Windows Home Server has had a long history that came to a fairly abrupt ending. Now those home users with big data requirements are forced to move to Windows Server Essentials. The latest version Server Essentials R2 is still in preview, but with the announcement that Win8.

The software that shipped on the box is Server , a 10 year old operating system which needs to dissapear. Before we get started on the steps involved, know that these come from my personal experience after going through the process.

The first step is to eliminate any unnecessary data, this will make the process much faster. I was able to clear at least 2TB of old installers in my download folder and I also deleted my entire music folder I have Spotify now. Install drives in PC This process will require a number of extra drives depending on how successful you are in step 1. Install the spare drives that in total amount to a larger capacity than the amount of your data.

You will need to connect these to a machine running Windows 8. This takes a bunch of disks and creates a storage pool you can throw data at. Forget about drive letters for data, gaming, programs, photos etc. You can do this in the Control Panel, look for an item called Storage Spaces. The reason we need fresh drives is that this process will erase any data.

Before you move on, ensure the data copied over without error. Go and open photos, documents etc from the new location to confirm. At this point I would turn off your PC and disconnect your storage space drives to ensure that data remains safe and no accidents happen.

I chose the OS drive from my EX Again this will be formatted. Take the drive out, install it into the drive caddy and slide it into the bottom drive bay of the EX Install fresh drives You can now install your original drives back into the server and then go through the process of adding the drives to a Storage Space on the server. Copy data back When this storage pool is large enough to hold the amount of data you copied earlier, you can now copy them back to the new updated server.

Complete At that point you have completed the data migration. You could use the temp drives still in the PC as backup drives for the Server, at least until the backup to Azure option is out of beta and we have the NBN.

Head to the Services and Add-ins pages from the Get Started page of the Dashboard and enable things like remote access and connect computers to backup. Moving your critical data is a scary concept, but if you test that your data is safe and tread carefully, take your time and follow the steps, it is possible to run the latest Server OS on the EX Now those home users with big data requirements are forced to move to Windows Posted by techau on August 17, Used rarely and sparingly when the source decided to keep their identity secret, or a guest author who isn’t seeking credit.

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– Install windows server 2012 essentials on hp mediasmart free download

 

At this point I would turn off your PC and disconnect your storage space drives to ensure that data remains safe and no accidents happen. I chose the OS drive from my EX Again this will be formatted. Take the drive out, install it into the drive caddy and slide it into the bottom drive bay of the EX Install fresh drives You can now install your original drives back into the server and then go through the process of adding the drives to a Storage Space on the server.

Copy data back When this storage pool is large enough to hold the amount of data you copied earlier, you can now copy them back to the new updated server. Complete At that point you have completed the data migration. You could use the temp drives still in the PC as backup drives for the Server, at least until the backup to Azure option is out of beta and we have the NBN.

Head to the Services and Add-ins pages from the Get Started page of the Dashboard and enable things like remote access and connect computers to backup. Moving your critical data is a scary concept, but if you test that your data is safe and tread carefully, take your time and follow the steps, it is possible to run the latest Server OS on the EX Now those home users with big data requirements are forced to move to Windows Posted by techau on August 17, Used rarely and sparingly when the source decided to keep their identity secret, or a guest author who isn’t seeking credit.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply. Synology launches DSM 7. Telstra 4G speeds improving by 10 to…. Review: Poly Focus 2 UC headset. The Tesla ramp is getting serious, ,…. TikToks can now be 3 minutes long,…. Related Posts. Software and Services. I had 4GB of storage across 3 drives and less than 1. Thanks for this tutorial. Take the HD out of the bay where you want to install the OS on.

Hook it up an other computer no other drives can be attached which supports x64 cpu’s. Now you can see what you are doing. And enter trough the setup. When the computers reboots for the first time shut it down and put the HD back in you mediasmart. Turn it on and wait for about 10 min then find out which ip the homeserver getst and connect to it with your browser.

The rest shows it way. Hopefully someone finds this usefull. Greetings, Wizzz. After that the aqua and red LEDs continue to flash. I’ve left it for hours but nothing happens. To test that the USB drive was bootable and my cfg. Having no success, I tried Wienen’s approach, which is to do the initial install on a standard PC. I shut down my main PC and disconnected the hard drive. Then, as suggested by Wienen, I turned off the PC as it was trying its first reboot.

I then installed the hard drive into the EX to complete the install. This worked great. Great Sean, my ex 4GB with 3 drives is working but questions. I replaced the lower system disk with a new green WD 2TB drive. I left the other 2 1. The installation worked first time and my 2 windows7 PC’s are backing up on schedule.

Question-one of the 2 1. What’s up? Is that data from my old WHS V1? Found my answer-turn on view of hidden files in folders and drives in control panel to see what my DATA D: drive contained.

It contained my shared folders-video, pictures, and music from WHS v1. Lesson learned the hard way-Remove drives before installing WHS Still have problems with backing up my iMac to my server. The IMac time machine backup does not see the server as an option.

Also Dashboard did not get installed. No video hesitations! Just need to take care of blinking status light and iMac problems. Otherwise I love WHS Dunno if you are still watching this thread, but I’ve had some problems: followed all the steps to load the WHS onto a 32gb usb stick Patriot XT , put it in the bottom usb port, added a brand new 2TB Hitachi drive formatted and partitioned, then removed the partition , and turned it on.

It read the flash for a minute, flashed red and purple for a long time overnight , but nothing came up on the LAN. I killed it and plugged the drive into an external enclosure, and found that it had partitioned the disk, but no files were on them. Any thoughts? Do I need to remove the stick at some point, or prep the hard drive in some other way? My other computer is a netbook, so the alternate solution is going to be somewhat tricky. KV, it sounds like your hard drive might have come with a partition on it.

I’d wip the partitions and try the steps again. One possible issue: my server was having some issues, so it was actually in recovery mode when I decided to switch to that was the primary motivation for the install It seemed like a pain to do a system restore with the old OS and then another with the new one, but I can try it. Thanks for the prompt reply!

I honestly don’t know what to say at this point. Nm, I found another computer to install it with a head, and found that the unattend file didn’t keep it from needing me to answer prompts Another issue has come up, though: have you had any overheating issues? Mine has been randomly shutting down, though maybe I just need to replace the thermal paste.

Hardware issues are out of scope for my blog though. I don’t have the expertise there. Hi Sean, first thanks for all the info.

I tried doing the install directly on the server but could not get it to work. I guess my auto response file is bad. So i took a drive out and connected it to a regular machine and did the entire install and applied all windows updates for WHS However when i remove the drive from desktop machine and put it back into my EX i get blinking aqua fora bit and then it goes to solid red health light.

If i put the drive back onto my desktop server boots just fine. Sean, Looks like the format of the cfg. I only ended up adding the “InstallSKU” line, the rest was the same. The primary issue I ran into was that even though I erased the partitions off of the hard drive, there was still data written on the boot sector.

I downloaded a freeware utility and was able to wipe the boot sector clean. After that, the USB install went fairly well, however the cfg. Sean, Thanks for sharing this. I followed the instructions to the tee and it worked flawlessly for the HP-supplied mb HD. However, since that drive seems to be nearing its end, I tried using a 1 TB Western Digital drive I had and it seems to churn away for awhile, but then does not do anything. The light remains red, blinking aqua.

I was wondering if not changing the partion size to adjust for a different size drive might have anything to do with it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, – Rob. Thanks for the guide. Hi, i have a problem with the cfg.

Anyone experienced the same? Thanks Pav. The hard drive containing the OS is showing signs of wear and some of the sectors have been marked as bad.

Note to self: Stablebit’s drive scanning plug-in is very helpful in determining the root cause of backup failures on your Home Server.

Can the system backup be useed after the fact to resotre to the most recent backup date? Also, can you perform a restore using a smaller system drive? Say moving from 1. Hi Heather, It’s actually quite easy. You can simply ensure you have all of your data off the system physical disk notice this is the entire disk , and then place a new disk in and install the OS to the new disk.

You can read this post on how to do it. Hi Sean. Followed all the instructions and upgraded my Great job! Next on my list is to figure out the best add ins to replace what HP originally shipped! Any ideas? I haven’t trusted my live data to any DE replacement yet though, and also haven’t had the need. Is there any chance to have it installed without formatting the target hard disk?

I’ve upgraded an Atom based DataValt and an EX by installing WHS on a desktop computer and then putting the system drive in the HP box once the install is done and it worked perfectly both times. I highly recommend it! Really well done. I’m no technical expert in any way, but this post allowed me to upgrade my HP Datavault to WHS without a single hitch. Thanks everso – much appreciated.

HP Data Vault – These directions are perfect. I’ve tried a few of the other reccomendations on other sites and had problems. I’m running windows update on my server now.

Thanks for any feedback! Thanks for putting this guide together. Running a NAS isn’t going to cut it any longer for me. I then learned that I need a bit system and my old PC is a Oh well. The harddisk boots up and works smoothly when connected to a desktop machine, however is not able to boot up in the ex I get the red light after a few mins.

Kindly share your success story or if anyone else has any ideas how to go about fixing this. Thanks for the great guide. Having a problem though. I have double checked the ini file and have that all correct and the bootable sub drive is good. I have the USB key in the bottom rear port. When I erased the data off the OS partition I did a quick format of only that partition. I left the data on the other partition but backed that data up. Should I be doing a format of that partition as well?

Any other thoughts on what could be the problem? I figured out my issue. I had some issues with the erasing of the primary disk and my cfg. Not sure what all was causing the problem but here are the steps I went through to correct and then it flew through fine. Hopefully it helps others: – took this line out of cfg. If you then go back adn try to start from scratch you need to put the cfg. I used disk management within Win 7 64bit and deleted the 2 volumes and then every attempt that was not successful I had to go in and delete the volumes that it had setup and then failed due to cfg.

Once I got those three things right things went smoothly although the light colors in the different steps of install were slightly different than these directions.

I couldn’t really hear my hard drive. Anyway, it worked from there I tried the USB thumb drive and finally bought a desktop. Never could get the thumb drive to see the network. Now on using the desktop where I could my installation I see that it can not continue installation because it was missing 4 drivers. Are Vaults capable of having 64bit OS. Many many many thanks for this guide, I started this more in hope than expectation well it is a windows product but it worked like a dream – Our old EX, now running on an SSD and WHS If yes, what’s the right software?

Many thanks Ya, you can do this. Make sure your system disk is less than GB in used space. Then do a server backup. Then boot from the recovery disk, and do a restore of the server to your new SSD. This is a great post. Have you tried installing Win7 on the box? Thanks for your help. No I haven’t, but that’s because Windows 7 doesn’t have RDP on by default, so while the install will probably work the same and be successful, you won’t be able to see what you’re doing to enable RDP.

Good luck, let me know if you’re successful. I would think that enabling RDP without looking is a daunting task. Hi, Thanks for this article and all of the comments. Hi, Thanks for this perfect guide.

I’m not expert in this area and I have 3 questions, let me first explain the situation. I have 4 hdd as displayed in the disk Mang. Unknown: These steps are pretty specific to the one type of hardware and one OS, you can definitely try it, although your mileage may vary Anonymous: 1 WHS by default stores data not no the C: drive, if you’ve remote desktoped into the server and stored data, there may be data on the C: drive 2 Looks like the full OEM version.

Dumb question about the CFG. Originally I created and named the file CFG. So I renamed the file CFG. Now properties states the file names is CFG. When I view the details of my boot disk it only shows the file name as CFG. My install is not working and I’m wondering if this is my problem. This was a great tutorial. Just have a few things to work out – add StableBit, add LED light management, find out why my health light is blinking This was very helpful, complete and effective in installing this.

Thank you! Thanks very much. Mike M. When I start the install, should I put both new 2TB in the EX or just the start with the primary drive and put the second one in after install is complete? Note, I plan to use the second drive for data replication backup just as I did in WHS v1 saved my butt. Also, after the install, could I just pop in my my old 1. Thanks so much for hosting this great guide and continuing to answer everyone’s questions.

Sorry, one other thing. I didn’t partition or reformat them in anyway. Just unboxed and installed them both MBR. So first question — I have yet to reboot the server. See screen shot attached. Should I shut down and swap the disks between the bays? It saved my butt when my primary data disk couldn’t recover. Second question — can I configure it so that my server C: and data D: are backed up to the spare internal drive? Do I need to create one or two partitions on the spare drive for this to mirror properly?

Or can the server C: only be backed up to an external drive? It stalled viewing this from my PC when a drive was not identified and the screen with “Load Drivers” was presented. Any help is appreciated. John Wolf, It’d be smart to keep your data drive completely seperated from your new install. I think they are just flat files, so you can probably copy them over. Good luck!! Brandon, Glad it was helpful, but I’m not sure how you’re seeing anything, as the EX doesn’t have a video card included in the system..

Sean, I took the HD out of EX and hooked it up to another computer no other drives can be attached which supports x64 cpu’s. Now I could see what is happening. I installed WHS without any problems. But I can’t connect to a server through Remote Desktop with the password used in cfg. What are suggestions how to solve it? Although it’s best to put it in the cfg. Hi Sean, Thanks for this article. I now have WHS up and running on my x box All four internal disks are seen, as well as one of the external disks.

The other three disks in the Sans Digital expansion chassis are completely invisible. The same thing happens if I hook up a four-drive USB chassis. I assume that it’s a driver problem, but beyond that, I’m stuck.

Any advice?

 

Advanced Admin Console for Windows Server Essentials now available — .Windows Home Server Forums • View topic – Server R2 Std and EX –

 

Privacy Policy Advertise Contact. All rights reserved. Server R2 Std and EX Posted: Sat Dec 27, am. I’m having a bit of an issue trying to get R2 to start on my EX I’ve tried a whole bunch of things and not sure what I’m screwing up. This is pure headless joy I would like to upgrade the now aging E to some form of C2D chip. Input welcome on this. I have the original PSU, have read mixed reviews of C2D install windows server 2012 essentials on hp mediasmart free download consumption in such small boxes, so I never really got a clear answer as to whether it is practical or cost effective.

Considering I paid for the box including a whopping 4 brand new 2TB hard drives back in earlyI really have no room to complain. That was the greatest deal ever in itself.

Back to my original problem: Since the server is still headless, obviously my options are somewhat limited. What I have done and done in the past with WHS with 0 issues is used a second, also intel-based system to install copy the windows install to the system drive.

When the first restart occurs, I pull the plug. However it never seems to finish with R2 Std. I’ve combed all over various home server forums and have seemingly found nothing. If anyone could shed any light on this as to what I might be doing wrong, it would be much appreciated. My server is in dire need of cleanup but the software is so badly damaged, IIS broken, file sharing quit working months ago, only certain things work on it, permissions out of whack, etc.

However I would like to upgrade in the process. Any input welcome. I’ve given up at this point since I’ve been quite short on time lately. Posted: Fri Jan 09, pm. All I could say is посетить страницу Video connection would be well worth it in the long run if you plan on staying with the media smart Spare parts and an extra power supply would not be a bad thing and the sata to usb docks or cables are great for working with drives.

The bucks for the video imho is well worth it so you can see what is going on. I have upgraded the cpu on my boxes and enjoy the extra speed. Let us know how it goes. Posted: Sat Jan 10, pm. I think a wipe is the best way to go. In my studying for Microsoft certification exams, while Microsoft fully supports upgrade paths, they say that if time and budget allows for it, you should start with a fresh build.

When you upgrade, any preexisting problems are upgraded as well. Regarding the headless horseman — yes the EX4xx servers are адрес страницы servers but after awhile it gets tiring troubleshooting problems blind. At least for me, my time is worth more than the price I paid for the debug boards one on my EX and another on my EX I also don’t think Microsoft will support you with an upgrade.

So if you can’t go direct from Essentials to R2 Essentials, you definitely won’t be able to go from WHS to R2 Essentials via upgrading. A clean install is, unfortunately, your ONLY option. The last post in the article on page 24 has an updated link to download the MediaSmart lights driver, which is verified working on R2 and Essentials.

Further up the thread, on the same page 24you will see it’s noted you need to enable. NET 3. Don’t take my word for it though — there are plenty of folks here who will back me up. It’s worth it! You’ll need a 3. Posted: Mon Jan 12, pm. Thanks to both for the input. I always clean install.

Significant performance improvements across the board less things left behind The constant software changes are partly why it’s in the state that it’s currently in with a degraded image. There are so many components of Windows that are broken and damaged it is not worth the time to repair. A windows “upgrade” would defeat the whole purpose of this.

To be clear, I am “upgrading” the CPU die, and “replacing” windows. I have a GB Deneva 2 laying around I could throw in, but like you said I would need the physical drive adapter to properly fit. I will likely use this drive just because I have it. It’s been sitting around for months. I burn through hard drives like toilet paper, so this would be worth it.

I didn’t want to buy it, but I probably will. RDP and TeamViewer have been my go-to’s and have worked quite well. But I agree, if something really does go poof, I can’t see the server, the server can’t see me, etc. I’ve seen people find a way to fabricate the VGA adapter into the back panel, so I will look into doing that.

I don’t want anything dangling from the box, want to make it look nice and pretty. I have OCD, so stuff like that bothers me. Pc game ringan motocross think my issue is the install method. I always used to be able to slave drives into other machines, but maybe R2 is overly sensitive. I will give the flash drive method a try next.

Thanks again for your help. Posted: Thu Jan 15, pm. The EX48x install windows server 2012 essentials on hp mediasmart free download a weird machine and who knows maybe your BIOS Mod will take care of its weirdness but if you happen to see your server reboot привожу ссылку boot into its recovery mode then you will need to get into the BIOS and in the original BIOS you need to disable the SMI in two areas not sure about the BIOS your running now but I would think it would be safe to say those settings would remain there for compatibility purposes.

Posted: Fri Jan 16, pm. That’s what a lot of people have been telling me. I flashed the BIOS using msawyer91’s guide. I’m just worried if I throw in an E that my box will get too hot. Posted: Sat Jan 17, pm. You can see this in install windows server 2012 essentials on hp mediasmart free download signature line viewtopic. That’s definitely what I like to hear. Thats excellent – less waste heat and better performance – go figure. A win-win situation. I would imagine there is very little difference hardware wise well, cooling hardware anyways between the series and the series.

Considering I can get an E for 9 bucks free shipping, I don’t see why not. On a side note, lately I have not been a fan of HP products. I have replaced numerous logic boards on computers from the last few years, but yet these mini servers just work. Glad I have an item that actually passed through their quality control. I have personally hd 2 HP laptops an HDX16 which was extremely reliable, and a dv6 touchsmart which got extremely hot, both which died because someone stepped on them and now have a Install windows server 2012 essentials on hp mediasmart free download MacBook Pro.

Aside from the aging chips on the MediaSmarts, I absolutely love them. Great value for the price and have been very much reliable in my experience. Install windows server 2012 essentials on hp mediasmart free download mainstream computers however, not so much. Posted: Sun Jan 18, am. I sort of out grew them quite some time ago but really think they are excellent solutions for those who do not require a large server solution.

I have one here an EX48x with an E in it and I tweaked the fans to run full speed but I had to disable the SMI to make sure it would not come into play when the server rebooted. I actually have Remote Potato Running on it and you know I am quite install windows server 2012 essentials on hp mediasmart free download at how well it actually runs. I will also mention I have Stablebit Drive Pool running on it and for an experiment I installed a 2×2.

All in all its been a great run and yes these servers just keep running set auto login windows free download they do have issues with PSU’s but hey we now have suppliers to replace them and with the DEBUG Boards of which I own several its very easy to keep these puppies running for the long haul.

Posted: Mon Jan 19, pm. Intel made both a Q and QS; the latter has a lower TDP thermal design power and is thus more energy efficient and throws off less heat. I’ve seen in other forum posts on this site as well as Home Адрес Show once you start getting into the quad-core processors, because of the MediaSmart Server’s passive cooling, the lower TDP processors are better.

If you go back to eBay and look at the prices for the QS, they’re quite a bit more expensive. It’s still got 5 days left in the auction though so it could and probably will go for quite a bit more as it already has several bids. The lower TDP processors are more expensive because of the lower TDP, meaning they can be used in applications where cooling is a concern.

The MediaSmart Server is one such application. Ссылка на подробности you applied the BIOS hack install windows server 2012 essentials on hp mediasmart free download I discussed, which it sounds like you did, you should be able to run pretty much any of the CPUs that others here are running. And plenty of folks have run the QS and QS. If you opt for the Qnot the “S” version, keep a close eye on it under load so it doesn’t overheat.

Most are in Hong Kong or China.

 
 

Installing WS Essentials on the HP MediaSmart Server.How To Restore Windows Home Server Antivirus ? – Code Dossier

 
 
› /12/02 › advanced-admin-console ADDED: Compatibility with Windows Server Essentials The Advanced Admin Console AddIn has always been free for home users and.