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PostPosted: Sat Apr 13, 2013 4:19 am 
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Hi everyone, I'm after some advice and guidance....

I have a HP EX495, the system drive is the original 1.5TB Seagate drive and then I have another 3 2TB drives fitted in the remaining bays.

A few days ago we had a power cut which killed the primary 1.5TB drive. I have now replaced this with a new 2TB drive and have re-installed the server software from the server recovery disc (v3.0).

I can now see the server on my network and it is working again, however when I add the 3 2TB drives with all my data back into the server, the server says that the drives have not yet been added... Does anyone know how to re-instate my raid 5 array and hopefully get my data back?

I was hoping that this would be a simple task as I just assumed it was the OS drive that had failed, but now I’m not so sure.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

James

PS. I have attached a screen shot showing the drives and there current state.


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PostPosted: Sat Apr 13, 2013 10:28 am 
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Just to clear things up. You were running RAID 5 and not the default storage pool setup built into WHS?

Thing about power failures is that often when they occur drive corruption happens and this happens when data is being written to a drive when the power is lost. This issue can be prevented by installing a UPS and installing the software for the UPS on the Server that allows the UPS to keep the server powered after a power failure for a period of time then instructs the server to shut down.

This can also be done with the clients because their drives can also become corrupted in the same mannor.

Now if you were running RAID 5 then you would not want to add the drives to the storage pool as they would be left unmanaged by WHS's Drive Extender or DE. On the other hand if you were running the drives in a Storage Pool then you must of performed a Server Recovery without the drives connected or you performed a Factory Recovery with the drives connected and your data is lost/

Anyway please clear up how your server was actually run in the past and how you performed the recovery because it makes a big difference here.

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 15, 2013 2:23 am 
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Hi there, thank you for your quick response, I appreciate it.

Yes I think you are correct, I must be using the standard storage pool, the drives were originally added to the storage pool via the WHS GUI. I just assumed that is was RAID5.

I fully appreciate what you are saying about a UPS system, it’s one of those things that I continually put off, maybe now is a good time to buy one!

Yes I performed the server recovery without the 3 data drives connected as I didn’t want to risk losing any of my data. Was this the correct thing to do?

The server is now rebuilt and the drives have been physically added back into the WHS but now the server does not know what to do with them. Do you think the storage pool can be rebuilt and retain my data?

Thanks again for your help.


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 15, 2013 8:49 am 
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To get your storage pool back you would need to perform another Server Recovery with the Storage Pool Drives installed in the server. This is a pain for sure.

There are 2 types of recoveries:

(1) Factory Recovery which formats all the drives - Best used when you sell your server
(2) Server Recovery which preserves your data but WHS will need to see all your Storage Pool Drives

This has been written about by myself and others many times both on this site and on other similar sites. I would recommend you read through as many forum posts to get educated on what others have posted about their experience with recoveries.

Still its not the end of the world and you do not necessarily need to perform another recovery because now is the time to learn about backing up your data which is only beneficial if your client backup database is not of great importance to you. If it is then you will need to perform a Server Recovery to get it back and if not then the best thing for you to do is back up your data off the your current storage pool drives.

However before we discuss this part I am curious about your original System Drive which you indicated has failed but did you attempt to connect it to another computer and perform a CHKDSK on both the SYS and DATA Partitions to see if CHKDSK could repair the drive for continued use. See if you can get the original system drive working then everything would boot up as it was before and your new system drive can be added to the server as a storage pool drive after you delete the partitions and reformat the drive.

Much of what I will tell you later on has already been discussed but right now I am uncertain where to point you for the information you need but I am willing to guide you through everything you need to know and when done I promise you that your will understand the concept of having a true backup, know the difference between backup and data redundancy, why having a UPS on your server and other important devices is extremely beneficial and how to troubleshoot and resolve issues you may encounter with your server.

One thing to keep in mind the Site Search here and Google are your best friends and any issue you might encounter has most likely already been written about on this site and others.

I fully understand you want your server back running 100% the way it was before and hopefully over the next couple days if you stick with me as I will stick with you this will be the case.

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 9:39 am 
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Hello again,

Ok, I've tried several times to get the original system drive up and working again by plugging it into another computer, but it is completely dead and even the BIOS states that the drive is bad, so I'm going to give that up as a bad job.

The new system drive was installed and the server was rebuilt and all worked fine apart from the data pool was not added, so I have just used the server recovery disk to rebuild the server again, but this time with the drives added and the data pool recovery option selected, however, again I now have a server that has been rebuilt and active on my network but the 3 data pool drives are showing in the WHS console as 'not added'.

Am I missing something?

I know all three drives are healthy and hopefully still have my data on them but I have no idea how to re-instate the data pool. I'll keep searching but any help would be gratefully received.

Many thanks,

James


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 9:54 am 
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When you performed the first Server Recovery, did you have the data drives installed in the server?

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 10:01 am 
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Hi,

No the data drives were removed the first time and all installed in the correct order the second time.

Thanks,

James


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 10:16 am 
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Did you erase the system drive between the first and second recovery attempts? If not, then you are trying to perform a Server Recovery on the freshly-installed system, not your original system. You need to wipe the new system drive, then perform the Server Recovery again with all data drives installed and a clean system drive.

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Last edited by yakuza on Mon Apr 22, 2013 10:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
I can haz typo.


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 10:37 am 
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Ahh!

Great advice!, I'll let you know how I get on.

Many thanks,

James


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PostPosted: Wed Apr 24, 2013 1:36 am 
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Hello again,

I have deleted the partitions etc on my new primary drive and have started the rebuild process, the system entered recovery mode without issue, but it seems to be taking ages for the server to be rebuilt and attempt the data recover, so far I have left it 24 hours. Do you think it has failed? I can see that there is still network activity between my laptop and the WHS.

Many thanks,

James


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PostPosted: Wed Apr 24, 2013 2:57 am 
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24 Hours is way way way toooooo long. Typically its a 1-2 hour process then longer when you start to download and install all the HP and Microsoft updates but not 24 hours. However if the Drive Lights are on then your server should be good to go.

Now you just went through the recovery process a couple times although the first was without the storage pool drives present then you attempted another with the drives present but they did not show up and per Yakuza's recommendation another but something must of hung up the process. You can try shutting the server down and restarting it to see what it does. While this may not resolve the issue its worth a try and who knows maybe the recovery will pick up where it left off.

The EX495 recovers differently then my EX470's and DIY Built servers where you have to connect a network cable between the client and the server. Its a server model I have not yet had the pleasure to play with other than that its WHS and its where the similarity is.

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 24, 2013 9:33 am 
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It would be helpful if you told us what the server is doing and why you think the recovery may have failed. What are the LEDs on the server doing? What is displayed by the Server Recovery app on your PC?

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PostPosted: Mon Sep 29, 2014 10:18 am 
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After a power loss my ex490 will not boot anymore. It does start. The power led and the network led are on (continuous), the health led is blinking aqua. Even after half an hour, nothing.
I am running the system in RAID 5 with 4x 2 TB WD drives.
I tried a server recovery with all disks and the program reported step 2 of 4 failed with an unidentified error at the help button.
The second recovery failed at step 3 of 4 with the same error message.

I wonder if I can put the disks in another computer in raid 5 and get the data back.
How many times can I try to recover?

T.

Edit: Performed another recovery with all disks. This time recovery completed.


Last edited by Tantrum1701 on Mon Sep 29, 2014 12:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Mon Sep 29, 2014 12:31 pm 
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You must have modified your server if your running RAID 5. WHS v1 is not meant to be run that way.

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PostPosted: Mon Sep 29, 2014 12:40 pm 
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You're right. But it was by choice.
I wanted more security for storing my data.
Maybe not the right choice now, but at the time it seemed the best solution.

But I am hopeful. I am connected with WHS connector and os is updating.
Taking its time, though.

BTW, what do you mean, it is not supposed to run that way?


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