Which probably brings us back to what Andreas was saying about how BESR sees the drives vs Windows. Hopefully the folks at Symantec Tech Support have a simple solution. In the mean time my brain is enjoying the challenge.
If I remember correctly Server 2008 installs the MS ISCSI initiator by default. Sometimes the ISCSI initiator doesn't play nice with dynamic disks. If active, try stopping the ISCSI initiator and restarting the Backup Exec System Recovery Service to see if that changes the view. Some questions:
- What kind of data exits on Drive N:? If databases, can they be restored to the same path after stopping the associated database services?
- Am I correct in assuming that only one partition/volume exists in the mirrored. drives? Could this drive structure be restored to a basic configuration within the limits of primary partition and extended partition limitations.
- Would it be possible to boot to the SRD and see if the recovery environment can see Drive N? You might have to supply the driver for the nVidia RAID controller because I'm not sure if it exists on the SRD. Just use the Server 2008 driver you already found. If the drive can be imaged in the recovery environment, it will be a snap to restore the data to a basic disk
If this server were in my environment, I think it would be worth trying to revert to a basic disk configuration. The instructions assume that imaging from the SRD was unsuccessful.
- Fully document the volume info, stop any services required.
- Copy or move the data to another location for safekeeping.
- In the Disk Management, remove the volumes on the mirrored drive, right click the dynamic disk and choose Revert to Basic Disk.
- Recreate the partition and drive letter configuration
- Copy the data to the new drive structure from the safekeeping location. Restart any applicable services.
If imaging from the SRD was successful, then restoring the data to a basic disk is just a modification of the technote which Andreas already referenced:
http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/322695.htm
Instead of converting the "cleaned" drive to dynamic, just restore the image to the cleaned drive. The restore wizard will prompt to initialize the "cleaned" disk. Proceed with the restore and be sure to select the option to restore the drive signature. I've converted a few dynamic disks to basic with this method with no ill effects.
Of course none of this explains why BESR can't see Drive N after upgrading to Server 2008. It would just allow the Vista/Server 2008 code base to create the drive and see if that has any positive effect. It's alot of work, but if your case with Symantec Tech Support doesn't pan out, it may be worth trying.