For the last few days, my EX 485 is inaccessible via my network, and I ultimately have to restart the server by holding in the button on the back of the server (it does not respond to shutting down by just pushing the button). After restarting, it will work fine for a day, but the same problem occurs the next day when I try to access the server.

Looking at the event log, it looks like the server is freezing up at midnight:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: EventLog
Event Category: None
Event ID: 6008
Date: 5/11/2009
Time: 9:05:40 AM
User: N/A
Computer: HPSERVER
Description:
The previous system shutdown at 12:00:47 AM on 5/10/2009 was unexpected.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: d9 07 05 00 00 00 0a 00 Ù.......
0008: 00 00 00 00 2f 00 50 00 ..../.P.
0010: d9 07 05 00 00 00 0a 00 Ù.......
0018: 04 00 00 00 2f 00 50 00 ..../.P.

There are similar errors for the previous times I have had to restart. The server status is otherwise indicated as healthy. I would really appreciate any suggestions on how to fix this.

Thanks!

First, welcome to the World of MSS/WHS! Good to have you aboard!

I would suggest that you check to see if there is a scheduled shutdown as an initial step You might also search on this site for "unexpected" and "shutdown" and see if any of the posts containing both those terms are helpful -- there are several threads that may be of interest. (Might try adding "midnight" to that as well although I didn't when I tried it a moment ago.)

Keep us posted...

_________________
....JBick

EX475, 2 GB, LE-1640
PC1: Vista-->W7 Ultimate/32, (D-Drive RAID-5 Array)
PC2: Lenovo Laptop, Win XP Home SP3
2xLinksys WRT54G v1.1 and 2xNetGear GS105 Gbit switch

Thanks!

OK, after searching, I found this prior post regarding the midnight issue:

http://www.mediasmartserver.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3773

A few days before this problem started, I had a server health warning, which if I recall correctly, indicated there was a file conflict with one of the files saved on the server. I followed the link the the Microsoft website regarding the particular error, I followed the instructions and ran chkdsk. (I think this was the page I was looking at: http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/whsfaq/thread/7ef4db6c-4a73-42e7-b79e-cacd41365442). The server rebooted, and the next time I checked the health warning was gone.

Here are the errors I was getting that lead to me running chkdsk:

Event Type: Information
Event Source: Application Popup
Event Category: None
Event ID: 26
Date: 5/2/2009
Time: 10:47:02 AM
User: N/A
Computer: HPSERVER
Description:
Application popup: Windows - Corrupt File : The file or directory D:\shares\Music\xxxxxxx.mp3 is corrupt and unreadable. Please run the Chkdsk utility.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Ntfs
Event Category: Disk
Event ID: 55
Date: 5/2/2009
Time: 10:49:07 AM
User: N/A
Computer: HPSERVER
Description:
The file system structure on the disk is corrupt and unusable. Please run the chkdsk utility on the volume D:.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 0c 00 04 00 02 00 52 00 ......R.
0008: 02 00 00 00 37 00 04 c0 ....7..À
0010: 00 00 00 00 02 01 00 c0 .......À
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0028: a5 08 14 00 ¥...


I am not getting these error messages any more, but the midnight shutdown started after that, so it looks like my problem is related to chkdsk.

I am wondering if the chkdsk I attempted to run is causing some kind of conflict, and if there is some way to make it stop. So any ideas on how to resolve this issue?

Thanks!

My first inclination is to suggest you do a Server RESTORE (NOT a Factory Reset -- you loose all your stored data doing that).

BUT...

Thing is, though, that the errors you got were for the D-Drive, not the C-Drive. I think that before doing that I would shut down the MSS, pull the drives one at a time, install them on another machine and run CHKDSK /R (select both checkboxes if you do it via the disk properties) on each partition. (There are TWO partitions on the System Drive.) Do them all, even if you think you found the error early. If that fails, my next suggestion would be the Server Restore.

_________________
....JBick

EX475, 2 GB, LE-1640
PC1: Vista-->W7 Ultimate/32, (D-Drive RAID-5 Array)
PC2: Lenovo Laptop, Win XP Home SP3
2xLinksys WRT54G v1.1 and 2xNetGear GS105 Gbit switch

Well I think I managed to fix the problem, here is what I did in case anyone else has the same issue.

I reran chkdsk on both of my drives, and it found no errors, but I still got the unexpected shutdown at midnight issue. Then I found this http://support.microsoft.com/kb/959608 which describes the problem I was having, so I downloaded and ran the hotfix linked on the page, waited until midnight, and no shutdown!

Thanks for your help.

Thanks for sharing your solution!

_________________
Alex Kuretz
Remote Notification: Monitoring and alerting for your Home Server via email, Twitter, text message, RSS, push notifications, and on your Mac desktop
Have you tried our Add-Ins?