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ESXi 4.1 hard drive replacement

I have installed a ESXi on a test server that had one 250gb hard drive. ESXi and 3 vm's are installed on the hard drive in datastore1.

I added a second hard drive, created datastore2 and I'm using that for added storage for my vm's.

The original 250gb hard drive is squealing quite loudly and likely going to crash shortly. I can move the vm's to datastore2 or even add a temporary hard drive as datastore3 and move the vm's. But how do I actually reinstall ESXi?

I've seen some suggestions about using a command line but it's not clear. I run a command and backup up the ESXi config and run a command to restore it. Is that after I put in the CD and install ESXi to the new hard drive? Once it's installed I then run the restore command?

It was also suggest I could just do the install and "import" the vm's back in.

Is there a best method?
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Randy_Bojangles
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Snap :-)
I know, right? :P
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if 2 experts say theexact  same thing at the exact same time then it must be true! :-)
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AJNS

ASKER

lol

that was fast

let me digest that for a sec :)
Make note of your esxi settings for your new install.  

Also, You can buy a Compact Flash to IDE adapter if you are having trouble booting off of USB stick (I did!).  The compact flash IDE adapter will be presented as an IDE drive.  IF IDE isn't supported on your motherboard, you can use a Compact Flash to SATA adapter.

As a different side note.  I wouldn't recommend using USB/SD if you these servers are production servers or critical in any way.  The reason is that by going that route you loose redundancy that you may/should have on a server using RAID. My 2 cents.
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ASKER

I had to spread the points out since you three all said the same thing at the same time.

Thanks for the help