Windows Home Server, Why Do You Continually Fail Me?

[Jason Dunn]

<p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1284593513.usr1.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>Through a series of weird circumstances, I decided that one of my my PCs - the one I use for my main media storage and TV viewing - needed to be restored. I figured that since I have my handy HP Windows Home Server, it would be easy enough to get the boot CD, restore from a backup earlier in the month, and keep rocking. Boy was I wrong! <MORE /></p><p>When I booted from the restore CD, I was shocked to see that the network card on my <a href="http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/motherboards/dp35dp/dp35dp-overview.htm" target="_blank">Intel DP35DP motherboard</a> wasn't detected. This isn't some esoteric motherboard - it's a plain old Intel board with an Intel 82566DC Gigabit Ethernet Controller. I've had this exact problem once before with another system, but this time I was hoping I'd be able to get it to work: I clicked on the "Where can I find drivers for my hardware?" and followed the instructions; basically you need to open the backup from the Windows Home Server using another computer, and copy of the drivers folder to a USB flash drive, and connect it to the PC you're trying to restore.</p><p>I was doubly shocked when, after following the exact steps and the boot up program scanned the USB drive, it still wouldn't list the NIC. I'm thus unable to restore the system using my Windows Home Server. How can such a core feature of the product be a complete failure? I'm pretty irritated right now with the product for failing me exactly when I needed it...any Windows Home Server experts out there care to weigh in?</p><p><strong>UPDATE:</strong>&nbsp;OK, I was able to get my system restored. I went to the Intel Web site, downloaded the 32-bit drivers for the on-board network card, right-clicked to extract the EXE using WinZip to a folder, then put that whole folder on a USB flash drive. The restore wizard scanned the flash drive and was finally able to load the NIC and run the restore. Whew! The issue is that the drivers that Microsoft tells you to extract from the special folder on the backup are 64-bit if you have a 64-bit OS...and the restore process isn't compatible with 64-bit drivers, it requires 32-bit drivers. Is that not the most ridiculous thing you've ever heard? Microsoft has been championing 64-bit computer for years now, and it's rare to buy a new computer - other than a netbook - that isn't 64-bit Windows. What a colossal failure on Microsoft's part! Windows Home Server is supposed to be for regular, non-expert home users, and instead they've crippled one of the core features of the product.</p>

[Iznotgold]

I had the exact same problem and followed exactly the same procedures but like you failed to restore. In the end I did a clean re-intallation to get back up and running - very frustrating. Afterwards I did a little poking around on the web and found others had experienced the same problems, with the suggestion that the issue was due to trying to restore a 64bit OS whilst the restore CD and the drivers folder which you load on to the USB drive are 32bit.

It was suggested that you needed to obtain 64bit drivers for the NIC from the MB manufacturers website to load on the USB then it should work. As I has already fresh installed I wasn't able to check if this worked.

Good luck with resolving the problem.
Regards
David

[amancini70]

Hi, if your system is a 64bit edition, read here.,
http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en/whssoftware/thread/2dec92d1-bce6-4218-a27a-618f8f115e75

bye,
A.

[amancini70]

and here

“If you are restoring from a 64-bit computer the drivers that are stored in the backup will be 64-bit. These will not function with the 32-bit restore CD. Therefore it is may be necessary to obtain 32-bit versions of the network driver and storage-device drivers for your 64-bit computer, while doing a restore of your home computer.”

http://usingwindowshomeserver.com/2010/01/22/tech-tip-on-a-tuesday-whs-restore-with-32-bit-drivers/

[ptyork]

Yeah, I've never gotten the restore to work, either. Probably the 64-bit issue. I've just accepted it as a current limitation. It still does a fantastic job of backing up the stuff that I care about. It just falls short of making it super easy to recover an entire computer. I haven't tried it recently, though. I've been kinda hoping that my move to Win7 and the upgrade to WHS power pack 3 might have fixed the issue. Sounds like my hopes are dashed. Sigh...

[babgvant]

Go get the proset drivers from intel.com for your nic and extract them on a thumbdrive.

[Jason Dunn]

...with the suggestion that the issue was due to trying to restore a 64bit OS whilst the restore CD and the drivers folder which you load on to the USB drive are 32bit.

Very interesting - thanks for the tip. I'm honestly stunned by that though - this is supposed to be a user-friendly product for consumers...if the consumer has to do *anything* more than put in a CD and reboot their computer, clicking a few buttons along the way, Microsoft has completely failed with their goal of having a consumer-friendly product. :mad:

It was suggested that you needed to obtain 64bit drivers for the NIC from the MB manufacturers website to load on the USB then it should work. As I has already fresh installed I wasn't able to check if this worked.

Perhaps this is a dumb question, but the Intel drivers in question are only available in an EXE format, so how do I get the drivers extracted without actually installing them on my system? Oh wait a minute...cool, I can right click on the file and use WinZip to extract the files to a folder.

This discussion thread says I need the 32-bit drivers, because the 64-bit drivers that I extracted won't work:

WHS restore Bootable CD- not able to restore a 64 bit backup (http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en/whssoftware/thread/2dec92d1-bce6-4218-a27a-618f8f115e75)

Guess I'll try the 32-bit drivers first and see what happens...thanks so much for responding!

[Jason Dunn]

Hi, if your system is a 64bit edition, read here.,
http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en/whssoftware/thread/2dec92d1-bce6-4218-a27a-618f8f115e75

Thank you, that was quite helpful! :)

[myrampar]

Hi Jason-

A few more links to check out.

http://bit.ly/99218e This link talks about the Network Driver Pack released by Tranquil PC. Download the LAN Pack zip file and then extract and copy this folder to a flash drive. I've used it to restore PCs when the NIC was not detected during the Restore process and also to change the driver even when my NIC was identified.

I recently tried to restore a backup for my Pavilion p6510f and even though my NIC was identified for some reason it was unable to find my server. Go figure! So I rebooted and let it scan the flash drive with the LAN Pack and the description of my network card changed and I was able to find the server and restore.

http://bit.ly/1ZVUrv This article describes using the ClientRestoreWizard.exe application on another PC on your network. Basically, you pull the hard drive from the PC you are trying to restore and connect it to this other PC. You can then run the Restore and when finished put the hard drive back in the original PC. I've used this process once and it worked for me when I was unable to find drivers for the NIC using the Restore CD. This was before I discovered the LAN Pack listed above.

MS definitely needs to get this issue fixed. I recommend WHS to my clients and with most new PCs being 64-bit these days it needs to work.

Good luck!

[gdoerr56]

...Microsoft has completely failed with their goal of having a consumer-friendly product. :mad:


And therein lies both Microsoft's biggest strength and biggest weakness. Because they have an open system where anyone can develop hardware and software for the system, they have a virtually unlimited support requirement / expectation.

Apple wouldn't have the same issue because their hardware variability is almost non-existent compared to Microsoft.

I guess you have to pick your poison...

[OKCrew]

Had the exact same issue... Frustrated at first but searched and found the discussions on drivers. Tried one of the work-arounds but the driver was still not found on the USB. My solution was to install Win 7 again and immediately restored back-up from the WHS. In the end, it worked but just took a little longer (didn't take that long to install Win 7).

[Iznotgold]

No problem Jason...I like to try and contribute every 5 years or so :-)

I think other posters manged to home you into the problem / resolution more than I was as I was posting from a distant but horrid memory.

Let us know if you resolve it.

Cheers

David

[bcre8v2]

I started using WHS about 2.5 years ago for many reasons, but primarily to back up household computers and share media. Wow - what a difference 2 years makes.

About 3 months ago I upgraded to a newer model from HP and within 30 days the hard drive failed. I had a fairly large pool and had redundancy (thank goodness). Amazon took care of the return since HP's customer service was not the best.

I know I need something so I ended up purchasing the D-link DNS-323 and am using that until the new version of WHS is released.

[Jason Dunn]

OK, so I was able to get my system restored. I went to the Intel Web site, downloaded the 32-bit drivers for the on-board network card, right-clicked to extract the EXE using WinZip to a folder, then put that whole folder on a USB flash drive. The restore wizard scanned the flash drive and was finally able to load the NIC and run the restore. Whew! :)

I think Microsoft really needs to have a foolproof restore DVD - they should hire this guy to make it for them (http://breakinghomeserver.com/). :rolleyes:

[Jason Dunn]

My Dell Vostro V13 puked on me - I think the Imation SSD had an ugly hiccup - and when I tried to restore it, I went again into epic tailspin of disaster with my Windows Home Server. Despite the restore CD claiming it had a workable driver for the NIC, it did not - it was never able to find the WHS.

Here's the solution if anyone runs into the same problem:

http://forum.wegotserved.com/index.php?/topic/9061-how-to-update-realtek-nic-drivers-for-the-whs-restore-disk/