My Windows Vista PC suffered an unexpected crash of the c:\ drive. Something seized and it would not spin up, so I had to replace the drive and attempt a system disk restore from my WHS. The problem is this: After replacing the c: in the vista box, I created a current Restore CD, and started the machine to begin restore. evrything appeared normal until it got to the point of "locating your server". It would not locate and gave me the manual search option. I entered the server name and after a short wait I was shown "Network Error, please make sure your Windows Home Server is on and that your network is activated." My PC has more than 512 mb of ram so I chose that option to run the restore PC setup and then I would try the "less than 512" option. I would do both of these options whenever I would try to run the restore. I checked the Server, An ASUS NCCH-DL with the Server name of WHS1 it's on and happy. I ran the restore again, same result. I Looked at my router, a D-Link DIR655 It is typically configured, all the little blue lights are blinking merrily. I ran the restore again, same result. I rebooted the server, and the router. I ran the restore again, same result. I went to the internet, put current drivers for my PC nic on a USB drive, had it available on the PC during the restore PC startup but was assured that the software had the drivers it needed. I ran the restore again, same result. I unplugged my Cable modem to remove my net from Internet interference, turned off the firewall on the server, turned off any and all filtering and firewall functions I could find on the router, I ran the restore again, same result. I installed and configured a new D-Link DGE530T Nic card in my server and connected that to the router, I ran the restore again, same result.
Two days have elapsed because my wife and daughter think I should have a life,,,
I added a d-link DGE530T Nic to my PC, put the drivers on a usb flash to have them available and put the flash in the PC. I ran the restore again, same result. I removed the patch cords to the server and PC from my router, placed them in a netgear hub, changed the tcp/ip properties on the Server nic from DHCP to an assigned IP of 192.168.0.100 checked all for connectivity lights. I ran the restore again, same result. I went back to Microsoft, got the Restore CD.msi again and placed it on a new CD. I ran the restore again, same result. I renamed my server from WHS1 to SERVER and reconfigured all of my drive mappings and re-ran the WHS connector software on all of my other PC's and when they were all happily talking together, I ran the restore again, same result.
At this point, I am 4 days into the process, My family is grumbling about not having MSN Messenger for all this time, so I try another tact. I reactivate my firewalls, router security settings, and add internet access again. I installed Vista on the PC and then the Ran the connector software and am attempting to restore the C:\ drive through the file restore process in the Windows Home Server Console. I keep getting these error messages and the estimated time to complete on my file transfer from the Z:\ to the C:\ is currently showing 144 days.
At some point after booting from the restore CD it will show detected hardware. When you get to this point you should insert the thumb drive, then manually initiate scan for drivers. It will tell you when it has succesfully installed the drivers.
If it still fails please review the instructions on preparing the thumb drive containing the NIC and other (storage?) drivers.
Also please note 64 bit drivers will not work with the 32bit recovery CD, so you need 32bit driver versions.
Marked as answer byojoynerWednesday, December 3, 2008 2:09 AM
Hi, if you have a second client PC, your option is to perform following steps:
Remove the disk of the second PC and attach it as secondary drive to the first PC (either via internal connector or with an USB to SATA/IDE converter cable).
Start the normal OS on that PC.
In C:\Program Files\Windows Home Server execute ClientRestoreWizard.exe.
Now you get the same feature set as from the Recovery CD without having to deal with the limitations of the Windows PE environment. Be carefull selecting the target to not overwrite the wrong partition on the wrong disk.
After completing, shut down the system and attach the drive back to the original PC.
Best greetings from Germany Olaf
Marked as answer byojoynerWednesday, December 3, 2008 2:08 AM
At some point after booting from the restore CD it will show detected hardware. When you get to this point you should insert the thumb drive, then manually initiate scan for drivers. It will tell you when it has succesfully installed the drivers.
If it still fails please review the instructions on preparing the thumb drive containing the NIC and other (storage?) drivers.
Also please note 64 bit drivers will not work with the 32bit recovery CD, so you need 32bit driver versions.
Marked as answer byojoynerWednesday, December 3, 2008 2:09 AM
Hi, if you have a second client PC, your option is to perform following steps:
Remove the disk of the second PC and attach it as secondary drive to the first PC (either via internal connector or with an USB to SATA/IDE converter cable).
Start the normal OS on that PC.
In C:\Program Files\Windows Home Server execute ClientRestoreWizard.exe.
Now you get the same feature set as from the Recovery CD without having to deal with the limitations of the Windows PE environment. Be carefull selecting the target to not overwrite the wrong partition on the wrong disk.
After completing, shut down the system and attach the drive back to the original PC.
Best greetings from Germany Olaf
Marked as answer byojoynerWednesday, December 3, 2008 2:08 AM
Hi and thanks for the response. I saw the detected hardware phase and I had my thumb drive in place at the time. I hit the button to manually scan and the reply was that WHS had the drivers it needed. I don't really know if the drivers came from the flash or not. I will look into that on the next go round.
Thanks for your tip. I had a similar idea, but I was going to add the drive directly to my server via USB adapter. I am happy that I followed your advice instead. I did use the USB adaptor at first but the image process slowed to a halt at about 76%. I need to figure out why that happened as I am having a similar issue with backing up my shares on the server to an external disk via firewire. I cancelled that and simply installed the target drive in the client as my D: on the IDE cable. It worked very nicely.
All in all it was an excellent approach to get me restored and I thank you again. Now I can take my time and seek out the original problem that caused me to be unable to do the direct restore.
