My EX490 has run without problems for 2 years. This week I came home from 2 weeks of vacation to find a red health light on my EX490. Paper clipping it gave an error of "Recovery Mode Failure" (1 white, 4 red). I have made no changes, upgrades, etc. to the unit in the last year. Power cycling the unit removes the error temporarily but eventually it returns. I'm not clear how to address the issue. I see a number of threads re: people who have had recovery mode problems, but all of those appear to be cases where the person initiated the recovery so not sure if they apply in my case.

Any help would be appreciated.

Hi bobman welcome to the forums!

While I do not own or use an EX490 it sounds to me like your server is not able to boot off the System Drive and I could be wrong on this but no harm will come from taking a peak at your system drive.

Remove the system drive and connect it to your computer internal or external. External connection is the easiest if you have a cable or docking station to make the connection.

With the drive connected see if it shows up on your computer and if it does you will see 2 partitions named SYS and DATA. You will want to perform a CHKDSK on the SYS Partition to see if its in good condition and if not then have CHKDSK perform a repair on it. Then return the System Drive back to your server and see if it boots properly.

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Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

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~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Doesn't look like connecting the drive internally or externally is an option. We only have laptops and the drive isn't USB (Seagate Barracuda, SATA I assume).

Plan B?

Bob

There are a wide variety of options for connecting drives to another computer be it a LAPTOP or Desktop. All the drives in your EX490 are SATA and it doesn't matter if they are SATA I, II or III as they are all backward compatable with the original SATA format.

A docking station is the easiest way to connect SATA Drives 2.5 and 3.5 to a client computer and they are available off the self from place like Best Buy, Microcenter, Frys Electronics and possibly Radio Shack as well as etailers like NewEgg. Here is an example on one you can concider in the link below:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817182197

The one I personally use is this on :> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817153112

The other option is to use a USB-SATA Cable: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Apricorn+-+ ... 931&st=USB to Sata Cable&cp=1&lp=4

If you work with a wider range of drives IDE now refrered to as PATA and SATA then there are interface connectors that provide you with all the connections you need including a powersupply. The Link below will show you what I am refering to:

http://www.microcenter.com/single_produ ... id=0249962

Lately I just use a Port Multiplier to connect my drives to a client to work on. While this is a more expensive solution it provides easy drive connections to the client and most important cooling for the drives while they are being worked on for extensive periods of time and allows me to connect multiple drives if necessary to a client but my servers tend to have a rather large hard drive population so I just choose to be prepared in the event the need arises. I also work on a wide range of computers and servers at multiple locations so I use a wide array of items to assist me so I can get the job done in a timely mannor.

_________________
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

Thanks for your help. I haven't been able to get back to this until now.
- I wasn't aware of drive docks until your suggestion, so I ordered one, and while I wasn't able to solve the issue myself, it made it possible solve the problem with help from HP. So thanks!
- Final Outcome: Even though the symptoms didn't point to a bad drive, that was the problem. I was able to fix the problems with Seagate SeaTools for DOS. For what it's worth, the HP rep also told me that if I ended up replacing drive, get one not greater than 2T and should not have Advanced Format feature.

Steps:
- I tried a number of steps myself including doing a recovery. But I was never able to get into recovery mode.
- I finally called HP Support, 800-474-6836 > Get Tech Support> Something Else > Mediasmart. No charge and the guy was excellent.
- Had me pull the second disk (I use duplication), put it in drive dock and check to see if the partition was full. No problem, plenty of room on partition. Note, to see all partitions must have Windows Explorer set to show hidden files.
- Had me do recovery using the Server Recovery Disk: Make sure to 1) Turn off AV and Firewall; 2) On client remove the PXE folder (find it via Run > %temp%).
- Failed
- Had me remove ALL drives from server and run the recovery with no drives.
- Success (i.e. was able to get into recovery mode).
- Told me that the likely problem was a bad drive. Also told me that if I ended up replacing drive, get one not greater than 2T and should not have Advanced Format feature.
- Instructed me to pull main drive, put in doc station and test using SeaTools for Windows from Seagate (http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/, Downloads. Select Basic Tests > Long Generic. This will test and also fix some issues. Takes several hours to run. Note, you can run the test with a USB drive dock, but to repair, must have an SATA drive dock. If it’s USB, SeaTools sees it as USB and doesn’t show the repair options. I have an eSata port on my laptop so was able to connect an eSata dock. Don't know what you would do if you don't have an eSata port.
- Drive failed and SeaTools for Windows couldn't repair.
- SeaTools indicated that next step is to run SeaTools for DOS. According to Seagate notes, many drives returned for warranty can be repaired by SeaTools for DOS.
- Downloaded and ran (must burn to disc) SeaTools for DOS
- SeaTools found errors but was able to repair them.
- Reinstalled drive in server and ran Factory Reset recovery per the manual/on-screen instructions (because I had backups of the data I opted for Factory Reset because I didn’t know if data files would be good after the disk repair operation).
- Notes:
1) Make sure to delete PXE file from client (see above) or recovery will fail
2) When I rebooted the health light would turn red after several seconds and the recovery wouldn't work. The trick os when you reboot, as soon health light alternates red/blue (before it turns to red), use the paperclip to press button.

You might also want to check out the new WindowSMART 2012 which will work with USB Connected drives so you can read the SMART DATA on the actual drives. This software is not so much for repairing drive issues but is excellent for pointing out issue with drives that the OEM software often falls short on.

There is also a WHS version of this software which you can install on your server to help you monitor the health of your drives. For more information check out the link below:

http://www.dojonorthsoftware.net/

_________________
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