I have a guy on site trying to replace a hard disk in a server (W2003); simple job: shut the server down and image it to a new disk, boot from new disk, walk away.
Except it turns out not to be a single disk, it's two disks using Windows dynamic RAID which I know nothing about, but his imaging software doesn't handle it (Acronis).
Anyone have any experience of imaging these disks using any of the various Linux options? Ideally I'm looking for something that'll be a small download as he only has limited Internet, and it would be even better if he can boot it from a USB thumb drive as he doesn't have a blank CD with him, although he can probably scrounge one from someone if he has to.
On 1 July 2011 15:11, Mark Rogers mark@quarella.co.uk wrote:
I have a guy on site trying to replace a hard disk in a server (W2003); simple job: shut the server down and image it to a new disk, boot from new disk, walk away.
Except it turns out not to be a single disk, it's two disks using Windows dynamic RAID which I know nothing about, but his imaging software doesn't handle it (Acronis).
Anyone have any experience of imaging these disks using any of the various Linux options? Ideally I'm looking for something that'll be a small download as he only has limited Internet, and it would be even better if he can boot it from a USB thumb drive as he doesn't have a blank CD with him, although he can probably scrounge one from someone if he has to.
One word: ntfsclone (http://linux.die.net/man/8/ntfsclone).
Regards,
Martyn
On 01/07/11 15:18, Martyn Drake wrote:
One word: ntfsclone (http://linux.die.net/man/8/ntfsclone).
I couldn't find anything to suggest it handles dynamic disks, and this thread suggests it doesn't: http://osdir.com/ml/linux.file-systems.ntfs.devel/2006-10/msg00011.html
On 1 July 2011 15:25, Mark Rogers mark@quarella.co.uk wrote:
I couldn't find anything to suggest it handles dynamic disks, and this thread suggests it doesn't: http://osdir.com/ml/linux.file-systems.ntfs.devel/2006-10/msg00011.html
Hmm. Good point. We use ntfsclone extensively for our virtual and dedicated server Windows set-ups, but we always clone Basic disks and convert to Dynamic after the imaging finishes. I was under the impression ntfsclone didn't give a flying monkie's about the type of disk - that it just saw the underlying NTFS filesystem and stored that. Clearly I was wrong. I shall now flail myself with a copy of this Windows 2008 Training book.
Martyn
On 01/07/11 15:37, Martyn Drake wrote:
Hmm. Good point. We use ntfsclone extensively for our virtual and dedicated server Windows set-ups, but we always clone Basic disks and convert to Dynamic after the imaging finishes. I was under the impression ntfsclone didn't give a flying monkie's about the type of disk - that it just saw the underlying NTFS filesystem and stored that. Clearly I was wrong. I shall now flail myself with a copy of this Windows 2008 Training book.
Just reading the book will be punishment enough :-)
On 01/07/11 15:11, Mark Rogers wrote:
I have a guy on site trying to replace a hard disk in a server (W2003); simple job: shut the server down and image it to a new disk, boot from new disk, walk away.
Except it turns out not to be a single disk, it's two disks using Windows dynamic RAID which I know nothing about, but his imaging software doesn't handle it (Acronis).
ISTR that there are some Windows tools (maybe in the resource kit) that allow you to dump the NTFS image from a spanned dynamic disk and then reapply it somewhere else. But to do this I think you need either another instance of the same OS or enough space on your disk controller to accommodate both the old and new disks.
Otherwise a straight bit for bit copy of both members would work unless you want to resize the volumes or combine into one bigger one. I am not sure if the linux tools (or any tools for that matter) support resizing of dynamic disks but felt sure that bit was possible from the Windows disk mangler itself.
On 01/07/11 18:29, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
ISTR that there are some Windows tools (maybe in the resource kit) that allow you to dump the NTFS image from a spanned dynamic disk and then reapply it somewhere else. But to do this I think you need either another instance of the same OS or enough space on your disk controller to accommodate both the old and new disks.
In the end we used a trial version of R-Drive Image (http://www.drive-image.com/) from within Windows. I'm not 100% happy that it's worked correctly but it's a lot closer than we were without it. If it still seems to be working on Monday I'll buy the licence and add it to my toolbag for future.
I'd be happier with a FOSS solution, but R-Drive Image was a 12MB download and ran from within the OS so I didn't have to find a CD.
It never does any harm to be reminded how fragile the Windows filesystem is though; we had half a dozen attempts that wouldn't boot and there really isn't much you can do without starting again!
On 01/07/11 20:08, Mark Rogers wrote:
It never does any harm to be reminded how fragile the Windows filesystem is though; we had half a dozen attempts that wouldn't boot and there really isn't much you can do without starting again!
NTFS itself is fairly robust but I never liked the Dynamic Disk partitioning for this reason..if you get to the point you can't boot then it can leave you really in the S**t. Notwithstanding the fact that the span mode divides your MTTF by the number of disks you add.
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Mark Rogers -
Martyn Drake -
Wayne Stallwood