I can not access my 485. I can not see it on the network. I tried rebooting power and connection lights are blue.
Health light is blinking blue, after a while (don't know how long) it will be come steady white.

Tried Server Recovery disk, but server could not be found.

Reading through posts, I tried removing all the drives and rebooting. No luck.
I added just the system drive back in, again no luck.

I see some posts about a new motherboard, since I can't communicate with my 485 how do I confirm.

Hi seabee welcome to the forums.

I can't actually comment on the WHITE health light because I do not see what the meaning of that is. The blinking blue health light is an indication that your server is booting. I would not jump to the conclusion your servers motherboard is the problem just yet. What we can say for sure at this point is there exists a connectivity issue and possibly a drive issue as well. So lets rule out the connectivity issue first since its the easiest thing to determine.

With the server off back out the system drive so that its not connected then turn the server on. Observer the health light and when it blinks the recovery blink code which is Aqua White and Red, logon to your router and check the DHCP listing for a device name MININT followed by other things. If you see this then your NIC and motherboard are working properly and if not then check the network connections between the server and the router.

If everything so far checks out then I would shut the server down, disconnect all the storage pool drives and reseat the system drive and turn the server on. If you see the same thing you originally reported then I would shut the server down and remove the system drive. Connect the system drive to another computer and run CHKDSK /r on the system drive. The system drive has 2 partitions SYS and DATA and I would run CHKDSK on both partitions. Hopefully this will correct any issues your having with the system drive after which you can reconnect the system drive and storage pool drives in the server and attempt to boot the server.

In the even the system drive boots the server without the storage pool drives then an issue exists with one or more of the storage pool drives so you can then shut the server down, back out all but one of the storage pool drives, boot the server and if it boots then shut it down and insert another drive until the server no longer boots properly and its that last drive you connected that is causing your issue. Its this drive you will want to connect to another pc and run CHKDSK /r.

Along the way I should mention that when you boot a server with missing drives it will report a bunch of errors regarding missing drives and that the client backup database is corrupt, just ignore these errors as they are just a normal WHS error report when a drive is missing. Do not make any attempt to repair the client backup database or you will certainly run the risk of losing part or all of it.

I have given you enough information to keep you busy for quite sometime and enough information to help you correct drive issues. In the event you have a failed hard drive then you will need to replace it if you do not have enough space in your storage pool to accomodate the removal. If you have enough space then just have WHS remove the hard drive and it will rebuild your storage pool data. You will lose data stored on the hard drive which was either not duplicated or not set for duplication along with any client data WHS stored on the hard drive.

Good Luck with resolving your issue.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

Sorry this took so long, but my day job got in the way.

I did what you said and nothing, just the system drive no love. Just the data drives no love.
No sign of the server on the network.

As far as I can tell the unit has network connectivity but I don't know how to be sure.

I apologise for the delay I was traveling this past weekend and recovering for the long drive up and down the east coast. I did mention how to check and verify if the LAN port is working. Back out the system drive and turn the server on and wait till the health light blinks the Recovery Mode Blink Code. When you see this then logon to your router and look at the DHCP Listing for a device starting with the name MININT followe by other things. If you see this then your LAN Port is Functional if not then your servers LAN Port is not functional.

Let me know what you find.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

The Health Light is blinking aqua, and no sign of the server or MINMINT on the Router (DHCP).

So does this mean my LAN port is bad? If so its part of the motherboard.

I searched for replacement motherboards on the web but found nothing.

thanks

I just want to confirm something. When you did this, did you back out the bottom drive from the server?

In the mean time if you back out all the drives and disconnect any eSATA and USB connected devices and retry turning the server on. This will guaranty there are no bootable devices connected to the server so when you turn the server on it will boot from the SMI area and force your server into its recovery mode which will show up on your router as a device starting with the name MININT.

Let me know how you make out.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

I apologize for butting in but I am having mostly the same problem with my EX490 and have been following this post. My 490 will start up and appear fine for about 10 minutes. Then all of the sudden it loses all connectivity to the network. I can not connect to the 490 via shares, RDC or through the WHS connector. I then have to do a hard shut down with the button on the back of the 490 to shut it down and start over. I can ping the 490 from other clients on the network before and after the problem starts.
I have performed your diagnosis steps exactly and I have concluded that the OS drive must have some problem.

One thing I noticed. You mentioned I should see a device called MININT on my router DHCP results when I start the server with no drives in it. My server is called "miller-server" I see it appear as "miller-server" at the IP reserved for it when I start the 490 with no drives in it. I have reserved a DHCP for it through the router.
I do not see a MININT device anywhere in my router DHCP results. Do you know why this is?

You mention connecting the OS drive to another computer and running checkdisk on it. As I have never done this before are there any tips you can provide.

Thanks for your advice.
Jamr

_________________
Thanks
Jamr / 007 Systems

The device name MININT I have mentioned only applied to the EX47x and EX48x and possibly the LX series units which boot from a hidden area on the motherboard called the SMI Area to place the server into its recovery mode. The EX49x server is different in its recovery and I am not quite certain what if anything to look for on a Router because you have to direct connect a client to the server to properly perform a recovery if this is what you want to do. In the older units booting up an empty server is the easiest way to determine if the LAN Port is functional or not.

Some have reported the firewall on the client end would block access to the server so it would be wise to look at the firewall or temporarily disable the firewall to see if its at play or not.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

OK, i pulled the system drive. Yes Minit showed up.

I did as requested replacing the system drive, same issue. Pulled system drive an plugged it into my ThernalTake Black Widow.
Nothing, the drive spins up, but it never shows up as a drive.

I checked the 3 storage drives and all is well.

So I assume the system drive is bad??

Hopefully that is an easy fix.