One of the nice features of Windows Home Server is that the existing drives can be moved around without breaking anything. I benefited from this recently and did mention it in my last Trail Log but figured it was worth highlighting as a tip.
If you need to rearrange disk in a Windows Home Server or move them to new connections you can do so without any special work (other than shutting down WHS for the move). When I moved the warm hard drives from the internal bays to the external bays all I had to do was shut down the server and physically move the drives. Likewise when I re-seated all the cables I didn’t have to worry about putting them in the same SATA port.
One thing to keep in mind is that if your using a home build like I am, and use the Disk Management for Windows Home Server Add-in you will still need to keep track of the drive bay assignments when you move drives or cables.
I just had my Norco SS-500 backplane die on my homebrew WHS. It had flagged one HD as "missing" but the drive would temporarily come back after a reboot. So, assuming the drive was starting to seize, etc., I removed it from the WHS pool. (Everything was duplicated so no stress there.) I pulled the "bad" drive, and damned if WHS didn't flag the next HD on the same backplane as "missing".
I still haven't figured out what happened there, but I no longer have the patience as I did when I was younger to futz around with it trying to determine what's broken and try to repair. I've settled on a Rosewill RSV-S8 8-bay eSATA enclosure and was worried about what should be hooked up where when I migrate.
Thanks for the tip.