Restoring Image To SCSI Ultra 3 Hard Drive

I am hoping someone can shed some light on this issue

Here is my problem.

I have two 36 GB SCSI drives that are software mirrored under Windows Small Business Server 2003. I am running low on disk space so I did an image backup of the C: drive on that machine.

I can restore that image to an IDE SATA Hard Drive and have it boot up fine with no issues. When I attemp to do the exact same thing using a SCSI drive to restore the image to, Windows 2003 gets to the Windows 2003 screen and then reboots. The only difference is the drives. SATA will work the SCSI drive will not!

I use the same process fo restoring the image to both drives.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.....

Thanks.

Mark Lasky

 

If you are trying to boot from the SCSI drive, at a minimum, you will need to go into the BIOS and change the boot order of the drives so the SCSI drive is seen before the IDE drive,

 

Thanks for your reply. I did check the bios and the SCSI drive is the boot drive. In fact after I restore the image to that SCSI drive it is the only hard drive in the system.

The weird thing is if I restore the image to a SATA drive and then boot off of that drive windows loads and everything is cool.

When I restore the same image to the SCSI drive and boot off that drive windows starts to load and then bombs.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I know it has something to do with the SCSI drive. Also I know the SCSI drive is good because I installed a fresh copy of windows 2003 server on it and it boots fine.

 

If you put the image on BOTH a SATA and SCSI drive, which boots?

 

I never leave both drives in the machine at the same time.

Here is what I did...

Restore image to SCSI drive. Boot from SCSI Drive. Windows starts to boot and then bombs.


Restore image to SATA drive. Boot from SATA Drive. Windows boots fine.

The problem is not the boot order of the drives or the BIOS. It has something to do with restoring that image to a SCSI drive.


Mark

 

OK, then the problem is likely with the drive signatures.
Those change any time you reformat a drive, so there's likely some confusion in the registry.

 

Thanks for you help Howard.

Do you think this is fixable. Should I contact Acronis for help?

Thanks again.

Mark

 

My experience has been the following.

I NEVER would use ANY program to ALLEGEDLY "CLONE" a drive.

I always manually format and partition drives and RESTORE files, not drives.
I do not want the backup program trying to outsmart itself.

MSFT has a KB article on how to move an OS to another drive.
If you can get back to square 1, I'd start with that article.
The article is titled "How to Move a Windows 2000 Installation to Different Hardware" and is KB number 249694.

Also, tho I've never read the article, you may want to look at http://www.nic.fi/~point/win2copy.htm.

 

Hello Mark Lasky,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Server Disk Backup Software.

Please accept our apologies for the delay with the response.

We recommend that you try preparing Windows for transferring using Microsoft System Preparation Tool (sysprep) as it is described in this FAQ article, create new image then, turn off the computer, swap the hard drives, boot the computer from Bootable Rescue CD, restore the image of the prepared operating system to the SCSI hard drive having the issue and see if the problem still persists.

If the problem still persists and the restored operating system still does not boot then please provide us with the following information:

- What exact version and build number of Acronis True Image do you use?

You can find the full version name and build number by going to Help -> About... menu in the main program window.

- Did you restore the entire hard drive image or system partition only?

- Where do you store your images?

- Clarify whether you restored an image to the same SCSI hard drive it was originally taken from or to a replacement disk;

Please also create Acronis Report in the way described below:

- Download and run Acronis Report Utility;

- Select the "Create Bootable Floppy" option;

- Insert a blank floppy disk in the A: drive and proceed with creation of the bootable floppy;

- Boot the computer having the issue from this diskette and wait for report creation process to finish;

- Collect the report file from the floppy.

Please keep the non-bootable SCSI hard drive connected while creating Acronis Report just as if you were going to boot from it.

Please submit a request for technical support. Provide all the files and information collected in your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

Hello Mark,

From what I can gather, you're restoring an image of your SATA system drive to single replacement SCSI drive. Was the new SCSI drive connected and its drivers loaded when you created the backup image? If not, you may need to carry out a Windows repair re-install (inplace upgrade) after the restoring the image in order to get the new drivers loaded.

Also, it's not clear to me whether this new SCSI drive is an addition to, or a replacement for, the two mirrored SCSIs. if the latter then maybe the problem is that the backup image was created whilst the SCSI drives were configured as a mirror RAID in software and Windows gets confused when it can't find a second SCSI drive needed to re-establish the RAID? If that's the case then it might be worth trying the following (keep your current image to fall back on in case things go wrong!):

- Break the software RAID mirror, disconnect one of the SCSI drives and then create a new image.
- Restore the new image to the single replacement SCSI and see if Windows boots correctly.

Obviously, none of the above makes any sense if the original mirrored SCSIs are not being touched .

Regards

 

Also, drive letter assignments may be different for the SATA and SCSI drives.
Might have to modify BIOS settings on boot order, etc.

If you cannot get the SATA drive to use the same drive letter as the sCSI drive, ferget about it!.

I once "cloned" a Win 2000 drive to another drive, but the required registry edits, etc. were overwhelming. I got away with it, but NEVER again.

 

What Menorcaman said...

Menorcaman has the correct solution. My experience as follows:

I find that allowing the OS to see the new drives first before creating the image is the best way to go.
Install new SCSI drive, allow windows to see the new hardware - now create image. Restore to new drive, leaving it to be the only drive in the system on first boot.
Good luck to you.

 

I see you guys don't read posts correctly. Please read it again and then post your reply . Anyway, I have similar problem with linux. I want to upgrade old ide server to the new one scsi320. I reinstalled GRUB loader on imaged scsi drive and it identifies os just fine. However, it crashes when kernel loads up. I don't have an output available at this moment, but the error mentioned something about missing files. I have a feeling all partitions are dislocated... Is there anyone with similar problems? Any solutions?? I tried different things like dismounting the mirror (hardware based); restoring to single drive; using different drives; restoring by disk and by partition... I also tried restoring to ide drive on scsi server (worked OK), then took new image of ide drive and restored it to scsi... still no good

Thx