Windows Home Server

knowlesy said:
hey guys, If I reinstalled WHS on a different machine and brought all my data store hdds could I just add them to it and all be fine and dandy without losing information ?

v2 looks like itll kick my idea of a power friendly unit using an atom processor to the curb .....
Click to expand...

You can do this (had to do it when I swapped my box onto it's new hardware) but you need to do a server rebuild, rather than fresh install. You cannot simply do a frsh install and then plug in the old drives - when you add them they will be wiped (AFAIK) :eek:

If you scroll up a couple of pages you'll see my reinstall which eventually ended well - but there are a couple of traps for players. Essentially, your Windows System disk MUST be the first device on the system (Sata port 1) (This was the case for me - might not affect you). Plug in all the drives, put the DVD in your machine, boot up, select Server Re-installation and off you go. Fantastic guide HERE - if you don't get the option for Server Re-Installation then you need to make sure that your system disk is first device recognised by your system (at a 'BIOS' level)
 
I added another disk yesterday and it's showing up ok but it's still empty whereas the other 2 are still showing as 85% full. Do I have to do something so it spreads the data or will it do it itself?
 
Have been looking at SSDs, getting one for my laptop and thought a small one for the WHS o/s disk might be nice, as they're too costly and small to provide a proper solution as yet. Though they would minimally cut down on power and heat if nothing else...

But then, would it actually be worth the money? Given that WHS no longer needs the large pool drive to copy large files (since sp1?), would it make general WHS duties (streaming/writing etc) over the network quicker?
 
I wouldn't have thought a SSD will make a difference, unless you have low physical memeory and are doing a lot of page file swapping.

Most of WHS core should reside in memory and therfore there would be no need for a faster hard drive for the OS.

If your running a wireless network a normal hard drive would be faster than the wireless so network traffic wouldn't benefit.

So overall I'd say no, but haven't tried it myself so can't give you any hard and fast data.

Taff
 
platypus said:
Have been looking at SSDs, getting one for my laptop and thought a small one for the WHS o/s disk might be nice, as they're too costly and small to provide a proper solution as yet. Though they would minimally cut down on power and heat if nothing else...

But then, would it actually be worth the money? Given that WHS no longer needs the large pool drive to copy large files (since sp1?), would it make general WHS duties (streaming/writing etc) over the network quicker?
Click to expand...

Wouldn't make much of a difference if any, if you have 4 other standard hdds when the heat isn't going to be much different nor the noise level.

I wouldn't go for a SSD as the os drive, you won't notice any difference in streaming/writing as its all done on the data drives.

Save some pennies for the pub :P
 
Ok Guys I need Help and I need it quick.

I shut down my server for a few days as I was doing some work around the house and was disconnecting the electric for a few days.

Before all the work took place, I shut down the server, unplugged it from the mains and unplugged the kettle lead and left.

Tonight I went and plugged it in and it wouldn't boot.

I plugged in a TFT and saw nothing on screen. I plugged in a keyboard and got no flashing lights but the CPU fan spins and and the HDD's spin up. It just will not boot and I get nothing on screen.

About to cry I removed the system disk and plugged this into my i7 rig as a second drive and the i7 rig booted and showed the system drive and data partition so my WHS sys drive is in tact.

I unplugged the 4 2TB drives and plugged in a 40GB sata drive to see if i could see anything on screen...Nothing.

I changed the GFX card for another...nothing

Changed the monitor...nothing on screen although the HDD spins.the cpu fan spins and the GFX card heatsink gets hot.

Now I;m thinking it might be a mobo fault as I have drive everything.

Its a P45 P5Q pro.

Now If I buy say a new mobo like a Asus P5G41-M-INTELG41 Socket 775 VGA HDMI Out 6 Channel Audio MATX Motherboard and re-instate the system drive of the server will WHS boot due to new mobo?

Its not a completely different chipset over P45.... G41

Please help.

Cheers
 
Thanks


If I do a reinstall can I just before hand to be safe take each 2TB drive out and copy the contents of each drive over to my i7 rig?

Is it just a case of copying whats on there across?

What about the Data partition of the SYS drive?


In terems of locking me out? would I still be able to access the shares over the network??
 
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I have just taken one of the 2TB drives out and put it in my i7 rig


The drive is seen in windows as having 465GB free of 1.81TB but when I look on the drive there is nothing there?:confused:

It say the folder is empty even though its showing to have data on?

How do I get my data off these drives?
 
For anyone in the position as me:

How To: Recover Data after Server failure

Windows Home Server as the backend of a home network is not immune to hardware defects, bad drivers, misconfigurations, incompatible software installations or user errors. While it offers possibilities to backup the content of shared folders and even the client backups, these processes have to be done manually and need a lot of additional external storage space. So these will often not be performed regulary.

We can consider following scenarios:

* The system does not boot any more, but the disks are all ok. Recommended method: Server Reinstall.
* The system disk is broken, the data disks are ok. Recommended method: Server Reinstall after replacing the disk. If you can still access the DATA volume of the disk, proceed as described below to copy eventually stored files.
* The system disk is ok, but one or more data disks fail, or Windows Home Server Console reports disks as missing. Recommended method: Data recovery has priority. Try to get the data out as described below.


If your Windows Home Server still boots, you can check the event log of the server for error details. To do this, log in locally or via Remote Desktop client to the server desktop. Use the account name Administrator and the console password for login.
In Start/Control Panel/Administrative Tools click Event Viewer.
Check the System and Application logs for errors (red marked) and warnings (yellow marked).
If you find ntfs errors, double click them to see the details. In case of unreadable sectors get a replacement disk.

After broken hardware is replaced, the next step would be to try a server reinstallation (which may be named different, if you got your Windows Home Server as an OEM product). This special installation mode will only wipe the system volume on C: (and with it all user accounts, customizations, installed Add-Ins and applications, applied updates), but leave the data intact. (A new installation will wipe all drives, so be carefull, what you select.) Be patient, since rebuilding the tombstones can take a long time without clear information on the screen, what is going on.
Before adding the clients again and redo the configuration tasks, run Windows Update through the console first. Repeat this after necessary reboots, until you don't get new updates offered any more. This is necessary to eliminate potential bugs.

If you get no server reinstall offered, this can depend from the sequence, in which the disks are detected by the Bios or which drivers are provided initially. The former or new system disk must always be detected as drive 0. If you are using SATA disks, it may be more convenient to select the IDE (ATA/PATA) mode in the settings of the SATA controller. In this case Windows Home Server setup can use built in drivers. Be aware that using SATA drivers may require, to present these drivers a second time during setup using a floppy disk.

If a server reinstall fails, is not offered or is not possible due to severely broken hardware or the configuration cannot be reused due to a replacement of main hardware components, and you don't have a recent backup on another disk or location, you need to copy the data manually to a new location.

To do this:

* Attach the disks one by one to a Windows PC either via internal ports or using an adaptor cable USB to SATA/IDE. This PC can be one of the clients, or a fresh installed Windows Home Server. Do not add this disk to the storage pool, before you have copied all data to the server share or external storage. The already configured storage pool devices must offer enough free space to handle the data from the disk besides old client backups (which will be lost in such a recovery scenario).
* In Control Panel of that PC open Folder Options.
* On the View tab select Show hidden files and folders.
* Click OK.
* In Windows Explorer look for the DATA volume on the former Windows Home Server disk (including the D: drive of the former primary disk), which will usually have gotten a drive letter in the system. After opening this volume in Explorer you should see the hidden folder DE. (Be aware, that in configurations with multiple disks in the server this folder may not exist on each disk or be empty.)
* Within the folder DE you should find a subfolder shares.
* This contains parts or all (or none) of the data in the former shared folders or duplicates of this data (if Folder Duplication was selected).
* Copy this data either to the new server installation by accessing the server shares through the desktop shortcut Shared Folders on server or to another storage location. Do never target the file system of drives belonging to Windows Home Server directly (i.e. d:\shares)!
* Repeat this for each DATA disk.

Do not forget to check the consistency of data (can files still be opened, are they the most current version) before reusing the disks in the storage pool.
 
Just reinstalled WHS with my new key, and the system folder is...750GB. Hmmm, cannot for the life of me figure out what is going on. Have initiated a Rebalance, will see if that helps.
 
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