Re: Win2003 Server rebooting over and over after image restore

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

From: Pegasus \(MVP\) (I.can_at_fly.com)
Date: 01/02/05 

Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2005 00:30:23 +1100

"Damir Dezeljin" <News@dezo.org> wrote in message
news:uSCzmaL8EHA.1452@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> Hi.
>
> We have a Windows 2003 Standard Server running on HP ProLiant ML350 G3.
> Tha machine has 3 SCSI HDD configured as RAID mirror (1 HDD is hot spare
> drive).
> We need this server to be running all the time. So I tried various
> backup / imaging solutions, hopping to be able to restore the system on
> a similar HW.
>
> I made a disk Ghost image of the server and restored it to a similar HW
> (HP ProLiant ML350 G4). Unfortunately Windows didn't start after
> restore. When I try to start Windows in Safe Mode, it start displaying
> lines (I guess drives it loads) and after displaying:
> - drvmain.sdb
>
> it reboots.
>
>
> I remember that I have a simmilar problem when I tried to make an AXR
> backup using ntbackup and restoring it to vmWare virtual machine - I was
> never able to get the system running after restore.
>
>
> How can I make a Ghost image (or something similar) that I will be able
> to restore on a similar HW (if my original machine will crash)?
>
>
> Best regards,
> Dezo

Windows is quite particular about hardware. Just because your two
servers are similar does not mean that your installation from the G3
model will run on the G4 model.

I would probably try this in order to home in on the problem:

1. Restore the image to a single SCSI or IDE disk.
2. Boot the G3 model with this disk. This will prove that
    the image is OK.
3. Boot the G4 model with this disk. If it fails then you know
    for sure that the problem is caused by different hardware.

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