In this problem description, I may not have all of the events completely covered or in exactly the actual sequence. Several weeks ago my ex495 began providing daily warnings that our laptops were not getting successful backups. I also noticed warning messages occurring about an error in the backup database. Doing a quick look at the logs I discovered that there was a warning about a possible disk error and that repair should be run.
Before I could do that I received warning lights on the front indicating an error in the database. When that happened the server was unresponsive and had to be manually restarted.
I have initiated the repair function from the home server console and have also attempted the recommended chkdsk command from a remote console both wireless and wired into a LAN. All of these attempts would run for a while and then become unresponsive. The console connection would eventually disconnect and would not allow a reconnect. I left it alone for over 24 hours in several attempts. I was able to shut the server off and restart it. It would go into the error condition as indicated by the lights. When that happened, if I shut if off again and restarted, it would come back and seem to run ok, expect for the backups.
After some research on the forum, I decided to install the SMART program. That has seemed to work ok. I wish I had found out about it a while ago as it would have likely prevented the situation in which I now find myself.
The SMART program indicates that I have an impending failure in physical drive 1 and an existing fail on physical drive 0. Drive 0 is the original 1.5T drive and drive 1 is a 2T Seagate green drive. These drives have been running for several years. There is plenty of space in the system.
I believe that I can get the system up and running for short times. It is turned off as of now, and I am not taking backups. I also lost access to the music files that I use to run Squeezebox and a Touch music server. The music files have been temporarily backed up to a separate system and so are not lost as of now. They cannot remain there.
If I lose the pc backups on the server, that is not a big deal as long as I can begin taking new backups as soon as possible.
What I need to know is what options are available now. How can I get the server running again? I assume that I need to replace both drives and will consider installing three drives.
I also have stored a lot of images, both pictures and documents in tiff and other image formats that are necessary for genealogy research. These are all currently also available on several laptops so are not lost at this time but would be almost impossible, practically, to replace without a huge effort.
The only add-ons installed are Squeezebox, toolkit, APC’s Gridjunction UPS code, and only recently, SMART.
• If I need to reconstruct the system, is there a way to preserve what is still good on the server, including the settings and software so that I do not have to go through a setup again? • What procedures should I follow to get things operational again? • Another issue is the potential effect of a Windows 10 upgrade on our laptops. Will the server handled system backups for a W10 system? • Another issue is that I really do not currently have a third set of backups and have been intending to cover this issue anyway. • Bottom line - What is the best way to get this server running properly again with the least amount of lost data and settings?
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