Note: When moving the backup database from one WHS machine to another (vs restoring to the same WHS), you may need to edit the registry. Does BDBB save the Registry Keys for the Client Computers when it does the backup?
It seems to have worked. I see the backups for the computers, and I successfully accessed a few of them. Here is what I did:
Situation: I built a new WHS v1 computer (NEW) to replace an old WHS computer (OLD) that was dying. OLD is a single core Pentium (Pentium 4 2GHz) and New is a Sandybridge Celeron (G530).
Problem: When building NEW, I was not offered the Server Reinstall option. I tried various kludges, but nothing reinstalled the Backup Database.
I have 2.3 TB of Backupdatabase. Since BDBB does not span drives, I could not use one of by 2TB drives to do a backup and restore. I tried installing the disk drives from OLD onto NEW, and doing a direct copy of the Backupdatabase, but that did not work (I'm guessing the pointers on OLD D: does not work when it is not the real drive D). Not having spare drives, I did the following:
Solution:
Shares: Used WHS built in functionality to backup the Shares on OLD to an External Drive, and then restore onto NEW. That is easy.
Backupdatabase:
Note: All of the following occurs on the Desktop of each WHS, not the WHS Console. I did this by plugging in monitors and keyboards to each WHS. It is possible to do it by remote connection, and such, but you will have to figure that out for yourself.
Note2: You will have to give OLD and NEW different computer names, since they will both be on the network at the same time. That can be done under Windows Explorer, right click on “my computer”, and select the “computer name” tab, and click on the “change” button.
1) OLD: Start, Run and type “CMD”. This gets you to the Command Prompt 2) OLD: type “net stop pdl”. 3) OLD: type “net stop whsbackup”. These two steps stops the backup process. You can close the command prompt by typing “exit”
4) OLD: open windows explorer. You can find it under start, programs, accessories. 5) OLD: navigate down Desktop, My Computer, Data (D:) 6) OLD: Right click on “folders” on the D: drive. 7) OLD: Select “Sharing and Security” 8) OLD: Under the “Sharing” tab, click on the radio button next to “Share this folder”. 9) OLD: Click on the “OK” box. You can now close the explorer window. These steps shared the folder with the backup database directly on your network.
The rest happens on NEW:
10) Start, Run and type “CMD”. This gets you to the Command Prompt 11) Type “net stop pdl”. 12) Type “net stop whsbackup”. These two steps stops the backup process. You can close the command prompt by typing “exit”
13) Note: You are about to replace the Backupdatabase on NEW. If it is a new install, no problem. If you have done any backups on NEW, they will be lost.
14) Open windows explorer. You can find it under start, programs, accessories. 15) Navigate down Desktop, My Computer, Data (D:), Folders, {00008086-058D-4C89-AB57-A7F909A47AB4} 16) Delete all the files in the directory, but not the directory itself.
17) Navigate down Desktop, My Network Places, Entire Network, Microsoft Windows Network, [domain] which would be Workgroup if you accept defaults, [OLD] name of OLD, Select “Folders”, or whatever name you gave in Step 8 if you changed the name. 18) You will be prompted to login. Use the account “Administrator”, and your WHS password. You need admin rights to access the Folders directory. 19) Navigate to the {00008086-058D-4C89-AB57-A7F909A47AB4} directory. 20) Copy everything from OLD (step 19) to NEW (step 15). It took 20 hours over a gigabit network to copy 2.1 TB of data.
You have just copied the Backupdatabase. Next, you will have to copy the descriptions of the computers. The following involves editing the registry, and all the warnings about doing that. The good thing is: If you are on a new WHS, if you mess up, you can just do a new install, and try again.
21) Navigate up one level (back to the folders directory on OLD), and then down to {378AE094-F4CA-4D9B-BDA5-649D6F738276} 22) Copy the file “whs.reg” (the registry of OLD) to the desktop of NEW. You can now close Explorer. 23) Right click on whs.reg on your desktop, and select “Edit”. This will open the file in Notepad. 24) Keep the first line that starts “Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00". 25) Delete everything up to, and including "[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE \Microsoft\Windows Home Server\Transport\Clients]". Note: it is all the keys below that you want. 26) Find [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE \Microsoft\Windows Home Server\Transport\Server]". 27) Delete from (and including that line) to the end of the file. Note: This presumes that “\server” immediately follows “\Clients”. If it does not, then find the next section in the registry that is NOT “\Clients…”, and delete from there. 28) Save and Exit from Notepad.
29) Start, Run and type “regedit”. DANGER: This is the registry editor part, so make sure you know what you are doing. 30) Select File, Import 31) In the popup box, in the “look in” box, navigate to Desktop, and select the file “whs.reg” 32) close the registry editor, and save the changes
Note: an alternative to steps 29-32 is to right click on whs.reg on your desktop, and select “merge”. I did not try that, so I cannot tell you what happens, and if it will work
33) If you want to rename NEW back to the same name as OLD, then now would be a good time to do it (you have to reboot after changing a computer name).
34) Shut down OLD, and reboot NEW.
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