHS 2011 system with a pooled "D:" drive and irrelevant on a Windows 7 system.

A5: I don't know where "Move the shares to the locations in the storage pool" comes from; is that from the post at WeGotServed that you mention reading?

Please also note that my guide was written for migrating to WHS 2011, not to Windows 7; the concept remains similar but the specifics vary slightly (for example, with Windows 7 you can add the system drive to the pool and there is no ServerFolders structure).

RogerT

Again, many thanks for your guidance. I’ve updated the process below. I had previously combined your process with Drashna’s at WeGotServed, which created the confusion. My bad. Hopefully it is complete & accurate now. BTW, I will keep the system/OS drive out of the pool. Once the installation is complete and stable, I will have a spare 2.5 OS drive (with the old WHS v1 files on it) that I will use to create a second pool for system drive only. Basically it will be system drive redundancy.

A few questions:

- It sounds as though I just leave my DE Data Drives intact as I install Windows 7 on the new OS drive, sound right? If not, do I just disconnect during Win7 install, then reconnect after?
- This is sort of off-topic, but when installing Windows 7 64-bit (which is supported by my Supermicro X7SBL MB), will GPT be naturally supported on new Data Drives such as the 3TB drives I will be adding? This is one of the main reasons I’ve moving off WHS v1.

Installing Win 7 + SB DrivePool:

- Write down the EXACT spellings of my WHS v1 "Shared Folders"

- Move my data off of Operating System drive in WHS v1
- Install Windows 7 64-bit (I will be doing this on a new 2.5" HDD)

- Add new drivers, etc

- Install SB DrivePool

- Change the DrivePool drive letter to Z:

- Install 3TB HDDs, add to drive pool (these are new bare drives)



Data Migration:

- With WHS v1 DE data drives installed, enable "Show hidden files, folders, and drives" in Explorer for each drive

- Right-click and go to Properties, Security tab, Advanced, open the "Owner" tab and set the owner of the "shares" folder to "Administrators" and check the "replace child entries" option, then OK

- Right-click and go to Properties, Security tab, Advanced, add full privileges to "Administrators", and again, "replace child entries", and OK

- Add each DE data drive to the SB DrivePool pool … which creates the "DrivePool.GUID" folder on each drive

- Use Explorer to move (not copy) eachdrive:\DE\Shares to eachdrive:\" PoolPart.GUID " folder

- Repeat for rest of drives, check data to ensure copied

- After moving the Shares folder out of each drive, delete the old WHSv1 DE folders

- Run the "check consistency" or wait till night to verify all the files and check duplication



PS - Let me know when you come to San Jose and I’ll buy you a beer.

Cheers - RogerT

Shane

Windows 7 allows you to choose your system drive during installation, so there is no need to disconnect the data drives - unless the system disk is the same brand/model as the data disks and/or you're worried you'll accidentally pick the wrong one - but I'd disconnect them anyway.

Windows 7 supports GPT (except on the OS disk), however the choice of MBR vs GPT is normally made when initialising an unformatted disk. If a disk has already been initialised as MBR, Disk Management can be used to remove all existing partitions and then convert the disk to GPT - which is obviously problematic if you've already got data on it.

There are third-party tools that can convert disks without having to reformat them but I've never used them and I wouldn't trust them without prior testing on disks I didn't care about.

So if you've a bunch of MBR disks that you want to convert and all you've got is Disk Management, you may have to do a lot of backing up / converting / restoring or whatever juggling algorithm works best for you.

The rest looks good.

And thanks, while it's a long drive to San Jose from here (over seven thousand miles) the thought counts.