Hello all,

I don't know if this topic was covered at all, so I apologize if it was. I recently had a hardware failure on my EX485. It looks like either the system drive or the SATA controller died. I also think the CPU fried, as a couple of days before, I got a message stating that the CPU was getting too hot. I tried the WHS Toolkit and all that other fun stuff. For all intents and purposes, my server is dead.

What I need help with is getting my full backups off of the storage pool drives. I mounted them using a SATA to USB adapter and under the hidden DE folder, there are two other folders - "Shares" and "Folders." Now Shares is obvious, and judging by the contents of the Folders folder, I'm guessing that's where my full backups are. The problem is that they are all dat files and a couple of configdat files. Is there any way that I can recover my backups from these? Any help would be MUCH appreciated!

-Mike

My first thought is what is it really worth to you? Sure everyone wants to recover everything but that is not always practical, I take it your other computers are still okay? So the simple purchase of a new WHS will give you a currant backup.

If you really need your old backup data I would purchase new drives and image your pool drives to the new ones as a first step. Then use the images in your attempt to recover.... Once you master the recovery, only then (if needed) would I risk them....

I don't need my old data as a rule and so use my restores as a chance to start fresh. I might be off here, but if you just had a hardware failure, it might be as simple (if you are very lucky) as putting the existing drives in a new enclosure and starting it up....

Or putting the pool drives in a new enclosure and doing a recovery..... (I'm not sure if a recovery will keep your backup data intact or not ~ google that)

As to a zero cost way of getting your backup data back, I suspect it doesn't exist, Microsoft doesn't see this data as valuable, and it can not be directly pulled from the drives as it was encoded. Microsoft took the position if the server fails you can always run backup again, on your new server....

Of course my backups are important. Isn't that the whole point of having a backup server?

You make it sound as if I can just go out and spend $500 on a new WHS, drop the drives in and I'm done. Yes, that may work, but that wasn't the question I asked. I have the storage drives mounted via USB adapter - the data is there. It's just not in a format that's directly readable. I wanted to know if I could take those dat and configdat files and turn them back into the drive images they were so I could mount them. It has to be possible, I just don't know how. Thanks, anyway.

Please post a link to any free software that will do this. To the best of my knowledge it doesn't exist. That's why I attempted to clarify how much this data is really worth to you, surely you can find someone in your town with a EX48x like yours willing to allow you to put your drives in their server, for a few bucks. You'll need a EX48x and not an EX47x or EX49x by the way.

If I knew of any, I wouldn't be asking how to do it. I don't know anyone else that owns a WHS. Besides which, wouldn't there be different configuration issues with their existing storage pool? If you can't offer any advice, that's fine, but why bother replying if you're not going to contribute anything that can help me? If it can't be done, then say it can't be done. I just think that there must be a way - the data is there on the drives, I just need to know how to recover it.

I can recover my shares easily enough - all I have to do is drag and drop the files to another computer as they are already mounted via USB. I'm asking specifically about the images stored within the dat files.

Sorry I am not clear enough for you.

My suggestion was to obtain another EX485 pull all of it's drives and replace with yours, boot it up and see if you can access your backup data. The risk here is your system drive is corrupt, and it may damage the backup data.... (the reason for cloning/copying the drives on your PC as a first step) But that requires you to be willing to invest in drives you can clone the original drives onto. Run an add in your newspaper (post a request to use someones EX485 ~ at grocery store)

Oneway or another it will cost you, either time or money. Most likely both. So we are back to what are you willing to pay. I don't know how much data is on your pool drives, I do know that professional data recovery services will cost you much more than a new server, they are not cheap at all, check with the makers of your hard drive(s).

You wanted help. I will not tell you it is impossible because it's not! Just that I've never heard of anyone offering a program that will read the backup data from drives mounted on your PC. Search (it will only take time) and perhaps little patients, from those willing to try and help you.

I understand what you are saying, but no one I know has another MSS and to buy another one is just not possible for me (I don't have the money to do so).

There is no other way to recover the data? I've seen other posts on here about replacing broken system drives and how to restore a server when that happens, but I haven't found anything regarding if the other server hardware fails (like a motherboard). If the storage drives are intact, there should be a way to recover the full backups. I know there is for the shares, because that I have done. Does that make sense?

It comes down to a question of value...

Microsoft chose to value the media, and not the computer backups. For most users they simply do not lose both the server hardware, and a PC disk at the same point in time. Microsoft felt that as long as one existed the other could be recreated easy enough. In your case new hardware and run the backup again and you are good to go, again.

I can understand your point of view, you want access to your backup data just in case. But Microsoft has chosen to blend the data from all your PCs, ( in order to save disk space ) into a composit file that to the best of my knowledge only WHS understands. I believe that a normal recovery that attempts to keep your shares destroys this backup data. There is a add-in WHS Backup Database-Backup (BDBB) that attempts to do kind of what you want. Yet in my testing of some years ago it never worked for me. It would have required you to backup while the database was working, which I assume you haven't done. My belief is unless you have money to burn, or you are skilled in writing code, and understanding databases your backup data is gone. Not impossible to recover but highly unlikely.

Exactly - well not just in case, it's more a matter of necessity. I tried replacing the system drive and when I do a Server Recovery it finds the machine, but as soon as it gets to the reboot point, it fails. I totally lose network connectivity to the WHS and not even a reboot brings it back. That's what lead me to believe the hardware was completely dead. If there is no way to recover the full backups, then I guess I am out of luck.

For what it maybe worth,

Are you sure you are using a recovery disk for your EX485 and not one for a EX47x or EX49x neither will work on your system, they don't have the correct network drivers for your NIC.

Have you unplugged everything, even hubs from your server? Again my experience is anything plugged into the server can cause it to fail....

Have you tried with *just a new* system disk? A bad disk anywhere in your server can cause it to fail....

Perhaps Yakuza will be along shortly and contribute his thoughts. He is very knowledgable in this area, far more than me.

Just my 2 cents and I feel your frustration...
I feel very safe saying [NO] on changing the dat files to something useable outside of the media server.

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@Daveed - I only have the discs that came with the EX485, so yes I'm positive they are the ones specifically for it. They are the same discs I originally used to set it up when I first bought it.

@Gardian - I'm not sure I understand what you mean. I'm not looking to change the dat files, only extract the images from them if that's possible.

Yakuza, any thoughts? Help me, Obi-wan Kinobi. You're my only hope! Haha

let me ask an obvious question that I think people were trying to ask you that I did not see an answer for.

You are saying you want to try and save your client backup data that's on the WHS? Backups for the same PCs you have up and running now?


That being asked; As a network admin, I have to ask why you would need them if the clients are still up and running and healthy?
I'll admit it is nice to have a baremetal restore of a completely new workstation build, but you can always re-create that for less effort then this sounds like.

As a general rule, you should never use a backup for only copy of important data storage. It is not a storage vessel. That is what the server shares are for. Almost all backups get deleted/recycled over time.
As a business practice, backup data is garbage "after a certain time period" and has little value. They are there in case you have to restore a failed drive or accidentally deleted / corrupt file.


This being said, I would think that you can restore the backup data assuming it is not corrupted. I know I have a USB drive on my whs that runs a script to back up the backups. check out the threads on backing up your WHS. Your backup data should be in \folders\{00008086-058D-4C89-AB57-A7F909A47AB4}. To my knowledge, you will be able to do nothing with this at all until you have WHS up and running.

I would be more worried about the hardware at this point. The data should be safe if you don't monkey with it. You need to just relax and take it a step at a time. Panicking and rushing will lead to disaster.

I suggest your next step now is is either beg, borrow or steal (from another pc, not a store) some crappy Sata HDD or Buy a new Large drive to use for the pool after the recovery of your MSS. Use this new HHD to fresh install WHS on your MSS. Do not try to put any data on this build. This is to test the hardware.

If it works, then you have an idea that you have an OS issue on your old system drive. It might be corrupted. Then we can worry about replacing that and recovery to new rebuild.
If it fails (and it sounds like it will), you need to go about getting HP to repair the unit under warranty (assuming it is still covered). Once that is done, you should be able to just pop your drives in and go, (unless your recovery attempts corrupted the system drive).

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