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PostPosted: Sun Jan 09, 2011 12:09 pm 
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Hi everyone,

I am considering replacing the system hard drive on my 485 and I need some advice.

I have had my server for about 2 years now, so there is data stored on the system drive. In fact, for some reason, the system drive has the most out of all 3 of my drives (I attached a pic of what my storage looks like). I'm assuming this is because it was the only disc I had in the server for a while?

Anyway, I am constantly getting a message from the Home Server Console saying that my system drive needs to be repaired. I am able to repair it every time without incident, but I am worried that it is just a matter of time before it gives out.

So here is my problem: I need a somewhat step by step walk-through on how to go about replacing my system drive. I understand that I need to do a system restore, but what are the steps leading up to that? Do I put the new system drive in bay 4 before I start and then run system restore? Do I need to do anything in the Console to tell the server that I will be removing the hard drive? How do I get the data off of my system drive before I remove it?

I really appreciate any help that you can give me. I have searched the forum and have found similar topics but none that have a step by step walk-through that answers my questions.

Regards,

-Lou


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PostPosted: Sun Jan 09, 2011 4:00 pm 
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Hi LouDog0102,

First do you happen to have file duplication turned on? If so then the task at hand is a simple task of just powering the server down, swapping out the current system drive and installing the new drive in its place and performing a Server Recovery but DO NOT perform a Factory Recovery as that will format all your storage pool drives.

If your data is not set for duplication I would urge you to review your storage pool requirements and add additional drives to accomodate your file duplcation needs and add the necessary drives to accomodate those needs before beginning.

My real concern is the data that is on your system drive but that data can be read from the drive and placed back on the server. First and foremost the issue is to protect your data but to do so would require more information from you if your data is set for duplication. If not then if a drive should fail then your data would be lost.

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PostPosted: Sun Jan 09, 2011 4:49 pm 
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Comp1962 wrote:
Hi LouDog0102,

First do you happen to have file duplication turned on? If so then the task at hand is a simple task of just powering the server down, swapping out the current system drive and installing the new drive in its place and performing a Server Recovery but DO NOT perform a Factory Recovery as that will format all your storage pool drives.

If your data is not set for duplication I would urge you to review your storage pool requirements and add additional drives to accomodate your file duplcation needs and add the necessary drives to accomodate those needs before beginning.

My real concern is the data that is on your system drive but that data can be read from the drive and placed back on the server. First and foremost the issue is to protect your data but to do so would require more information from you if your data is set for duplication. If not then if a drive should fail then your data would be lost.


Thank you for the quick reply!

I do have duplication turned on and have about 50% of my storage pool free. So all I would need to do is power down the server, take the old system drive out of Bay 1, put a new drive in Bay 1 and then do a System Restore? If so, that sounds pretty simple and painless.

One further question: Would this affect my Backups at all? I think I remember reading in a different thread that Backups are not included in Folder Duplication.


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PostPosted: Sun Jan 09, 2011 9:38 pm 
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Its actually quite painless. Just select Server Recovery and it will take less then an hour. After the recovery is done you will need to get all the Microsoft and HP updates installed and ignore all the Errors and Alerts about your Backup Database being corrupt. That message will go away once you install all the updates. You will need to recreate the user files, install the server software on all your clients again, reinstall your add-ins, do some misc configuration and setup remote access.

All told it will take you about 2 hours to complete the task. Since you have your files set for duplication you will not lose any data but if you recently added data to your server you may want to wait a day or two to ensure the data has been fully duplicated but its a fairly straight forward process.

You may want to install the add-in Home Server Smart to check the smart data on your drives to confirm if the drives are in good shape you can download it from the link below:

http://www.dojonorthsoftware.net/Freebi ... SMART.aspx

If your system drive is in good shape I would just add the new drive to your storage pool.

Now if you do change out the system drive please be sure to remove all the partitions and reformat the drive especially if you opt to later on install it into your storage pool. Failure to do so will cause problems with your server. I do not recall what the problems are but I do know it will create a problem so removing the partions and reformatting the drive will be a good measure to elliminate issues down the road.

What ever you do good luck and if you should need additional help please do come back and ask. I know I have been extremely busy lately but I do monitor my email for message activity from this site.

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PostPosted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 11:23 am 
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I need to replace my system drive for the same reason. I also have file duplication turned on. My question is when I do the server recovery, do I use the original version 2.* disks that came with my 487 and then upgrade the server with the 3.0 upgrade, or can I just start off doing the server recovery with the 3.0 upgrade disks I have?


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PostPosted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 11:25 am 
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There is no 3.0 upgrade process, the 3.0 disks perform a Server Recovery that replaces the OS and the HP software with the new version. If you want to run 3.0, there is no need to install 2.x first.

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PostPosted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 12:14 pm 
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Thanks, that's exactly what I needed to know. I wasn't sure if the 3.0 disks were upgrade disks or a complete installation.


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PostPosted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 3:11 pm 
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One follow up question: When I do the server recovery using the 3.0 disks, should I have the USB Enclosure housing my four 2TB external drives attached to the server? I assume that I should since all 4 of those external drives are part of my storage pool.


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PostPosted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 4:39 pm 
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Yes! During a Server Recovery where you will be preserving your data WHS will need to see all your storage pool drives so they will have to be attatched to the server. Just DO NOT SELECT FACTORY RECOVERY or you storage pool drives will get formatted.

You may want to review the upgrade process and read through the forums about those who performed the upgrade last year and their experiences with it. This will give you the best understanding of the task you are about to undertake.

One word of advise is the recovery may take longer than expected but once its down and you start setting up the server again the server will tell you that your Client Backup Database is corrupt and suggest that you repair it. DO NOT repair the client backup database or you will surely lose all your client backups. What you do is ignore the alert and download and install all the HP and MICROSOFT updates after which the messages about the client backup database will go away.

Its information like I just described and other things that you should be prepaired for before updating your server. Much has been written about the 3.0 upgrade especially warning people not to turn every media function on or you could cripple your server for days as it will get busy collecting meda and converting it. And then there is the Twonky part so please read everything the 3.0 is nice but you may encounter issues with it when you first run it.

Good Luck with your upgrade and should you have additional questions please feel free to ask. :mss:

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PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 2:35 pm 
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Thanks to all for a highly useful discussion regarding a problem I have been having after 2+ years of use.

I have a question, however.

Would it not be possible to short cut the process by doing the following?

Turn off the server
Remove the system drive (run chkdsk or Spinrite if necessary to correct drive errors)
Clone it to a new drive using suitable software like Acronis True Image
Install the new cloned drive
Restart the server

The reason I ask is that the re-installation and setup of all the users plus one remote system would be a severe time hit for me. Offhand I don't see why this wouldn't work...


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PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 3:12 pm 
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While you can clone the drive as you descibe you will also need to tweak a few things to get the drive to be properly used by WHS. Read the link below and it will fully explain this in great detail and also explain the proceedure on how to properly clone a system drive.

http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010/01 ... tem-drive/

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PostPosted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 9:48 pm 
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My system drive is suspect again, I believe I need to replace it. My EX485 is acting up like it was before when I replaced the system drive the first time, showing 29 bad sectors detected using Home Server SMART.

I have a 750GB system drive and a 1.5TB drive in bay 2 with file duplication turned on.

Do I just place the new drive in bay 1 ( with the 1.5 TB drive in bay 2 ) then perform a system restore?

Will I be able to copy my computer backups to the new system drive later?

I have a 1TB drive Picked up for the system drive, any issues with installing a larger drive?

Thanks


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PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 4:34 am 
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Hi cdconey welcome to the forums :mss:

If your server system drive is still functional you may want to install the add-in BDBB and back up your client backup data base before you perform a server recovery. BDBB is available from the ADD-INS Tab on this site. You can use the 1 TB drive or even a 2 TB Drive for the system drive if you want.

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PostPosted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 8:14 pm 
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After replacing my system drive and performing a server recovery, when I attempt to download the HP mediasmart server software from the server on my computer, it gives me an error stating that I cannot install the connector software on a mediasmart server.

I deleted teh HP Media Smart Server and Windows Home Server Connector on my PC as instructed on the Server Recovery Disk directions.

Any idea what is causing this? My other PCs are fine.


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