Restoring Backup to different RAID level

I am currently using Acronis True Image Server to backup both of our servers (one is RAID1, the other RAID5) to a pair of external hard drives (drives rotated daily, one taken offsite). All images that I have created of them are fine and verified. When I took a backup set (3 different images of each server) home to test with two of my PC's, I was unable to get the restored images to boot. The Server 2003 splashscreen shows up for about a second, then a bluescreen error and the PC restarts (cannot read the error since it only displays for a fraction of a second). One of the PC's at home uses a single 60GB drive, and the other one uses a pair of SATA 80GB in RAID0. I have imaged and restored both of these systems numerous times during this process and it worked fine.

This morning I crossed my fingers and launched an image restore of the RAID1 server, which worked fine. Therefore, I conclude that my images are fine and the problem is going from one RAID level to another (or no RAID altogether). In theory, these images should work on another RAID1 or RAID5 system correct? My concern here is maintaining an offsite backup server.

 

I have no experience with RAID drives on PC's, but it could also be because the restored Win 2003 image do not contain the correct drivers for the RAID controller on your two desktop PC's.

I don't know if it is possible to 'splice' a missing driver into the restored Win 2003 install using some kind of W2K3 Recovery Console ??

 

Hello Strychnine,

I reckon you're on a mission impossible if you expect to restore a server image to a home PC. Not only are the hard drive controller drivers going to be different but also the Hardware Abstract Layer (HAL) and just about every other device driver I can think of. As they say - "you can't fit a square peg into a round hole" (unless you use a sledge hammer that is!!).

Regards

 

Yeah, I think my only option is going to be getting two systems up and running on Server 2003 and mounting my images to "restore" the databases.