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Backup Restore Utility --Cannot find Home Server RRS feed

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    I am running WHS with four computers.  All four backup with no problem...only one of the four fails to restore utilizing the Home Computer Restore CD.
    The computer which is unable to Restore is running XP Home edition.  The other three run Windows7, XP Pro and XP Home.
    When I utilize the Restore CD, I put the drivers which came with the computer on a USB drive.  WHS acknowledges that it found the appropriate drivers.  When the utility enters the Wizard I receive the error message..."cannot find Home Server".

    I've tried disconnecting the Network from the Internet without changing the results.

    The computer in question is an MSI G31 motherboard with an Intel E7400 Dual Core processor, 2 Gig RAM.

    I'm not sure how to proceed with troubleshooting at this point.  Will appreciate any suggestions and will supply any requested detail.

    Thanks in advance
    Larry




    Thursday, November 12, 2009 1:49 PM

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    The drivers were located on the USB Drive.  The drivers were taken from the driver CD supplied with the motherboard.  The drivers should be the same as the ones used to Backup since they come from the same disk.

    Larry,

    (btw: please verify that you are running the latest version of the restore CD = 7/2008?)

    I think the drivers on the driver CD are somehow incompatible with the restore CD. In that case, try downloading the latest drivers as suggested in the FAQ pointed to by brubber.

    Try the drivers for "Windows XP and Server 2003" first. If these do not work, you can try the "Vista and WinServer 2008" drivers. They should work as the restore CD is 32-bit Vista based.

    If this fails, maybe something else is causing your problem...
    Following Ken's advise will be your safest way out.

    - Theo.
    No home server like Home Server
    Monday, November 16, 2009 9:08 PM
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    SUCCESS!!!

    Following the advice from Theo, I downloaded the Realtek Vista driver after the XP Driver failed.   This worked.

    It never would have occurred to me to download the Vista driver under Theo pointed out that the restore CD is Vista 32 based.

    Thanks to all of you for your suggestions.

    Larry
    • Marked as answer by LarryTheK Tuesday, November 17, 2009 8:44 PM
    Tuesday, November 17, 2009 4:01 PM

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    What do you mean with "WHS acknowledges that it found the appropriate drivers"? The fact that it recognizes the NIC does not mean it also has appropriate drivers:

    When you boot from restore CD you get to detect hardware screen where you see hard disk and NIC which are discovered. If WHS does not have appropriate drivers on the restore CD you will have to manually scan for drivers, please read this FAQ, paragraph 3 for more details.
    Thursday, November 12, 2009 3:04 PM
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    Option A: Sort out the (probable) network issue. Your best bet for drivers is the "Windows Home Server Drivers for Restore" folder that's part of every backup. Extract those from any backup of the computer you want to restore, put them on a USB drive instead of whatever you're using, and try again. If you still have problems, check your router's configuration pages to make sure the client being restored is actually getting an IP address.

    Note: DHCP is required for restoring a computer using the Restore CD, and wireless is not supported. Also, if the client computer is a 64 bit computer, you will need to use 32 bit Vista drivers for restoring, as the Restore CD is a 32 bit environment.

    Option B: Remove the drive to be restored and connect it to another client computer. I use a SATA/IDE to USB bridge device, but you can install it in the case, use an external enclosure, etc. as you prefer. Then on that other client computer, run C:\Program Files\Windows Home Server\ClientRestoreWizard.exe. This is the same program as the Restore CD, just hosted in a full windows installation instead of WinPE.

    I prefer Option B.
    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    Thursday, November 12, 2009 3:12 PM
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    Thanks Ken and Brubber for your replies

    Yes, I do receive the message "Drivers were found for your hardware"

    The drivers were located on the USB Drive.  The drivers were taken from the driver CD supplied with the motherboard.  The drivers should be the same as the ones used to Backup since they come from the same disk.

    I guess if all else fails I guess I can use Ken's suggestion of moving the disk to another client...but I'd prefer not having to open an operational machine.

    The computer is 32 bits running XP Home Edition.  It is a wired connection.


    Thanks for your advice.

    Larry


    Thursday, November 12, 2009 3:36 PM
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    I really wish Microsoft would make the restore process more robust in this regards.  The Realtek onboard NIC is very common.

    Keep trying different NIC drivers for your motherboard until you find the correct one.  Brubber's answer is the correct thing to do, but you have to find the necessary driver for it to work.

    I'm currently doing a restore, and ran into the same issue (and have run into it many times in the past)...

    Even though the detect device screen in the restore process says that it's found a realtek NIC device, the driver it's using may not be compatible with what's on your board.  For instance, my detect device screen says that a "Realtek 8111 PCI-Express" was found.  The default driver does not connect though.  Installing the correct driver modified the name of the device slightly to be "Realtek 8111B(P) PCI-Express" - which worked.

    The motherboard on the computer I was restoring is an Asus P6T.  I downloaded the LAN drivers ( Version  5.702.806.2008/6.210.1003.2008 ) from Asus' website and copied the XP & Vista directories from the extracted driver package onto a USB stick and was able to connect.
    Friday, November 13, 2009 10:01 AM
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    The drivers were located on the USB Drive.  The drivers were taken from the driver CD supplied with the motherboard.  The drivers should be the same as the ones used to Backup since they come from the same disk.

    Larry,

    (btw: please verify that you are running the latest version of the restore CD = 7/2008?)

    I think the drivers on the driver CD are somehow incompatible with the restore CD. In that case, try downloading the latest drivers as suggested in the FAQ pointed to by brubber.

    Try the drivers for "Windows XP and Server 2003" first. If these do not work, you can try the "Vista and WinServer 2008" drivers. They should work as the restore CD is 32-bit Vista based.

    If this fails, maybe something else is causing your problem...
    Following Ken's advise will be your safest way out.

    - Theo.
    No home server like Home Server
    Monday, November 16, 2009 9:08 PM
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    Thanks Theo, Chris, Ken & Brubber for your replies,

    Before I try the additional downloads directly from Realtek tbere is one further piece of info I've neglected to bring out:

    The NIC is not a PCI-e adapter card...it is a chip directly on the MSI motherboard.

    I noticed the the XP System Info identifies the NIC as an RTL802e/RTL8103e PCIe whereas the Restore utility identifies it as an RTL8101 PCIe.

    I was wondering if the restore utility is trying to find the NIC via the PCIe protocol rather than looking for it directly on the motherboard.

    Another item:  the only way I could get the Restore Utility to acknowledge that it found appropriate drivers was when I put the MSI Driver CD on the USB drive.  When I downloaded drivers from Realtek or when I used the "Windows Home Server Drivers for Restore" from the latest backup, I get the error message "found no drivers from your hardware".

    Thanks again to you all for your responses
    Larry

    btw...in response to Theo's suggestion---yes I am using the latest restore CD from 7/2008
    Tuesday, November 17, 2009 2:17 PM
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    SUCCESS!!!

    Following the advice from Theo, I downloaded the Realtek Vista driver after the XP Driver failed.   This worked.

    It never would have occurred to me to download the Vista driver under Theo pointed out that the restore CD is Vista 32 based.

    Thanks to all of you for your suggestions.

    Larry
    • Marked as answer by LarryTheK Tuesday, November 17, 2009 8:44 PM
    Tuesday, November 17, 2009 4:01 PM
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    I posted this last July 2009 and apparently forum members are haing trouble finding it.

    It is still the best way to solve the Realtek driver problem.




    Lara Jones [MSFT] | Program Manager
    Community Support and Beta | Windows Home Server Team
    Windows Home Server Team Blog
    Connect Windows Home Server
    Windows Home Server

    Thank you for the information. Your procedure does not work but it allowed me to develop a way to allow the restore disk to work.

    The procedure you outlined does not work for the following Realtek NIC
     
    RTL8111B/RTL8168B/RTL8111/RTL8168
    RTL8111C/RTL8111CP/RTL8111D(L)
    RTL8168C/RTL8111DP

    Here is what you must do.

    Download the Vista (WinServer 2008) Driver
    instead of the WinXP (WinServer 2003) Driver


    Here is how I modified your procedure so that it WORKS for any of the above Realtek NIC

    Using the Windows Home Server Dual Boot Computer Restore Disk (Release Date 7/16/2008), the NIC drivers for the Realtek  family of network cards will need to be manually updated using the Vista (WinServer 2008) Driver.
         
         The Windows Home Server restore CD will indicate the "NIC driver for the restore CD is present"; 
         however, this driver WILL not work and there will be no network connectivity.
         The solution is to download the drivers from the  Realtek site and install them during the restore using
          a USB key as outlined in the  process below.

     

    Note: Just passively placing the drivers in a folder on the USB key including the drivers from a previous backup as instructed in the Restore Disk User guide will not work as the existing drivers are already loaded.

      You must follow the steps below.

     

    1.       Download the network drivers from the Realtek Website:

     

    http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=13&PFid=5&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false


    a.               Download the Vista (WinServer 2008) Driver.

         Note: I actually downloaded all the Windows XP and Vista drivers (4 different sets) and deleted all the
         drivers marked 64 bit     (64 bit drivers WILL not work)


    2.               Extract all the zip files onto the ROOT of a USB flash without a folder and plug the USB flash into the client PC.

     

    3.      Then apply the downloaded NIC driver(s) with the Windows Home Server Restore CD

     

    a.       On the detect hardware screen, select the appropriate time/currency format and keyboard/input method

     

    b.      Detect hardware dialog will detect the Realtek network device RTL8168C/8111C Family PCI-E Gigibit ethernet NIC
    (NDIS 6.0 but it will not be usable because of hardware and driver incompatibility.

                   

    c.       Manually update the driver from the USB flash

                                                                                     i.           Select the “Show Details…” button

                                                                                   ii.           Press the “Install Drivers…”

                                                                                  iii.          Push “Scan” button to scan for new/updated d rives

                                                                                   iv.        A dialogue box will pop up:

    "Drivers were found for your hardware.

    Click OK to see all detected hardware."

                                                                                 vi.            Select OK

     

    d.      Verify that you have updated the Network driver.

    You should now see your specific NIC hardware listed in the “Detect Hardware” dialog screen as
    Realtek PCIe GBE family Controller.

    Continue following the restore disk prompts

    Stew Gordon
    Thestewman@msn.com

    Tuesday, December 8, 2009 10:42 PM
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    SUCCESS!!!

    Following the advice from Theo, I downloaded the Realtek Vista driver after the XP Driver failed.   This worked.

    It never would have occurred to me to download the Vista driver under Theo pointed out that the restore CD is Vista 32 based.

    Thanks to all of you for your suggestions.

    Larry

    Hi Larry

    I have found your MSI G31 motherboard with the intel E7400 dual core processor chip that you need
    Go to INTEL wedsite and go to download software this will give you all the drivers that you need to download all network and motherboard chips ECT for requirements as I needed to download Intel software from there to run my laptop
    hope this will help
    roadhog1
    Thursday, May 13, 2010 12:34 PM