WHS recovery user acct files and hooking up a monitor

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:54:45 Z

When performing a WHS recovery the "Warning" message that comes up states that "You will lose system setting on your Server, including server name, user accounts, etc." Does this mean that I will also lose files that were saved directly on the server under particular user accounts? Or does it keep the files somewhere else and just delete the accounts?

Also, how would I go about hooking the WHS up to a monitor so I can see what exactly it is doing? I've got a Dell optiplex monitor, but the server has nothing more than USB ports for connections. I understand that this is supposed to be a "headless" system, but I have lost the ability to access it through both the Home Server Console and RDC, most likely due to loading McAfee Total Protection Service (because it told me my 7 month free trial was over and suggested I should purchase a new license - from everything I have read, installing McAfee may have been a bad thing to do). If I could hook up a monitor maybe I would be able to actually login and remove McAfee rather than going through with a recovery. I *really* don't want to lose my data.

WHS recovery user acct files and hooking up a monitor

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:07:35 Z

When performing a WHS recovery the "Warning" message that comes up states that "You will lose system setting on your Server, including server name, user accounts, etc." Does this mean that I will also lose files that were saved directly on the server under particular user accounts? Or does it keep the files somewhere else and just delete the accounts?

I assume you have a pre-built server from HP? If so, when you do a Server Recovery, it wipes the user accounts, but not the data.

Also, how would I go about hooking the WHS up to a monitor so I can see what exactly it is doing?

If you built it yourself, you should already have a connection for the monitor on the hardware. The pre-built servers from HP, Acer, etc. are not allowed to have monitor connections.

I've got a Dell optiplex monitor, but the server has nothing more than USB ports for connections. I understand that this is supposed to be a "headless" system, but I have lost the ability to access it through both the Home Server Console and RDC, most likely due to loading McAfee Total Protection Service (because it told me my 7 month free trial was over and suggested I should purchase a new license - from everything I have read, installing McAfee may have been a bad thing to do). If I could hook up a monitor maybe I would be able to actually login and remove McAfee rather than going through with a recovery. I *really* don't want to lose my data.

As long as you do a Server Recovery, you shouldn't have any problems. (Just don't do a Factory Reset.)

WHS recovery user acct files and hooking up a monitor

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 07:42:31 Z

Yes, it is a pre-built server from HP. So, say I have a user previously named "user1", and he was saving music directly to a folder on the server called "music" under his account name. If the account is gone I won't be able to select "user1" to get to that "music" folder. Where will that "music" folder be after the recovery?

Sorry if I'm being redundant. Just trying to make sure I'm asking the right question the right way. We were not just using WHS to automatically back-up data from other systems. We were saving data directly under usernames. (From what I can tell now, WHS does not back itself up? So this may have not been a smart thing to do. Any suggestions on how to make WHS back itself up would be much appreciated. As well as, what, if I ever get back in, should I use instead of McAfee.)

Thanks!

WHS recovery user acct files and hooking up a monitor

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 13:46:52 Z

Yes, it is a pre-built server from HP. So, say I have a user previously named "user1", and he was saving music directly to a folder on the server called "music" under his account name. If the account is gone I won't be able to select "user1" to get to that "music" folder. Where will that "music" folder be after the recovery?

That folder will still be there. Once you recreate the user account in the Console (with the same user name as before), it will re-link the user account with that user's folder.

Sorry if I'm being redundant. Just trying to make sure I'm asking the right question the right way. We were not just using WHS to automatically back-up data from other systems. We were saving data directly under usernames. (From what I can tell now, WHS does not back itself up?

No, it does not back itself up. What it does have is Folder Duplication. Every file that is in a share with Folder Duplication enabled is stored on 2 different hard drives in your server.

So this may have not been a smart thing to do.

I wouldn't say that. I keep all my important files on my server (using Folder Duplication and backing them up periodically to take them off-site).

Any suggestions on how to make WHS back itself up would be much appreciated. As well as, what, if I ever get back in, should I use instead of McAfee.)

Thanks!

You should only install A/Vs that are WHS-specific. The ones currently available are avast! and F-Secure.