Clonning SBS2003 Dynamic HDD

[stcs05mcs]

Hello and thanks for reading.

I have been trying to clone a server hdd for a client without success. I have done this for other clients without any issues. I have tried multiple versions of Acronis and Ghost and they all behave exactly the same. The cloning phase completes successfully and I replace the older hdd with the new one. The server boots right up to the point where the "boot screen" changes into the "logon screen" and then it reboots.

Most things about this server are no different than the other servers I have cloned in the past for clients. Details are:

1) The server is Windows SBS 2003 with service packs and updates in place.
2) 2x SATA II Seagate drives setup as dynamic drives being mirrored. I have broken the mirror before trying to do the clone. I have also tried leaving it intact. Same issue.
3) Trend Micro Worry-Free security which I have tried disabling before the clone.
4) Symantec Backup exec 10d. I have tried disabling this but have the same issue.I have thought to try uninstalling completely since this is the only situation where this product has been installed and I have had trouble.
5) MS Exchange installed with all updates.
6) This is a simple file server not much else going on

I have ran hardware tests such as memtest and swapped memory just in case even though they have had no issues.

This is an upgrade deal only. The drives are not currently failing they are just running out of room. I have ran diagnostics on the drives and they do pass. I also ran diag on the new ones.

I tried cloning using a completely different system. Same.

One last thing I tried was booting the mirror drive and it fails the same way as the clones do. Reboots as soon as the boot screen finishes. (So I guess the mirror really isn't doing too much good other than another data backup)

I am running out of ideas and I really hate to do a reload of the server when everything else "seems" to be fine.

Thanks

 

[MobileTechie]

There are issues with cloning dynamic disks. Have you been using the enterprise version of Acronis that can deal with dynamic disks?

If it is because of the dynamic disk, you could convert it to basic and then clone it and convert it back again.

 

[kagman]

Try using drivesnapshot. It clones dynamic disks. Try that and see if works for you. They have a full working 30 day trial that you can use. The website is http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/

 

[onetech4all]

Re:

I thought that turning a hard drive with info from dynamic into basic would require the hard drive to be formatted.
If you do it, make sure you got a backup first. Play it safe, things can always go wrong.

 

[purple_minion]

http://www.articlesbase.com/operati...-basic-disk-without-loss-of-data-1215239.html

I haven't tried it, but it sounds like you delete the dynamic disk to clear the database and then manually change the partition.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_Disk_Manager#Basic_volumes_and_dynamic_volumes

 

[onetech4all]

Re:

Sound risky. I'd have a good backup of the stuff anyways.

 

[stcs05mcs]

I have tried the enterprise version of Acronis which usually works quite well for me.

I will give drivesnapshot a try.

I am pretty sure when you convert dynamic to basic you loose everything. At least within disk management. I am sure there is some type of third party utility that may do this, but considering I can't get a working backup I'm not going to try. However if it comes down to a reload then hey why not I will look into it.

Thanks for the responses. I will be giving it another shot Friday night.

 

[stcs05mcs]

Sorry Purple_minion missed your post. Thanks for the link. If it comes down to it I will give it a shot.

 

[purple_minion]

Sorry Purple_minion missed your post. Thanks for the link. If it comes down to it I will give it a shot.

Make sure you image it just in case, goes without saying.

 

[stcs05mcs]

Tonight didn't work so well although I do have some more information to add. I did try uninstalling Backup Exec which didn't help, but they don't need it anyway.

As far as I was able to get was to the login. I logged in once but never got any icons or anything on the desktop. I did get an error after "applying settings" started that was an "lsass.exe - System Error" "Object name already exists". The only option is to hit ok and once you do the system reboots. I have searched google a little and found some things to try.

The strange part is; unless the original hard drive is physically installed in the machine it will never go past the windows boot screen. You can turn the drive off in the BIOS, but both the SATA cable and the power cable must be plugged into the drive. And it has to be the original drive that SBS was first installed on. At this point I don't care that the original drive is connected but I don't see why.

I will work on it tomorrow and I will try that Dynamic converter.

If anyone has any ideas please let me know.

Thanks

 

[stcs05mcs]

Finally it is now fixed! I don't know why this has been such a problem and I could have sworn I tried this a couple of weeks ago but anyway.

I normally use a boot cd to create images and clones; just used to it that way. I created an image file of the main drive using acronis in windows to an ext drive. Then I booted from the acronis boot cd and restored the partitions from the image to the new hard drive and it worked perfect. No lsass.exe errors and I dont have to leave the original drive installed either.

In the past I have always cloned and created images using the boot cd. For whatever reason this server didn't like it that way. Whatever I'm just glad it's over.

Thanks to everyone who read and thanks for the responses. much appreciated!