Thanks again for the help guys.

I've tried for a week to get in touch with Overtek..no luck. The BestPowerPro psu's didn't seem to have good feedback according to my research, so I ended up ordering a KDM psu. They had mixed reviews, but hopefully it'll last me until I can find a better unit.

Also ordered 2 WD 2TB green drives (since I already have green drives), and a debug board from a guy on here. I forget his name, but he seems to be a regular here, and has a good rep.

As soon as I get this thing running, I'm going to install the FREE SMART program. I assume I can get that going through the add-on program search on the server ? If not, can someone tell me how to install it.

Thanks !!!!!

Those Green Drives you just got or will soon have will be AF or Advance Format. Take great care to read the information Western Digital Provides for setting them up on a Legacy Operating System like XP since WHSv1 is a Legacy OS. They could be plug an play or you may have to set a jumper or align them depending on how they are used.

_________________
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 have used the green drives before and they are plug and play. That was a while ago so the formatting might have changed since then.

The SMART is here. http://www.dojonorthsoftware.net/dl/Ins ... lassic.zip

I believe it has the instructions in the zip but not sure. You install it like any other add-ins.

Well, I knew it couldn't be easy.

Got everything installed today, and turned it on. All the bottom lights came on and were blue, but the health light stayed flashing HOWEVER, none of the hard drive lights came on, and it didn't sound like they powered up.

Any ideas before I pull this thing apart again?

The KDM psu came with some type of "adaptor" but no instructions as to whether I should use it. It hard several wires "jumpered" between each other, so I assumed that was to fix the issue people mentioned about having to "rewire" the psu. Was I supposed to use it ?

I'd hate to think I just waisted all this money, and the thing is fried.

After trying it a couple of more times, I'm back to where I started. The network light goes off after a couple of minutes, the health light flashes, and the hard drives never spin up. If there's something simple I can check, I'd love to know how. If not, any recommendations for replacement ? Could I fnd another 485 or 495 case and drop in my hard drives without any issues ?

Are you using the original system hard drive? If you are did you check it for errors yet? Your really need to run CHKDSK on the hard drive if you haven't already. It can have a few errors and still work great on an external adapter but when you put them in the server it will have problems.

If you do have errors on the system drive you can do a recovery with a new hard drive and see how that works.

I don't know anything about the KDM so I can't tell you about the adapter.

I forgot to run the CHKDSK, so I'll do that. But the hard drive lights aren't even coming on, and the NIC lights on the rear aren't flashing either. It seems like it isn't getting power to the system. That's why I wondered if the power supply was right, but I'm afraid to take off the adaptor and try it.

Get in contact with KDM and ask them about the adapter.

What I would do is run CHKDSK on all the old hard drives and have it fix the errors then put them back in the same positions they were in and see how that goes. If it works then I would put a new hard drive in another data tray position and go thru the process of removing your old data drive.

If that doesn't work I would put a new hard drive in system drive tray (lowest position) and do a recovery.

If that doesn't work as well I would use all new hard drives and start fresh.

First you can only drop the drives in to the same model series and boot provided the drives are in good working order. WHS is very sensitive to drive issues so often the drives can cause issues with booting the server. When you move the drives to another HP MSS Model Series you would need to perform a Server Recovery.

If you purchased a PSU from KDM for the HP MSS you should be good to go changing it out. All the HP MSS Models use the same PSU with exception to the LX Series which uses and external Power Brick.

Again for any WHS server to boot properly the hard drives must be in good working order to avoid issues with the boot process especially the headless servers like the HP MSS.

_________________
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

Yes, you should use the adapter as the Media Smarts are wired different then a normal motherboard. I have used one of their PS with the adapter and it seemed to work fine, I only ran it a few days.

I would be looking for a ex-490 on ebay for a replacement, to me, the ex-48? series seemed to have more problems then the rest. If you are going to stay with this solution then getting a ex-490 and then you will have spare parts (I have 2 extra power supplies) and lots of spares parts as I plan on using this as long as I can.

Otherwise, you might want to start thinking about what would be your next solution. Some have gone NAS some have built home server like pc with win8.

Only you know what will work best for you. But I see lots of red flags, (Green Drives and a ex-485) some have had good luck with green drives, I have not.
Hope this helps and good luck.

_________________
[X510 CPU/RAM/All 2 TB Red's] [X510 CPU/Sync'ed Backup/All 2 TB Hitachi's]
[X510 /2 in box]
[X710 LIAN LI DIY W2016E] Stablebit Drivepool [EX-503 LIAN LI 5-bay USB3 External]
Fear the Cloud

Thanks for the advice guys !!!

I checked both drives. Both showed no issues, and seem to work flawlessly when connected to my desktop. For whatever reason, they just aren't getting power in the server. Maybe a bad board ??

I was able to get in touch with KDM, and they advised to keep the pigtail, but check all the pins to make sure everything was connected as it should be. As best as I can tell, everything looks fine. I don't see any bent pins.

For now, I've taken one of the 2TB drives I just bought, put in my desktop, and copied the server files over to it. For now, I'm going to keep the secondary server drive intact (since it has the majority of my important stuff on it) as my "backup". I'd prefer to just drop my 2 current server drives into another machine, and keep moving on. I was thinking dropping them in another 485 would be relatively painless since it's the same machine. Or better yet, maybe find known working boards and just replace them into my unit, especially since I just bought a new psu, and debug board. BUT if I could put the drives into a 490 without any major issues, that might work too.

I want to stay with the "home server concept", and I have a couple of older computers I could probably convert into a server, but honestly, reading about the different types of server software has just got me confused.

You can use the drives in a ex-490 but you will need to do a recovery (not factory reset) with all the drives in place and it should rebuild most everything, it will show all kinds of errors till it is all up to date.
Goodluck.

_________________
[X510 CPU/RAM/All 2 TB Red's] [X510 CPU/Sync'ed Backup/All 2 TB Hitachi's]
[X510 /2 in box]
[X710 LIAN LI DIY W2016E] Stablebit Drivepool [EX-503 LIAN LI 5-bay USB3 External]
Fear the Cloud

Ok guys. I appreciate all the help so far, BUT here we go again. Never got the server working, so I just bought a used (but appears in very good shape) EX-485 (same as what I had) from ebay. It came with 3 hard drives, and all the original software. When plugged in, everything seems to boot up fine. All the lights are blue and steady. However, it does not show anywhere on my network, and the connector software cannot find find it.

Based on what Comp1962 said, I tried putting my hard drives from the old server in it to try. Again everything seems to boot up fine, but not showing on the network. Is there something I'm missing ? Can I hook a laptop directly to it via the USB port and run a recovery ? Recommendations ?

This thing is REALLY starting to piss me off. Finally got it to show on the network, but the previous owner still had some type of password protection so it wouldn't let me in. Had nothing to loose, so I did a factory rest on the machine. It goes through the entire process fine, but now the connector software says it will not install because there is a newer version on m machine..I assume it means my laptop. Anyway, all the server related software was deleted prior to trying a new install...as specified in the manual. I can still see the server on the network, but can't connect to it. All the server lights are lit blue, but they have a very slow flash pattern from a dim blue to a bright blue.

For laughs, I put in my hard drives from my old machine. I get the same slow, flash from all the lights. The only difference is that after about 10 minutes, the hard drive lights and network light go off, and the health flashes red. Makes me think I had a drive going bad on the old system after all. Although nothing was found bad when I checked with my laptop.

I'm about fed up with the whole thing. I've got an old tower that I ran XP on, that I am seriously thinking about putting several hard drives in and trying my luck with Home Server 2011.

Ok......Where to start.......

First:

The error message you saw about the software not being able to install is common when you perform a recovery using a newer system meaning the client being used to recover the server. Funny thing is you can then stop the recovery on the client end and simply install the client software from the Client Software disk and the recovery will pickup where it left off which is where you would initially configure the server.

Now this issue only occurs with the original MSS Software and on the EX48x its v2.x. If you happen to have v3.x this issues does not present itself. Keep in mind that when the MSS first came out the Windows OS Choices were XP and VISTA and because the server OS is 32bit it was always best to perform recoveries with a 32bit OS Client either XP or VISTA. The v3.x software incorporates compatibility with not only Win7 but also with 32 or 64 bit clients when performing a Server Recovery or Factory Reset.

Second:

WHSv1 is very sensitive to hard drive issues. The OS was also intended to work with the older SATA Hard Drives which use 512b Sector Sizes. Since that time the newer AF Drives were developed which use 4K Sector sizes and initially these were problematic getting them to work properly with WHSv1. Some drives are plug and play others require Alignment or Jumpers depending on how you use them. There is a ton of info on how to use these drives with WHSv1 much of the info is dated and pertains to specific drives. Over time these issues have changed as some are plug and play because they emulate the 512b Sector Size and are known as 512e Drives. I know for me this was a rather annoying thing to deal with WHSv1 so I moved onto other solutions but I still do run WHSv1 but keep it alive with my older drive stock and when they are gone who knows what I will do.

Third:

The network issue is by far the one issue I would be very concerned with. So I would want to make certain its working. I take it that it may indeed be working as your seeing the server but then again your not but just because you do not see it does not mean its not there because it might be there under a different name depending on how the server is booting, if your running a recovery or have a fully configured server with an assigned name. Easiest way to figure this out is when the server does appear on your network, logon to your router and check the DHCP Listing for the server. Next write down the MAC Address of the server as this never changes. If your router supports IP Reservation then reserve the IP NUMBER for the server so that every time you turn the server on the router will assign it that one IP NUMBER. If you do not do this then your servers IP number can change. If you know the servers IP Number then you can always PING it to see if its there or not.

I will also mention that when you place your EX485 into its recovery mode that the Network Port will go active immediately then it will drop out when it boots from the onboard flash and the driver for the network port is reloaded after which it will become active again. This is just how it works and not much you can do about it but if you know what to look for and how something works then you will not scratch your head as often.

WHS2011:

I tell you honestly WHS2011 is very nice if you can obtain it these days and then if you can you may want to install it on another machine which is more expandable. If all you need is what the EX48x has to offer then perfect. Just know in advance the LED's will not work properly unless you install additional software and the INTEL RST Driver. You will need to figure out how to manage your storage and I would highly recommend you dedicate a drive to backup the OS and this can be an external drive. This comes in real handy should your OS Drive Crap out and you need to perform a recovery which can be done from the BACKUP and your done in 1-2 hours and its very sweet too.

There is a lot to this so please read up on it. I would recommend a DEBUG Board so you can get a VGA Port to make installing the OS much easier and less frustrating. You can do a headless install which costs you nothing but if things go wrong the cost will be your time......

OTHER OS's:

There are other server operating systems available to you and they have been discussed in the forums over the years and best of all they are free but not without their challenges. Again here a DEBUG Board is highly recommend.

_________________
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