Hi all,
I am using WHS 2003 and managed to lose a critical file on my Windows 7 machine.
My critical file was a Virtual Machine with VMWare. It was 100GB and had over 20 years of my work on it. I have been having problems with VMWare server crashing on my Win 7 64bit so tried to use Oracle Virtual Box. This didn't work so I deleted what I thought was the profile from Virtual Box, but it also deleted my virtual disk that I had attached to it. No amount of file recovery software would rescue it.
My stress levels were REALLY high.
On top of this, I had tried restoring back to my Windows 7 from WHS but I kept getting the WHS 81% issue. This was increasing my stress levels. No matter what I tried, nothing worked. I had searched the internet till the early hours, asked people that I know might be able to help... but nothing. I even downloaded a small application that recovered some files on my server, but my critical files, it had not got a clue.
In the end, I decided to put in another hard disk and installed Vista 32 bit on it, get my network working on it (Dell have removed all drivers for Dell XPS 1640... aarrgghh!!! Had to find others... adding to my stress). So, I tried connecting to my server (after installing the connector)... I was now getting somewhere. I could repeatedly get my restore open and see the restore files... however, I was still having problems. It would start to restore then fail, and my source drive (WHS) would disappear.
I put a ping to my server in place and tried again. It failed again, but I noticed that a moment before it failed, the ping had no response... aha... a clue.
I got my crossover cable and connected my client to WHS directly. Set up the ping and started the restore. Again, it failed.
Luckily, I have a second network card in my server. I disabled the first (a gigabit card) and enabled my other card. I put my crossover in that card and started the restore again.
SUCCESS
(or should I say... so far, so good). The ping has not failed yet and the files are being copied across.
I hope that what I have found might help others...
In summary...
New hard disk
Install 32 bit OS (Vista - XP wouldn't install for some reason)
Direct cable connection to server with crossover UTP
Set up a ping (ping SERVER -t)
Start restore
(Network still failing??? try another network card)
Good luck.