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        Issues when moving a drive between servers

Section(s): Admin , Admin
Published on Nov 12, 2008.
Last Modified on Aug 29, 2008.
Last Modified by Mitch Tulloch.
Rating: Not Rated

Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 both use NTFS version 5.1. Does this mean that a disk that's used in one platform could be moved to the other and "just work"?

The answer is "Yes, except…"

Specifically, if a disk is formatted on Windows Server 2003, you can mount it on Windows Server 2008 and use it without any issues. And if a disk is formatted on Windows Server 2008, you can mount it on Windows Server 2003 and use it without any issues.

But if you have a disk mounted on a Windows Server 2008 system and the system crashes, leaving the disk in a dirty state, and you then mount that disk on a Windows Server 2003 system, transactional consistency will be lost since Windows Server 2008 NTFS supports TxF while Windows Server 2008 NTFS doesn't. And if you had volume snapshots on the disk, they may lose their consistency and be unavailable once you mount the disk on the downlevel system.

About Mitch Tulloch

Mitch Tulloch was lead author for the Windows Vista Resource Kit from Microsoft Press, which is the book for IT pros who want to deploy, maintain and support Windows Vista in mid- and large-sized network environments. Mitch was also the author of Introducing Windows Server 2008 and technical project lead for the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Resource Kit, both books also from Microsoft Press. For more information on these and other books by Mitch, see www.mtit.com .