[dba-Tech] Really and for true, how can I...

Lembit,

It isn't magic, no; but if the goal is to get up and running on a new
system with all the old software, burning DVDs takes longer.

I am eager to try this controller card method.

Steve Erbach
Neenah, WI
USA

On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 6:52 AM, Lembit Soobik
<lembit.dbamail at t-online.de> wrote:
> thanks, Steve.
>
> doing image backups to DVD is no magic, is it?
> so if that path works, I much prefer it.
>
> OTOH, your step 3 sounds like requiring black magic?
> "Unhook the new PC's C: drive from its internal
>> controllers and just let it sit there unpowered for a while. (I'm not
>> sure whether the new PC should be booted with just the new IDE
>> controller card installed."
>
> are you going to try that?
>
> Lembit
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Steve Erbach" <erbachs at gmail.com>
> To: "Discussion of Hardware and Software issues"
> <dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com>
> Sent: Friday, May 30, 2008 12:16 PM
> Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Really and for true, how can I...
>
>
>> Lembit, Jon, and Jim L.,
>>
>> Our network administrator at work had good things to say about
>> Acronis.  However he seemed to think that to really get the "restore
>> the system to dissimilar hardware" to work right, one needed to do
>> image backups onto DVD.  That's what he said.
>>
>> He did offer an alternative, though, one that might just do the trick.
>> Here's the routine (assuming IDE drives...but it's similar for SATA):
>>
>> 1) Install a new IDE controller card in the old PC and make sure the
>> current drivers are installed.
>>
>> 2) Shut down the old PC, disconnect the C: drive (the one you want to
>> transfer to the new box) from the internal IDE controller, wire it up
>> to the new IDE controller, and fire up the old PC to ensure that the
>> C: drive will boot from the new controller.  Shut down.
>>
>> 3) Install that same new IDE controller card in the NEW PC along with
>> the old C: drive.  Unhook the new PC's C: drive from its internal
>> controllers and just let it sit there unpowered for a while. (I'm not
>> sure whether the new PC should be booted with just the new IDE
>> controller card installed.  I'm not clear on whether the ROMs in the
>> PC are supposed to recognize the new hardware first...if that's even
>> something that normally happens.  Does the hard disk store all the
>> configuration information?)
>>
>> 4) Fire up the NEW PC.  The old disk drive SHOULD boot from that new
>> IDE controller.  Then Windows on the old drive will detect that
>> there's new hardware that requires drivers: sound, video, etc.  The
>> key to all this is that the drive should "know" about the controller
>> it's hooked to.  All the other drivers are secondary to the disk
>> controller.  If the boot drive already has drivers for that particular
>> controller then it should be happy to boot from it and the rest of the
>> drivers can be installed when the "new hardware detected" messages
>> appear.
>>
>> 5) Once all the drivers are installed, the old drive should be ready
>> to go as the main boot drive in the new system with all the old
>> programs in place and ready to go.
>>
>> 6) Finally, reconnect the new drive in a slave mode, use Casper (our
>> net admin's favorite) to clone the old drive onto the new one, unhook
>> the old drive and set the new drive to be the master, and fire up the
>> new PC with its newly cloned new drive...and Bob's your uncle, Fanny's
>> your aunt.
>>
>> All of this is simpler if one uses SATA drives, but the fact that it
>> appears possible with plain old IDE drives is very encouraging...all
>> for the cost of an IDE controller and Casper.
>>
>> Steve Erbach