How clone, add new hard drive to Compaq Server?

[Pcumming]

I have used Acronis True Image (Home version) for a good number of years. Great product for home use. I know nothing about servers.

I recently was asked to help a friend out who has a server
HP Proliant ML310. A few years old. No documentation or Invoice listing what is in it. Not sure if it is basic model or G2,3,4,5. Have service tag# but do not think HP has service tag lookup like Dell does.

Running Windows Sever 2003. It has 2 drives in it. First is an 80gb drive with 2 partitions. Second drive is a 1tb drive that is connected to an external Raid device via SATA cables.

We Want to replace primary drive with a larger drive due to their running out of space on the stock 80gb drive.

I doubt it is a hot swappable drive-we have to take a look) therefore perhaps we can replace with an off the shelf (Newegg, BestBuy, etc..) SATA 250gb drive,
****Can we do this if it is not hot swappable drive??.

****I may have to hire someone, but in general what is the best way to backup the 80gb drive (with 2 partitions) and restore them to a 250gb drive so that I can replace the current drive and boot from the new one and have the server come up okay??

I assume I need Acronis True Image Echo for Windows Server ($699. I also assume I cannot take out and clone the disk via USB in a Windows XP machine using True Image home).
2***Can I connect a 250gb off the shelf SATA drive that I put in an external USB case to the server and back up the 2 partitions on the first internal drive to the new drive (connected via USB just for cloning) to perhaps a 3rd partition I create
Then I would restore from the 3rd partition to 2 partitions (2 restores)

Am trying to pick the easiest way to backup and restore to a different drive without adding another drive internally to the system.

I know nothing about server partitions and if they are EISA are just NTFS, etc... Not sure about servers. My friend knows about managing servers but not the hardware part.

Thanks
PC

 

[burtsbees]

Windows 2003 Server is NTFS. Why not just image it (Norton Ghost, Acronis) to the 1TB drive, get the new drive in, and image it back to the new drive?
We need to know what generation it is to tell whether or not the drives are hot swap. You can get an idea with the PID and serial number and input them on HP.com

Burt

 

[Pcumming]

Good idea, duh.... How dumb of me.
Will get serial # and look at unit as well

Thanks
Peter

 

[Pcumming]

Another quick 2 questions:

I assume Windows Server 2003 is somewhat like the home (XP/Vista) version in terms of interface (screens). So since Drive C (bootable drive is split into 2 partitions (one hidden EISA with recovery data), I assume I would backup Drive C and D at same time to the 1b drive.
Then shut down server, boot with recovery CD and restore from 1tb drive to the new drive.
***Correct?

***Since the new drive is larger, do I have to allocate the extra space manually after server reboots? If so, I assume that Win 2003 comes with such a tool under Disk Management.
Comments?

***Lastly the 1tb drive is connected to an external raid array. I will need to shut off the raid so that it does not copy the Acronis tib files to the raid array. How do I shut off the raid services, or do I just shut it down via power switch on raid box or rack?

Thanks
Peter

 

[burtsbees]

You have the process correct. An EISA bus tells me it's a G1.
You can partition the new drive into 3 partitions---two for what exists now and a third for free space. If you don't, Acronis should do this, and Disk Manglement will not pop the wizard up for Disk Initialization.
Your 1TB drive is not an array---it's a single JBOD...that makes no sense...
it's a single disk, so it cannot be in an array. When you say "shut off the RAID", what do you mean? A single disk simply CANNOT be in a RAID...

Burt

 

[Pcumming]

Thanks. As I mentioned the internal disk is a single 1tb disk. The server is connected via SATA cables I was told to an external raid box. This is raid for the internal 1tb disk. In case the 1tb fails or something.

So my question is how do I disable the Raid?

Thanks again for all of your kind help
Peter

 

[burtsbees]

You don't need to. The 1TB drive is not part of any RAID...your friend is saying that the server has a RAID array attached to a RAID controller for backup---this does not come into play at all.

Burt

 

[blister911]

Peter,
If I understand you correctly, you saying the internal drive (1TB) is mirrored (RAID 1) to the exteranl drive (1TB). If that is true then you need to "break" the mirror before attempting the image process or you will lose all the data on the 1TB drives. Once the entire image/replace drive process is finished, you can re-establish the mirror. However, you need to be extremely careful that you set correct drive as your "master". (ie. If you image to the external drive, then the internal would be the master when you re-establish the mirror, because it has the good data.)

If your internal drive is striped to the external (RAID 0), which I would hope is not the case, you may want to take another look at what you want to do to accomplish the drive upgrade.

Regardless, make sure you have a good backup prior to starting this process.

 

[Pcumming]

Thanks blister.
What if I (have not seen configuration) just shut off the external raid array after establishing that no one is on the system. This holds picture files (photo studio).

Might be safer than perhaps breaking the mirror and re-establish. But just in case, how do I do that.

Drive 1 is the 1tb internal drive
Drive 0 is of course the boot drive.

Thanks
Peter

 

[burtsbees]

Running Windows Sever 2003. It has 2 drives in it. First is an 80gb drive with 2 partitions. Second drive is a 1tb drive that is connected to an external Raid device via SATA cables."

How many PHYSICAL drives are there altogether right now installed in the system, internal AND external?

I have never heard of anyone doing a no RAID on the OS but a RAID on the data drives...confusing...

Burt

 

[blister911]

I agree with Burt. We really need to know the exact configuration of your hardware. Along with physical drives and locations (internal/external), if you could include any RAID levels that are set. We will give you the best advice we can, but it is limited to our understanding of your environment.

 

[Pcumming]

Okay, I thought I covered this but.
2 Physical drives internally 80gb and 1 TB in the server.
Via external SATA cables a box of raid drives to mirror the 1tb drive which has photos on them that the photography studio manipulates.

NO backup of OS currently (80gb drive they want to replace with larger one) but they do want another server (in case this crashes) and do want a physical backup of the 80gb drive at some point.
Thanks so much

Sincerely
Peter

 

[blister911]

Peter,
Please don't get frustrated with us. Some of the information you are giving is a bit confusing.

I understand you have 3 drives.

2 Physical drives internally 80gb and 1 TB in the server

Is that what you really meant? Two internally to where? Did you mean 2 internally to the server and 1 externally in an array chassis?

Thanks.

 

[Pcumming]

Not frustrated, I certainly appreciate all the help. I am the dope here who has been asked to do something I know little about. I respect all of your help and above all patience.

Yes I did mean 2 Physical drives internally 80gb and 1 TB in the server. External array of raid drives connected via SATA to mirror the 1tb.
Hope that helps.
Thanks all!!
Peter

 

[burtsbees]

What drives are physically in the external array? Usually to mirror a drive, you need the same size drive (or should, unless all you have is a bigger one)...
Please tell us what exactly this array is---what manufacturer, is it a box full of drives, is it one 1TB drive?

Burt

 

[Pcumming]

I have been trying to find out about the array myself.
Will do so soon. I am pretty sure there are 4 250gb drives.
Thanks
Peter

 

[burtsbees]

Yes, please find out for sure---four 250GB drives can only back up a 1TB drive if they are in a RAID0. That is not very smart---if one of those drives fail in the array, bye bye data. Just FYI.
Also, that would mean that the 1TB drive has NOTHING to do with the external array---it cannot be mirrored to it.

Burt

 

[Pcumming]

This is what I found out..
Server has one internal 1tb drive for data as mentioned. There is an external drive array made by Lacie.
There are 4 SATA cables connected to the 4 hard drives of the "Lacie" 1tb each mirroring the 1tb of data.

Does not make a lot of sense to me but hope it helps you to help me as you have so patiently been trying

Thanks
Peter

 

[Pcumming]

Found out they reallyhave Windows Small Business Server if that makes a difference.

Thanks
Peter

 

[burtsbees]

There are 4 SATA cables connected to the 4 hard drives of the "Lacie" 1tb each mirroring the 1tb of data."
So...four 1TB drives, or four 250GB drives? Each drive cannot mirror 1TB if they are only 250GB.
At any rate, that does not matter. You're replacing the 80GB drive, correct? Clone/image this drive and put the image onto the 1TB drive (not the array), and install the new drive. You will have to somehow have Acronis running on a different system to reimage the new drive with the image of the 80GB drive.
I will say this---if there are four 250GB drives backing up the 1TB drive, then the only way to get all 1TB is to have the four drives in a RAID0, which is not very smart at all.

Burt