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PostPosted: Thu Dec 24, 2015 1:09 pm 
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I have not used my EX495 for a couple of years since I moved. All the PC's that were previously connected to the server are gone.

I am now trying to power up the server and connect to new PC's. First, I had a lot of trouble installing the connector software (on a windows 7 and 8.1) machines as the server kept getting disconnected from the network and I kept trying to hard reboot. It finally installed on one machine, somehow. But the problems have continued every since.

The back up service on my server is not running. I am unable to connect to my server via RDP. My server seems to go off the network every few hours or every time I try to restart. The only way I have been able to get this back on the network is doing a hard reboot with all but the primary drive removed. Once it shows on the network, I plug the other drives in and it is recognizing them.

This has been a very reliable server and I am not sure why it is causing so many problems now. I am at a stage where I am trying to copy some important files off the server to an external drive as I do not know how long this server will last.

Any ideas or suggestions would really be helpful.

Thank you in advance.


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PostPosted: Fri Dec 25, 2015 10:37 am 
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Sounds like bad drive/s. A usb to sata dock comes in handy, to check drives and to access the files on them (you have to turn on hidden files and folders)
SMART addin would/should of told you if a drives was/were failing if it was installed.
http://www.dojonorthsoftware.net/dl/InstallHomeServerSMARTClassic.zip

But now, getting the drives connected to another pc and checking them is next.
http://www.dojonorthsoftware.net/Downloads.html
This version of smart you can install on a running pc with one of the server drives and check them one at a time.
You can use it as trial for awhile.

The addin is free.

The bottom drive in the server is the OS drive, so mark that drive so you can get it back in the right spot. It does not matter which slots the other drives go.

Your OS drive might have become corrupt and or filled with error logs.
But until you check all the drives and save your data I would not try a server recovery.

This should get ya started, Good luck & Merry Xmas!

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PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2015 1:35 pm 
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Also you did not state what is between your server and pc's such as switch router or hub.
One of those components may be defective as well as a possible bad drive.
Try connecting a pc direct to the server and see if the connector installs correctly.
Last case is it may be a bad internal nic on the server.

You will need some trial and error testing to determine what it is.

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PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2015 4:15 pm 
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Ruben Rocha wrote:
Also you did not state what is between your server and pc's such as switch router or hub.
One of those components may be defective as well as a possible bad drive.
Try connecting a pc direct to the server and see if the connector installs correctly.
Last case is it may be a bad internal nic on the server.

You will need some trial and error testing to determine what it is.


I do have a router and multiple switches between the home server and the pc. But they do not seem to be the problem. When I was troubleshooting this issue, I moved my server over to connect directly to my pc and even then I had problems installing the software. It looks like the 1st part, which is the installation works fine. But after that, when it is trying to configure the backup, it comes up with the error message saying, the server is no longer available on the network or the server is not available and it fails to configure the backup. The software then proceeds to automatically uninstall itself as it did not fully complete everything.

Recently, I got a message saying there is an update available to the media connector software and when I tried to install it on my pc, it failed and uninstalled the existing version as well. So, I am back to square one.

One constant message that I get is the \\xxxserver\software or \\xxxserver\videos is not accessible.


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2015 4:17 pm 
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Gardian wrote:
Sounds like bad drive/s. A usb to sata dock comes in handy, to check drives and to access the files on them (you have to turn on hidden files and folders)
SMART addin would/should of told you if a drives was/were failing if it was installed.
http://www.dojonorthsoftware.net/dl/InstallHomeServerSMARTClassic.zip

But now, getting the drives connected to another pc and checking them is next.
http://www.dojonorthsoftware.net/Downloads.html
This version of smart you can install on a running pc with one of the server drives and check them one at a time.
You can use it as trial for awhile.

The addin is free.

The bottom drive in the server is the OS drive, so mark that drive so you can get it back in the right spot. It does not matter which slots the other drives go.

Your OS drive might have become corrupt and or filled with error logs.
But until you check all the drives and save your data I would not try a server recovery.

This should get ya started, Good luck & Merry Xmas!


Thank you. I will try to download the addin. But if this is something that I need to install on the server, I am not sure how I can do that without being able to access the server.

I do have a USB to eSATA dock. When I tried to connect one of the hard drives to check, it felt like I do not have access to the folders and files on the drive. I thought they were formatted differently when installed on the home server and so I could not do anything to them from the windows pc. I will check the software that you have given and see if I can find anything (either on the drive with the OS on it or any of the data drives)


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2015 6:00 pm 
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Thanks for the smart tool. I installed it and checked all the drives on my home server and the external USB box. The main OS drive shows some issues. It says failed in 2 areas (Reallocated Sectors Count and Reallocation Event Count). Does this mean I need to replace this drive. If I do need to replace the drive, what is the best way to do it. Is there a way to backup this data to a new drive so that I don't need to re-install everything. If not, how do I install the software on a new drive? Do I just use the software installation cd that came with my HP home server? If I do re-install software on a new drive, will I be able to connect my additional drives (that have data from WHS on them and use them) or will I lose all of that data since WHS always sees it as one giant drive and does not recognize the difference on where the primary drive ends and where the additional drives come into the picture.

Are there any other options besides replacing the drive (at this point of time).


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2015 4:52 pm 
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Update: I ran chkdsk on the main OS drive by connecting it to the PC via a USB dock. It came back with no errors. One thing that windows found was that free space was marked as allocated and it said windows has corrected the problem. Now, should I still replace the OS drive (since SMART tool indicates that there are a couple of errors. If yes, what is the best way so that I lose minimal data.

I have reviewed several posts on recovery and it looks like I would have to place a new drive in the OS drive slot and connect the WHS directly to my PC and try to do a server recovery using the software on the CD rom that came from HP. What happens to all the data that is there on the old OS drive. Where does the server get that data from if that is no longer connected to the WHS.


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2015 5:27 pm 
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When you perform a recovery (NOT RESET) all the drives need to be in good shape and connected, during the recovery, it will lay down a new OS and rebuild all your data.
That is what it is supposed to do.
But, If you have stuff on there that you can't lose, I would try to grab it first and stow it somewhere.

I would buy a new 2tb drive and replace the system drive, I like the WD red drives.
The drive sounds like it was repaired, but it will need to be watched at best, if your system is working now, you can install the smart addin and keep a better eye on that drive.
Maybe replace it down the road when it is better timing for you. If the drive starts acting up again, well, time for a new drive and recovery..
Good luck, you are doing great so far :-)

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2015 7:22 pm 
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Gardian wrote:
When you perform a recovery (NOT RESET) all the drives need to be in good shape and connected, during the recovery, it will lay down a new OS and rebuild all your data.
That is what it is supposed to do.
But, If you have stuff on there that you can't lose, I would try to grab it first and stow it somewhere.

I would buy a new 2tb drive and replace the system drive, I like the WD red drives.
The drive sounds like it was repaired, but it will need to be watched at best, if your system is working now, you can install the smart addin and keep a better eye on that drive.
Maybe replace it down the road when it is better timing for you. If the drive starts acting up again, well, time for a new drive and recovery..
Good luck, you are doing great so far :-)


Thank you so much. But I don't think my problem is solved yet. The chkdsk for the OS drive came back fine, but I am still having problems connecting to my WHS. It struggles to stay connected. So, I am still thinking that I have to replace the OS drive. What I do not understand is how does the server recovery work. Where is it going to recover the data from. What happens to all the data that is sitting on that OS drive, if I am putting a new hard drive (to be the new OS drive). I think I do have some spare 2 TB drives that I had ordered, but not yet used.


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2015 7:26 pm 
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In other words, my question is when I am replacing the system drive, do I connect the old system drive to one of the open slots so that the server can find the data on that drive?


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PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2015 1:05 pm 
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No.
When you replace the system drive, you just need to make sure all the other drives are attached. You will not need the old system drive.

Once you are complete with the recovery and everything is running good, then maybe you could format the old system drive, if it is somewhat usable, put it in a usb enclose and use it for junk files or something.
I have a 2tb red drive that has problems that could not be fixed, but it still works to hold my PC images.

Good Luck and Happy new year!!!

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PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2015 6:56 pm 
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Alright, I will try this. What I still do not get is, how will the files on the failed OS drive be retrieved (since I did not have duplication enabled on all the folders). But let me try to do this and let you know if it works.


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PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2015 8:57 pm 
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Aah! Duplication, yes that would be important.
Where it was turned on your golden, where it was not, the old drive will still have files on it that you can retrieve later.

So hang on to the old system drive and a usb to sata dock or cable will come in handy or some crack open a desktop and attach the drive and turn on hidden files and folders and you can grab files you need and copy them over.

The best part is you will have a clean load and be good to go. My server has a red drive in it with over 600 days and I have it sleep at night, so they can run for a while. SMART addin is the most important part so you can keep an eye on those drives.
Good luck and have a great new year.

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[X510 /2 in box]
[X710 LIAN LI DIY W2016E] Stablebit Drivepool [EX-503 LIAN LI 5-bay USB3 External]
:twisted: Fear the Cloud :twisted:


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