I have an EX495 that has the stock 2 TB drive with Windows Home Server, the older version, on it. I was going to re-sell it and am instead going to be re-purposing it, however, I'm at an impasse and don't have the video cable adapter thing so I can't tell what's going on.

Honestly, this should work flawlessly but I dunno why it didn't. I installed Server 2012 onto a VM on my main server and then used Paragon Disk Manager to just create a VHD back up of that Hyper-V disk. Okay, fine so far. I then restore that VHD back up to a spare 1 TB Samsung F3 drive that I have laying around, it looks fine, has the system reserved and main partition layout as the VM did. However, whenever I plug the disk into the machine, I can tell it's not booting because of both the fact that the device isn't showing up on my router and when I press the power button it instantly shuts down as if its on a BIOS message screen or some screen that likely says "Reboot and select proper boot device". I don't know what the deal is, is there something special I'm supposed to do here? The BCD on the physical hard disk looks fine.

This is Server 2012 R2 Datacenter, 64-bit, if that matters on the stock Pentium dual-core CPU.

According to the manual, when my server powers up, the health indicator LED blinks back and forth between that red and aqua blue color a few times then just blinks aqua blue. Indicating power on test or BIOS failure. Huh?

I'd get the cable. It will come in handy for more then just getting the system up and running.
But that is if you are going to stay with some pretty old hardware.
I have 2 video cables and 4 servers. All spare parts, I plan on running this hardware for as lond as I can.
Sorry I couldn't be more help.
If you get the video, please let us know what you find.
Good luck

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Well, I mean I didn't pay much for the server so I might as well use it. And I came across some super slick deals on 1 TB drives when hunting for some other drives so instead of selling it and paying a gaping shipping cost, I might as well use it. Though, I do intend to upgrade it to at least a Q8400 or Q9550 low-power CPU, and a 4GB stick.