chrisdc
Active Member
Here's hoping someone will benefit from my weekends labours 
The scenario: A pair of mirrored drives (Raid 1) running XP Pro and needing to be moved from a 2006 vintage MB to a 2013 model. Needless to say, when I plugged them in on the new board, Windows wouldn't boot.
Purchased Paragon's B&R 12. Used that to migrate the two raid drives onto a single new drive. Presumably the Raid structure got left behind? I don't understand this part because the new single drive booted perfectly on the old MB. Anyway B&R was supposed to be able to help me make a type of recovery disc but in practice there are several complications. Firstly, you need to download Windows WAIK - they provide the link but it's for Vista and up. Secondly, the file is 1.34GB! That would more or less flatten my data bundle for the month and I'd be extra peeved if it turned out that it won't work with my XP OS.
I tried to "prep" the drive as best I could on the old MB by uninstalling everything I could, devices, drivers etc. No matter what I did I couldn't get the drive to boot on the new MB (I particularly didn't want another Raid setup). Eventually I sort of gave up and loaded an XP disc I had for one of my other computers (not the same disc used on this drive). I was just going to delete any partitions, make new and then format. Anyway, the disc gives an early option to enter a recovery console of sorts and I played around with this for some time but still no luck. So I let it restart with a view to letting it go all the way and it got to a second point in the install where you have an opportunity to repair an installation. Maybe you only see this option if the disc detects a previously installed OS? Anyway after taking about as long as a full install, the machine finally booted to Windows and all my old software was still there and working! I did spend hours reinstalling drivers, and I had to reinstall service pack 3. I should add that when prompted for the product key, I entered the key that was used for the original installation, not the key that went with the disc I was using for the repair. Just as well because the new hardware etc prompted Win to demand reactivation. I got the usual 3 days but after installing SP3, the 3 days turned to 0 in one reboot! Anyway it reactivated and after lots of "tweaking" it's working fine.
I went through all this trouble because of the type of software on the original PC. Some of it has to be installed by third party vendors and it costs a couple of grand each time. Also the original OS disc has been lost - I only have the key. So, tomorrow the PC will be back in service and it's business as usual. No learning curve for the operator as everything's the same - just a hell of a lot faster
Conclusion: Avoid custom drive setups like Raid along with their bespoke drivers and software if you think you might need to replace you MB one day. It's just not worth the extra hassle in my opinion.
The scenario: A pair of mirrored drives (Raid 1) running XP Pro and needing to be moved from a 2006 vintage MB to a 2013 model. Needless to say, when I plugged them in on the new board, Windows wouldn't boot.
Purchased Paragon's B&R 12. Used that to migrate the two raid drives onto a single new drive. Presumably the Raid structure got left behind? I don't understand this part because the new single drive booted perfectly on the old MB. Anyway B&R was supposed to be able to help me make a type of recovery disc but in practice there are several complications. Firstly, you need to download Windows WAIK - they provide the link but it's for Vista and up. Secondly, the file is 1.34GB! That would more or less flatten my data bundle for the month and I'd be extra peeved if it turned out that it won't work with my XP OS.
I tried to "prep" the drive as best I could on the old MB by uninstalling everything I could, devices, drivers etc. No matter what I did I couldn't get the drive to boot on the new MB (I particularly didn't want another Raid setup). Eventually I sort of gave up and loaded an XP disc I had for one of my other computers (not the same disc used on this drive). I was just going to delete any partitions, make new and then format. Anyway, the disc gives an early option to enter a recovery console of sorts and I played around with this for some time but still no luck. So I let it restart with a view to letting it go all the way and it got to a second point in the install where you have an opportunity to repair an installation. Maybe you only see this option if the disc detects a previously installed OS? Anyway after taking about as long as a full install, the machine finally booted to Windows and all my old software was still there and working! I did spend hours reinstalling drivers, and I had to reinstall service pack 3. I should add that when prompted for the product key, I entered the key that was used for the original installation, not the key that went with the disc I was using for the repair. Just as well because the new hardware etc prompted Win to demand reactivation. I got the usual 3 days but after installing SP3, the 3 days turned to 0 in one reboot! Anyway it reactivated and after lots of "tweaking" it's working fine.
I went through all this trouble because of the type of software on the original PC. Some of it has to be installed by third party vendors and it costs a couple of grand each time. Also the original OS disc has been lost - I only have the key. So, tomorrow the PC will be back in service and it's business as usual. No learning curve for the operator as everything's the same - just a hell of a lot faster
Conclusion: Avoid custom drive setups like Raid along with their bespoke drivers and software if you think you might need to replace you MB one day. It's just not worth the extra hassle in my opinion.