I am using a Intel S3200SH server board with Microsoft Server SBS 2008 and the onboard RAID 1 controller setup using the Intel Storage Matrix configuration. I have had several lock ups during heavy drive access usually during backup. After talking to Intel TS they said that it was due to the fact that the RAID 1 Volume was using the Intel Storage Matrix, Which they do not recommend. Their recommendation was to reconfigure and use the LSI RAID Configuration.
Problem #1: I backed up using Microsoft?s full system backup. After reconfiguring the RAID 1 to use LSI configuration. I attempted to restore to the LSI RAID 1 array and received an error saying essentially that you cannot restore to a smaller disk. Tried making the System OS partition larger by using DISKPART but that did not work. Attempted to restore the Volumes manually by using the commands in WBADMIN, still could not get the partitions restored. Microsoft fails to restore if the disk or partitions are not the same size or larger, which is absolutely ridiculous! Does anyone know how to get around this?
Problem #2: Assuming I can recreate the drive partitions using the new RAID 1 LSI configuration and restore using Microsoft?s total system restore. When I reboot the system it will still have the Intel Storage Matrix Drivers installed and I will have to Install the LSI drivers before I can continue. How can I install the drivers before the system comes up? Are there any ways to install the LSI drivers up initial boot with the new configuration?
Thanks in advance
Mark