Had some storms blow in the other night and lightning hit what seemed like right outside our door. Long story short, a series of fried electronics which took out my router (hardwire connections only) and now what seems to be the NIC in my EX490. Unit powers up, health light shows blue but no NIC connection light. I've even tried direct connection to PC and no NIC light. HP thinks it's probably a motherboard replacement which will run nearly $200 (which I can live with) or I'm stuck trying to look for a used chassis that I could drop my 3 drives into and get me back up and running. However, before going that path I was wondering if anyone had tried and was successful in using USB NIC connected to the EX490.

The USB-LAN Adapter will work in any unit. The real issue with installing it seems to be with locating the actual USB Device and getting the right drivers loaded the very first time. For some people they installed the wrong drivers and I was able to help them work around that which prompted me to rewrite the guide.

Blind installs are some what of a challenge, using a debug cable makes the process extremely simple in that you can see the prompts your server may place on the screen. For example if something were to pop up unexpected its impossible to see this with a blind install but with the Debug Cable you can see whats happening.

One user did indicate they installed their system drive in a Client and booted the client and installed the driver that way but another tried it and was not successful in doing so because they were not able to logon for some reason probably due to conflicting hardware.

While its too late for you I do encourage others to pickup an adapter, install the drivers and the adapter and leave both NICs active and continue using their built in NIC. Doing this will ensure connectivity should the servers NIC fail which I refered to as an insurance policy. This can be installed via and RDP session where you can see the prompts to install the adapter so its ready when needed and hopefully never have to be put to use but its there should it be needed.

Another solution would be if you know someone with an EX49x who would allow you to install your system drive into their server without their drives connected. Then you can do an RDP Session install the adapter. Then when your back home you can plug in the system drive and adapter and be back in business.

Once the adapter is working you will need to redo any port forwarding to the new adapter since its MAC Address would be different otherwise things should work as they did before.

Good Luck with your install and please remember to use the 32bit drivers outlined in the guide and the install disk is this tiny disk wedged between the paperboard insert.

_________________
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

Thanks for your response. Unfortunately I don't know anyone with EX49x system so I'm at the mercy of HP. After a week HP, while they've charged me for the box to return my unit, hasn't shipped the box as far as I can tell and HP order support is basically useless. Only a promise of a call back so far and, of course, they didn't follow through with that promise. On the phone AGAIN to find out about my "order" for a box just to return the unit - so my guess is I'm dead in the water for weeks.

So far no one at HP can tell me anything about my repair order. Other than seeing I'm charged for shipping a box to return my chassis for evaluation purpose (which is probably a motherboard replacement), there is no other information available to HP CSR or online repair status.

I originally went with HP for "ease" of setup and support, but I'm thinking it may be easier now just to purchase a new system (case, motherboard, et al) and get out from underneath this end of line product. I had 3 drives (original system plus 2TB drives) in my EX490. If I went with new hardware is it feasible to think I can recover the information off my existing drives? Experienced with building my own PC and servicing my Windows systems, so not a problem in putting the hardware together for my own server. But experience with WHS is relative "newbie", hence the reason I went with the "easy" HP EX490 approach early on but paying the price for HP's lack of support now. So any advise as to move forward is appreciated.

Hey Bob61,

Sorry to hear about the issues with obtaining info from HP on your unit. Since you have experience with building systems, building a server is very similar. The primary difference is drive capacity so figuring out what your needs here are will greatly simplify your build. Since all our wants, needs and desires are all different there is not really one build that can satisfy the needs of all. I always recommend people start with the enclosure because it will define what you will need to properly support the drives and in selecting the motherboard. Of course there are more factors at play here like how much processing power will you need from your server. If you are planning on MediaStreaming and the server will be doing alot of transcoding then you need alot of processing power. If your server is just going to be used to store and access files without any transcoding requirements then the need for a powerful processor is not all that important.

You will also have to chose the Server Operating System and doing this will impact your hardware choices. It would not be right for me to tell you to go with one or another this is a decision only you can make. The same is true if your thinking of a RAID solution or one type or another or a JBOD solution. There are pro's and cons here that you have to figure out.

What I do recommend you do is spend time reading the message threads in the DIY Build Area which for the most part centers around WHS v1 but it should offer up some ideas for you to put you on the path thats right for you and one hopefully that fits within your budget.

_________________
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'll definitely spend time in the DIY forum. If I were to build my own can would I be able to simple plug in the drives I pulled from my HP EX490 and have the files available? Can the system drive, since it has WHS 2003 on it, be used to boot up the new server (understanding drivers would need to be configured)? Thanks.

All the data on the storage pool drives in your current EX490 reside inside the hidden folder named DE. It is possible after you build a WHS2011 Server to insert your existing storage pool drives and access the data. You can do this right now if you attach then to another computer just set the computer to be able to see Hidden Files and Folders.

For the time being I would not modify any of your storage pool drives. Just read the contents. When you get your EX490 back from HP you may want to start using the server again. As for WHS2011 its a totally different animal than WHS v1 that your currently use to so just plugging in the drives and having your data just show up in your shares will not be the case however you could move the data or just expose the data for access. Personally I would opt to just move the data to the shares and organize it in a more meaningful way to be determined by yourself.

If you happen to have a computer that can meet the requirements of WHS2011 you may want to try downloading the trial version of WHS2011 and take it out for a test ride to give you an idea of what its like. Then you can better determine which Server OS is best for you.

_________________
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 followed the USB LAN guide (thanks for taking the time to write that), but was not successful. Not sure why, perhaps I'm not entering the login password correct. With no screen to follow it's a crap shoot. As FYI, one suggestion to your guide would be instead of pressing "Windows" and then UP three times to get to the RUN command you might use the shortcut keys (Windows - R) to pull up the run command.

I tried to install the system drive into my PC, booted under safe mode, but no luck. It starts to load and then reboots. I've tried in 4 different PCs' with no success. Not sure why that's not working, saw someone else mention that was how they resolved their NIC failure issue, but not in the cards for me.

One last try was to mount the system drive in my PC and I copied over the adapter drivers to the Windows32/drivers directory on chance that would cause the drivers to automatically be installed, but no such luck either.

I am thinking about picking up one of the debug cables, but not sure how much is involved in pull the unit apart to connect the cable. Or last option would be to find a used EX49x to buy, slap my drives into that, install the drivers and then sell that unit back off.

This would all be rather simple if HP would just ship me the box to get my unit in for evaluation / repair, but HP tech support can't tell me nothing and my "order" for the box to be sent to me to ship my unit to them for evaluation has been sitting there for over 2 weeks. Never buying another HP computer based on this lack of support.

The first time you actually logon on you have to enter the user name Administrator then I believe you press TAB then enter the Server Password. After that each time you redo the process the prompt will appear in the Passord area and you will only need to enter the Password.

_________________
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

@comp1962 - thanks again for your assistance. While I was unsuccessful in blind install, your input did lead me down a path to resolve this. In the end I purchased a EX495, installed my drives and configured the USB LAN Adapter through RDP. I can see I would have not been successful with blind install as once the drivers and adapter was installed, using the "setup" that you had provided the adapter was non-operational. I found that I had to download the latest drivers from the manufacturer's site and upgrade the driver. Everything then was fine. It would have cost me nearly $200 to have HP fix my unit (they have still not shipped me the box to return my unit - terrible service), I'll resell the EX495 and net out of pocket will easily be under $200 (even with Ebay fees).

Last year there were two sets of drivers available and I tested both without issue. Of course there could be hardware changes and everyones system is slightly different depending on what connected and what they may have done with it in the past. This is why using a DEBUG Cable makes the task at hand much easier.

Going forward I am uncertain how the EX49x servers and a server recovery will work with the USB-LAN Adapters. I do know how to perform a recovery using such devices which does require the enduser to extract files from the server and edit some files and strategically place the drivers. I make mention of this often when someone with an older unit installs the USB-LAN Adapters. Not quite certain how many follow the advise but time will tell.

I do recommend since you do have a DEBUG cable to take a spare drive 80 GB or larger and attempt a server recovery to see what if anything it does with the USB-LAN Adapter. My guess is the component in the EX49x server responsible for placing the server into its recovery mode would have to be extracted but I am uncertain what that component is without having an EX49x here to play with.

So down the road there may be other challenges to face but I do not forsee the difficulty in figuring them out but maybe someone with better understanding then I of the EX49x recovery process might chime in to offer there imput.

_________________
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 had thought about what to do if/when I would need to go into recovery mode. Hopefully that's a long time off (if ever). I have thought about getting a debug cable just in case, but seems like it's a bit of a hassle to pull the unit apart to get to the MB. Have a great one.....

The other option would be to build another unit where you can control the components used in the server. This approach has worked well for many. Its not a simple as running Manufactured Unit like the EX490 in that while the underlying OS is the same the software provided by HP makes thing easier for the end user.

_________________
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

It seems my LAN-port is toast too. The yellow LED is continuously flashing, but no connection. Which USB-LAN adapter is working?
Where can I find the guide you mention?

Search is your friend: http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010/06 ... ur-server/

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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
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