Hello forum. I thought that it would help you to answer my question if I sectioned it into the system, the problem, and my question:

The System:
SuSE 9.3 with current upgrades running on a Tyan K8W motherboard with dual Opterons and a 3ware card in RAID 0 configuration. Everything works perfectly as the system has multiple user accounts, installed scientific software, and LAN connectivity.

The Problem:
Replace current motherboard with a Tyan K8WE while simultaneously replacing 3ware RAID 0 configuration with Areca RAID 0+1 configuration WHILE maintaining OS configuration and installed software.

The Question:
I know how to handle the hardware. I think that I can resolve the software issue by restoring a backup of the current system. I have two backups, one using YaST and the other using DAR. I will have to install a minimum SuSE system to have access to these backups and I know how to do that. What I do not know is:


(1) which backup is better for the proposed restore?
(2) if the restore will overwrite the OS hardware configuration files, which will be different for the new motherboard and RAID card and thereby cause the system to crash? Do I simply not install the /dev directory or is there more to it?



Thanks, Chris