After doing my weekly PC backup, I was unable to complete the weekly Backup Cleanup on my EX490 running WHS v1. It hung at 5% complete for hours until I finally shut down the server. After re-starting it, I attempted the Backup Cleanup another time, with the same results.

Then I came here. I found, but could not follow another thread here with a similar issue. I did learn about the SMART app, and have installed it. Below are the reported Status & Details. Can someone please tell me:

1. What more information do I need to send?
2. Is the disk (a) just in need of some kind of maintenance to remap the drive, (b) failing, or (c) already dead?
3. If (a), what needs to be done to make SMART happy & be able to resume backing & cleaning up every week?
4. If (b), is it possible to put in another drive, copy the image from the server drive to the new one, then pull both drives and put the new one in as the system drive (or something like that)
5. If there’s no satisfactory way back to normal operation, it’s not worth a lot of my time to stay with this OS. I know this is not the right place to ask this, but do you have any recommendations for a NAS that is simple to use, can act as a LMS (Squeezebox) server, and can be used to back up Windows computers?

Thanks for your help!

How many disks do you have in your EX490, if more than one, which disk is showing these SMART errors?

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EX490
WHS v1
E5800
Stock Ram
HGST 1 x 2TB, 1 x 4TB, 2 x 8TB

Seeking knowledgeable advice - please help if you can!

My MSS has continued to work fine for Squeezebox, but the backup problem has gotten worse. Last week, I was able to backup, but couldn't do my weekly manual backup clean up (Recovering from Sector Errors post).

The backup error message is "backup failed because of a problem accessing a file on WHS"

Should I run the Backup Database Repair process, or is there something that should be done first to address the Pending Bad Sectors problem?

Thanks for your attention.

Thanks for your response! I just created a new thread (week 2...), as the backup itself is now failing.

I only have 1 disk, with 60% free space.

I merged your second topic into this one, no need for multiple topics on the same issue.

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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?

You've got a failing hard drive.

Your backup database is likely corrupted at this point due to the failing hard drive. You can delete the backup database using my BDBB add-in or the manual steps linked in the Wiki article on that page.

You can clone your current disk but that's probably not the best idea given the corruption you're experiencing.

If you want to keep this server you're probably best off buying a new hard drive and performing a Server Recovery.

Alternatively newer NAS may be the better option for you, I've not kept up with what's available in that space since I run a Ubuntu server at home for my needs, I hear about Synology pretty frequently though. Best of luck.

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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?

Thanks, Alex!

I don't know how to interpret the SMART results, but the Status messages indicate only 10 sectors at risk, so I'm hoping the drive will last long enough for me to make an informed decision on my server's future. Is there a setting to get the server to reallocate sectors as soon as they start failing?

I did discover & use your BDBB add-in (thanks for making it available!) to clear out the old back-ups. I'm waiting for the weekend to try an initial, full backup.

I looked through the Server Recovery procedure a bit, but it doesn't seem to give an overview of the entire process I would need to do. Does this look right?

1. Buy & physically install a new drive in server
2. Mount drive in MSS (how?)
3. Perform Server Recovery, pointing to the new drive?
4. Move data from old drive to new drive?
5. Change server to boot from new drive?
6. Remove the old drive from server pool?
7. Physically remove old drive

Hopefully, there's already another link that addresses the complete process of migrating the server to a new drive!

You can always search for replacing a drive here.

But the normal process is shut down the server.
Replace the drive.
Insert and run the hp server recovery cd in a pc direct connected to the server.
Elect to run recovery not reset.
The reset option makes the server like it was when you got it before storing any data.
Follow directions on screen.
Force the server in recovery mode
follow prompts on pc to finish.
If need be you may need to connect the old drive to the pc to copy what files may be missed.

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EX-490
WHS v1
VGA/PS2 Keyboard/PS2 Mouse/Serial debug board
Q9450s CPU
Stock Ram
ESATA Sansdigital Towerraid TR5M-B
Popcorn C-200
Popcorn A-200
Dune HD Connect
Rasberry PI OSMC(KODI)
ReadyNAS RN316
Amazon FireStick
Amazon ECHO
AnyDvD
MyMovies

I've been away from this site for a while now.

I haven't released an update to Home Server SMART or WindowSMART in quite a few years now. Since changing jobs in the mid 2010's and my kids being involved in more activities, pursuing a side venture wasn't worth taking time away from my family. I am currently working on releasing the code to GitHub so anyone can pick it up and run with it. However, much of the code has internal references to my kids and family -- it was written by me, for me, and not meant to be ever read by anyone other than me. Now that I want to hand it off, well, you get the point and I digress...

To answer your question, even just a few sector warnings can be indicative of impending drive failure. I've seen plenty of drives fail without any warning at all, but most usually start showing signs of trouble. Sure, some drives can have dozens, hundreds, even thousands of bad sectors but soldier on for years. Home Server SMART was intended to give you warning that trouble was afoot. If you're seeing backup failures AND Home Server SMART is showing issues, even issues that seem "minor," chances are more than good that the drive is on its way out. Windows is most likely having issues writing to the disk, or when it performs its backup database verification, errors are being detected. A "pending" bad sector is one that the system is unable to read. Per the SMART specification, a sector is never remapped (aka declared "bad") on a READ operation, only on a WRITE operation. The logic here is that it's possible that a sector could throw an error on a read, but be readable on a subsequent attempt. Hence the "pending" flag. Think of it as the sector being placed on probation. If subsequent read attempts succeed, the sector may be returned to normal status. However, if the sector is written while in the pending state, it will be reallocated (remapped and declared "bad") to a spare sector at that time.

The crappy part about this is once backups start failing and you get the dreaded message that errors were found in a backup, chances are at least part of your backup database are toast. Verifying/recovering the backup database is a time-consuming process. Unless you have data in there that exists only there and you desperately need to be able to restore it, I've found it easier to just whack the database and start over. Probably not what you want to hear though.

Matt

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Matt Sawyer
Owner, Dojo North Software, LLC

HP EX490, 4GB, E5300, 15TB - Server 2012 - Sharing and Streaming
HP EX487, 4GB, E5300, 13TB - Server 2012 Essentials - Backups