My media server hard drive is only 500gb, and has been making noises and getting louder and louder.  Nothing per se wrong, but not comforting to hear it crunching away and totally unacceptable for being in a listening environment.

I just bought a 1 TB Seagate Barracuda hard drive at MicroCenter for $130.  Probably less money than it would cost to send the server back to the manufacturer, and I get double the storage. 

People have told me that these Seagate hard drivers are extremely quiet and I should be happy with the results. 

So...  My question is about backing up, or making an image of that hard drive on another (aux drive) and how do I restore it once the hard drive is replaced so all my applications and special features are in place?  I'm just trying to think of everything I need to do to avoid issues when it is replaced.  I'd like to get everything up and running quickly again. 

I understand I will likely loose all my "Recorded TV" content.  I've been told that it is 'flagged' and won't playback on another hard drive as it thinks it is another computer (more stupid DRM limitations).  I don't know how true this 'flagging' is, but I may copy over some of my shows and see if they will play as an excercise.  What have y'all found. 

Either way, that isn't a major concern of mine, but always wondered about that.  I know what the official response is from MS, but want to know reality vs. what they tell me.  I more just want Vista and MCE to be able to be installed properly since I don't have the original install disks. 

I believe Seagate offers a utility that will migrate data from the old drive to the new drive.  If you Google for "seagate tools" you should find something that might work for you.

There are numerous programs available which allow you to 'clone' one hard drive onto another. My favourite is a product called Acronis (www.acronis.com) and I have used this more than once to 'upgrade' the hard drive in my media center to a larger capacity one.

It consists of a bootable CD and the idea is that you fit both drives in the PC, boot it from the CD and there is an option to clone drive - just make sure you get it the right way round otherwise you will wipe your existing drive. This will make an identical copy of the original which 'shouldn't' trip Windows activation but I'm not sure if DRM will be maintained.

The cost of the software is quite reasonable and they also offer a free downloadable trial but I'm not sure what limits are on the trial but it might be worth trying it before parting with any money.

kegobeer:

I believe Seagate offers a utility that will migrate data from the old drive to the new drive. 

That is true. I use methods like that all the time. It's a bit by bit transfer. It just takes a long time now being the drives are so large. Start at night and let it run all night.

This may help. It's called Clone Disc.

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=installation_assistance&vgnextoid=dce3b27d0434e010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

Cloning a disc and moving Windows Vista/Home server to a new drive will kick off re-activation, just a FYI.  Is this a cablecard setup ?

An interesting thing tho, If you make image of your hard drive with all data and recorded shows, and restore to a new drive (or clone it in this case), it might be possable that the DRM store stays in tact and your recorded shows MIGHT play back. If you look at a show in it's info, it will state "copy protected" but, if your not using cablecards, most content should play back fine

Let us know how it works out, I'm wondering.. I have not found anyone that can confirm this 100%