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Windows Home Server Operating System Hard Drive Backup is Impossible? RRS feed

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    I bought an Acer Easystore WHS to use as backup for my 4 home computers. It comes with the OS on a 1TB drive and I added 3 more. From the day I got it I was unhappy.

    I could not figure out how to mirror or RAID the OS drive so that I could swap it out if it fails. Apparently this can be done with the data drives. Acer technical support had no clue about the WHS and eventually I concluded that there was no way to mirror and protect the OS drive. As predicted the OS drive failed after 6 months.  After sending the whole computer off to Acer I got it back with a new blank 1TB drive that I had to reintstall the OS onto. After that it would not recognize any of the old backups present on the 3 other drives (I have 4 other computers that automatically backup to the WHS). It made me reformat all the drives and destroy all the backups and other data and start from scratch again.

    The whole reason I got a WHS was to have RAID protection of my data. The WHS is running again and backing up my 4 computers but I have not been able find a way of drive imaging the OS drive. I own Acronis but it does not support WHS. I also read that even if it is mirrored and the OS drive replaced that the drive will somehow have a different ID number and require all sorts of fancy registry manipulation to get it to recognize itself. I can't believe that a product that is marketed as a failsafe backup system could be so flawed. I am not sure if this OS drive backup problem affects all WHS systems or just the Acer easystore system.
    Any help would be appreciated,
    Todd

    P.S. I just decommissioned a Windows Small Business Server 2003 from my office but do not want to tackle a domain system at my home (I don't think Server 2003 can join a workgroup?). I thought about installing the WHS onto it (dual Xenon 2.8 GHz processors, 6 years old). Perhaps I could install a hardware RAID controller to mirror the OS drive?
    P.P.S. I just read about the new WHS "Vail" based on Server 2008. Apparently it does have the ability to backup the drive with the OS on it. This makes me think there is no solution for the current WHS.

    Wednesday, November 3, 2010 3:15 PM

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    There's no way to back up the OS and restore it, intact, at an arbitrary future time, no. Not in V1. Vail, when released, will have that capability, but it's in beta now with no announced release date.

    Your problem with lost data stems mostly from Acer's inability to explain their own product, I think. There's a recovery option which will allow you to replace the system drive with risks as stated in this FAQ. There's also a factory reset option, which will wipe your server. You should have gone through the recovery optioin, but instead wound up doing a reset.

    For the time being, you can use hardware RAID, though not in the Acer unit you have now. RAID isn't supported (read Why RAID is not a consumer technology for Microsoft's reasoning on this) but usually you won't have significant problems using it. I'll note that if you do have to recover your server (say in case of OS corruption), a RAID array as your system drive is going to significantly complicate your recovery scenario because of driver issues.

    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)

    Wednesday, November 3, 2010 3:28 PM
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    There's no way to back up the OS and restore it, intact, at an arbitrary future time, no. Not in V1. Vail, when released, will have that capability, but it's in beta now with no announced release date.

    Your problem with lost data stems mostly from Acer's inability to explain their own product, I think. There's a recovery option which will allow you to replace the system drive with risks as stated in this FAQ. There's also a factory reset option, which will wipe your server. You should have gone through the recovery optioin, but instead wound up doing a reset.

    For the time being, you can use hardware RAID, though not in the Acer unit you have now. RAID isn't supported (read Why RAID is not a consumer technology for Microsoft's reasoning on this) but usually you won't have significant problems using it. I'll note that if you do have to recover your server (say in case of OS corruption), a RAID array as your system drive is going to significantly complicate your recovery scenario because of driver issues.

    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)

    Wednesday, November 3, 2010 3:28 PM
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    Unfortunately the Acer unit refused to let me use the recovery option for some reason when i installed the new blank hard drive.  As Acer help was useless with all of my other questions (they understand Vista and XP etc. but have no experience with WHS), I did not call them to try to resolve the Recovery CD's refusal to allow me to recover the system.

    Nonetheless, it sounds like I would have been okay and not lost any data or backups if i had been able to "recover" my system by reinstalling the OS on the new hard drive.

    If this is the case then I don't have much to worry about.  If the OS drive fails again i will just work hard with Acer support and these forums to ensure i recover my system successfully.

    I read you FAQ and I am wondering about the "tombstones".  By reinstalling the OS drive and loosing these, how will the recovered system know what is on the secondary drives?

    Todd

    Wednesday, November 3, 2010 7:04 PM
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    The recovery process goes through a "rebuild" when you replace the system drive. It examines all the secondary drives and determines what files are out there.
    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    Wednesday, November 3, 2010 7:30 PM
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    I had the same problem with my HP MediaSmart Server: the system disk crashed, and the only resolution was to "Factory Reset".  That is a reinstall of the OS.  The part that was hard to believe is there is no way to gracefully recover the data that was mirrored onto the other disk.  The support agent suggested that I copy the data back onto the server after the reset.  

    I would rather not lose all the backups that I have for my various systems.  This just seems wrong.

    -Scott 

    Monday, September 5, 2011 11:53 PM