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View Full Version : Spanned Drives and OS reinstall

nitrobass24
07-26-2006, 05:54 PM
I am running a file server with a 20gb ide drive to host the operating system, and a couple of programs, and i have two 400gb sata drives that i spanned and formatted to create a single 745gb volume. I have had some corruption occur within my os due to virus/spyware and i need to format my 20gb drive and I plan to install a different OS(smallbusinessserver2003R2) If i do this will i lose the info on my spanned drives or will the computer still recognize them as spanned.
drizzt81
07-26-2006, 06:01 PM
Provided that the filesystem was not damaged:
If the SATA drives are dynamic disks and created with windows, there is a good chance that SBS will recognize them.
If the spanning was done through a "controller" of some sorts, you will be able to access the data provided that there is a driver for your OS.
nitrobass24
07-26-2006, 06:03 PM
They are dynamic disc that i spanned with windows. "Good Chance" doesnt really make me feel all that comfortable.
drizzt81
07-26-2006, 06:12 PM
ok, when I say good chance I mean "most likely". I have the habit of not making definite statements, since someone is bound to come along and prove me wrong. I do not remember ever having a problem moving my own dynamic disks, BUT I remember hearing reports of some people having trouble with a dynamic disk not being recognized anymore. I do not remember the exact circumstances. With that in mind, I decided to answer your question vaguely.

In the end, I am trying to manage expectations. If I said "It'll surely work" and it does not, would you not be utterly pissed at me? Addiitonally, I know little about how the data corruption happend and whether or not your drives were fried during that process.

So, let me make a more definite answer:
If your drives are not fried, the FS is still intact and the dynamic disk data did not get corrupted, there is a very good (99+%) chance that you will have no problems accessing the data once you have "imported/ activated" the dynamic disks, given that you ensure that they are both connected during the import/ activation process.

How about that?