Welcome to Brendon Davis

WHS – Server Recovery

Autor brendon | 27.02.2009 | Category HomeServer, TechStuff

I’m not sure if I have posted how much I like Windows Home Server…

Last week I was having trouble with the OS, easy fix I figured. Drop the DVD in, run the upgrade install and everything is back to normal. One problem, the disk I was using had a CRC error and failed half way through the install.

Burning another install disk, I ran the setup again only to find that it could not detect the failed install and only gave me the option to format all my disks and start from scratch again. Sure I could move my data off the system disk and go through the painful process of importing all my media again, but then I would also lose my PC backups and stuff. What to do??

Long story short, I fired up a copy of ghost and imaged the 30GB D:\ partition from my system disk onto another drive. Disconnected all drives apart from the system disk and ran the clean install. Once that had finished, plugged back in the disks,  restored the original D:\ partition from ghost and ran the upgrade install again.

Once again I have a clean updated server with all my previous PC backups.

WHS ROCKS!!!

WHS Advanced Admin Console

Autor brendon | 25.03.2008 | Category HomeServer, TechStuff

Well I haven’t had time to install and test Andreas’s - Advanced Admin Console add-in as I’m elbow deep in Win08 & IPv6. If you do most of your management through the WHS console then this add-in could be just the thing for you.

Me I just like using the RDP Gadget to connect to the server desktop.

Update on WHS File Corruption KB

Autor brendon | 14.03.2008 | Category HomeServer, TechStuff

The good news is Microsoft have discovered the cause for the file corruption issues on WHS. The bad news is that the patch won’t be released until June 2008. This will allow sufficient time to fully test the necessary patch. As this is the first version of their funky new file duplication system I’m not surprised they have run into a few bugs.

 You can check out more information on the KB946676 or on the home server blog.

WHS File corruption from Certain Applications

Autor brendon | 28.12.2007 | Category HomeServer, TechStuff

Microsoft have released a knowledge base article KB946676 listing programs that have been found to cause file corruption on the WHS Shared Folders. So far there is no patch available to resolve this issue. I assume it has something to do with the client programs not playing well with the DEMigrator service.

For now Microsoft suggest that when using the following programs, edit and save files locally on the computer and let the automatic computer backups protect your data. That of course does not help remote access or accessing files across multiple PC’s.

Current list of Problem Software
• Windows Vista Photo Gallery
• Windows Live Photo Gallery
• Microsoft Office OneNote 2007
• Microsoft Office OneNote 2003
• Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
• Microsoft Money 2007
• SyncToy 2.0 Beta

I suppose the important point here is to always backup your data onto removable media and check the file constancy where possible. My preference is Tape or DVD and store it in my desk at the office. Speaking of that, I’m off to make an up to date backup with the Christmas photos.