Can you re-install WHS 120-day trial multiple times?

[VirtualLarry]

I'm not talking about installing it multiple times such that your trial period gets extended (although that would be helpful if possible).

I'm talking about installing it multiple times DURING your 120-day trial period.

The reason I'm curious about this, is disaster recovery. I want to test re-installing the WHS system drive, with data on the data disks. I want to know how this works.

Specifically, I want to use some Syba 4-port PCI SATA cards.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815124020
They use the SI3114 chipset, and have drivers/BIOS for both RAID and IDE mode. I would be using IDE mode.

The question is, when you rebuild the system drive and re-install the OS, does it scan the data drives (all of them) at first, which would mean that I would have to provide the drivers for the SI3114 card(s) during the re-install on a floppy disk, or can you get the system drive installed, and then choose to import previous data drives into the WHS at a later time?

A similar question - can you take a data drive from one WHS, and physically remove it from a failed WHS, and then install it into a new WHS computer, and have it import the data without having to wipe the drive?

 

[RebateMonger]

You can "re-install" WHS on top of a previous installation. It doesn't make any difference whether it's the 120-day trial or the full version. I've alternated back and forth on the same WHS server. You keep your shared folders and your backup database, but any User accounts or IIS customizations are lost (not deleted, but not "attached" to the new IIS install).

But you can't re-use a 120-day Trial Key. Once you Activate the Key online, it's gone forever.

The data disks from a WHS can be "removed" (via the WHS Management Console) and moved to any computer that can read NTFS disks. You could "Add" such a disk to a different WHS as a "non-Storage-Pool" disk and read the files, too. But if you want the files added back to the "file index" of WHS, you'd need to copy those files to a WHS Shared Folder. Once the files have been moved into WHS folders, you could now add that disk to the Storage Pool, reformatting that disk in the process.

Regarding a System disk replacement, yes, after the System is reinstalled, it'll scan for WHS data disks and reindex the files in the Drive Extender. That can take a while if you have a lot of data, but it's fully automatic. You won't have access to the files until the scan is complete. In a disk replacement case, you'll lose your client PC backup database unless you've backed up its folder elsewhere. I've moved my client PC backups from one WHS to another to another without losing any backups.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Regarding a System disk replacement, yes, after the System is reinstalled, it'll scan for WHS data disks and reindex the files in the Drive Extender. That can take a while if you have a lot of data, but it's fully automatic. You won't have access to the files until the scan is complete. In a disk replacement case, you'll lose your client PC backup database unless you've backed up its folder elsewhere. I've moved my client PC backups from one WHS to another to another without losing any backups.

So all of the data disks have to be online when re-installing the system disk? It's not possible to scan some of the data disks, and then later on re-install the driver for an add-in SATA card, and then re-scan those data disks and re-import them?

 

[RebateMonger]

So all of the data disks have to be online when re-installing the system disk? It's not possible to scan some of the data disks, and then later on re-install the driver for an add-in SATA card, and then re-scan those data disks and re-import them?

When WHS is re-installed it'll scan for disks and index the files it finds. Any disk attached later can only be added as a non-storage-pool disk or can be added to the storage pool, but that will reformat the disk.