Dummy's upgrade from WHS to WHS 2011

[jrahlers]

Hi,

Could someone advise on where a relatively simple / practical explanation is given to perform an "in-place" upgrade from a current WHS installation to a new WHS 2011 installation with the minimum use of additional hardware / storage space?

I built a "future proof" (!?) WHS setup some time ago (64-bit processor; sufficient RAM; SATA II) to be "ready for WHS 2011". A simple "in-place" upgrade is not supported by Microsoft, but I am sure that some smart Windows Secrets reader must already have figured out a practical and relatively simple way of accomplishing this feat? (Without backing everything on WHS up first - i.e. doubling up on server storage space. I am prepared to take some reasonable risk...)

Thank you!
Johann Ahlers

[JoeP517]

You can't perform an inplace upgrade to WHS 2011. Because the drive extender functionality was removed from WHS 2011 you must perform a clean install. The other issue is that WHS v1 is X86 and WHS 2011 is X64. There is no upgrade path from X86 to X64 in any Microsoft OS. That always requires a clean install.

See How to upgrade to WHS 2011 for more details.

Joe

[jrahlers]

Thank you, Joe. I think I used the wrong terminology and expressed myself poorly.

I want to upgrade my current WHS using the existing (and sufficiently capable) hardware to WHS2011. In the process I would preferable like to "dismount" (or something equivalent) the existing hard drives from WHS; perform the OS upgrade to WHS2011; and then "import" the drives into WHS2011, if at all possible.

Has anyone got advice on the most expedient route?

Thank you in advance.
Johann

[JoeP517]

You can NOT dismount the drives and then import the drives because the drive extender and folder duplication technologies do not exist in WHS 2011. If you wish to use the same hardware with WHS 2011 you'll need to copy the data to an external drive or another PC then restore it after the install. I'm not sure if it is required but I'd format each of the drives before using with WHS2011.

I realize that is a big pain point but from all that I've read you have no other choice.

Joe

[jrahlers]

Thank you. A big disappointment - will probably have to stay with the original WHS much longer....
Johann

[Qusva1]

I understand what you are trying to do because I was in your shoes 2 weeks ago. I was able to upgrade to whs 2011 by buying one extra hard drive. My whs v1 originally had 4 1.5tb hard drives by buying one extra hard drive I was able to install whs 2011 on the new hard drive then I connected each of my old hard drives up one by one and copied the data over... Formatting each hard drive after the data was moved. I now have 1 empty 1.5tb hard drive. If you have enough free space on your old whs system you could remove one of the hard drives from the storage pool and use it to start this process I just didn't have enough free space to do this. You will need to look up how to find your shared folders on the old whs hard drives in know there hidden but they are easy to find. Also don't worry whs 2011 doesn't automatically format new hard drives added to the system like whs v1 does, but I would recommend formatting the drives after the data is moved off. You will need to setup your new server all over again but you will be able to save your shared data. I was able to move 5tb of shares by doing this... It took a few days but only 1 new hard drive... I hope this helps..... Fyi ill never go back to whs v1, I do miss drive extender but it was by no means a dealbreaker

[jrahlers]

Hi Qusva1, my apologies for the very late thank you. Did appreciate your advice a lot!

[onechannel]

I just got the same dummy update today, i am sure its malware not from windows but i think my computer may be infected from 1channel.