Well, this was some time back and haven't had to do one since. But I had to do the factory reset without any drives attached, and then add an empty drive, and copy back the data to the shares. Took a couple of days, but couldn't get the server recovery to work with all my drives attached. I am not sure why. I did do one previously as mentioned above in this post, but couldn't get it to work again for some reason. Sorry, but I never figured out why on the last attempt.

All I can say is the Mediasmart server running WHS v1 seems very finicky about drive access with external enclosures. A search of many of my posts will lead to other posts of problems with external drive enclosures, including drives dropping offline under heavy loads, etc. I experienced many of those myself, but they have gone away once I did do a factory reset of my server. Prior to that I was using it "out of the box" as far as the OS install goes. I can't prove it, but I really think the server reset does something different that the Factory OS install that it came with. Doesn't make sense, but ever since I did one, most of my problems with external drive enclosures went away completely.

This doesn't help you though. But if you want to stick with WHS v1 you might be "stuck" with doing the factory reset with only your system drive present, and do as I did. Remember, all your drives are still readable so you can get the data off of them.

BTW, are you using Diehard's USB boot server recovery method or just the factory one? At least the USB method is much easier and foolproof once you get it set up, but I still had to copy data back the last time.

Here is a thread describing this method if you wish:
viewtopic.php?f=25&t=6307&start=135

Migrating over to WHS 2011 is an option. Many reasons pro and con, not going into all those. But sure would be nice to be able to back up your system drive and just restore it easily!

The lack of DE or storage protection is the biggest reason I am still with WHS V1. However I am now using FlexRAID for my large shares instead of duplication, and think it might be the answer for WHS 2011 in the near future.

And there's Storage places now coming in Windows 8.....

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Lenovo TS-440| 8GB| |13 int HD's| 2xSans Digital TR5M-B (10 HD's) | WHS 2011 | |Stablebit Drivepool |Stablebit Scanner| |FlexRAID 2.0|

It appears that server reset is having a problem due to the system drive replacement. It has a problem with missing data, probably on the data partition of the old system drive.



That appears to be the only option. I was thinking I could copy some data over to the new system drive's data partion, but I don't know where to start and I don't want to mess up the seven pool drives.



I used the factory method. I had no problems getting the server into Recovery mode.



I am thinking about migrating over to WHS 2011. I can pick up a DVD locally for a decent price. I am thinking that with all the advanced format drives WHS v1 may be on its last legs, especially since WHS 2011 is getting more support.

Well, if you've decided to do the Server Reset with only your system drive installed here is how to copy data back to your shares afterwards:

Add a hard drive to your storage pool. Don't use a drive with DATA on it, as WHS will format it before adding it to the pool.

Add one of your drives with DATA on it, but DO NOT CHOOSE add to server storage. You can (carefully) select to use it as a backup drive and keep existing data. Drive will NOT be formatted and will be assigned new drive letter (E:, etc). Now you can copy from E: (or whatever backup drive letter) to your shares on the storage pool.

So, basically you're adding a new or clean drive to storage pool and copying from your DATA drives (added as backup drives) to your storage pool.

Once I had everything copied off my DATA drives, I would then add them to the storage pool as I didn't have excess spare drives at the time. Ideally, safest would be to use completely different drives until everything is copied back to shares and duplicated.

That's the long way, but worked for me.

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Lenovo TS-440| 8GB| |13 int HD's| 2xSans Digital TR5M-B (10 HD's) | WHS 2011 | |Stablebit Drivepool |Stablebit Scanner| |FlexRAID 2.0|