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!!!

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

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

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.

Happy holidays everyone, be safe on the roads and I’ll catch up with you in the new year. :-)

.

Brendon

For the instructions,

To increase the Remote Access time-out parameter

1. Use mstsc.exe to start a Remote Desktop Connection session to your home server.
2. Use a text editor, such as notepad.exe, to open C:\Inetpub\remote\web.config.
3. Locate the following line:<sessionState mode=”InProc” cookieless=”false” timeout=”20″/>
4. Replace “20″ (which represents 20 minutes) with a larger number, to allow your uploads to finish.
   Note: If you change the timeout value to more than 200 minutes, you must also change the executionTimeout value. Search for the following line <httpRuntime maxRequestLength=”2097151″ executionTimeout=”12000″/> and increase the executionTimeout value (measured in seconds) to the same or greater value than the timeout value (measured in minutes).
5. Save your change, close the file, and then log off from your Remote Desktop Connection session.
6. Use Remote Access to upload your file or files, to ensure that the new time-out parameter is sufficient to finish the upload.

Simple.

So far I have found two add-ins that seem to work quite well. Both have a slightly different aim and features but both are very well written. For all the Goss,

WebGuide is an extension for both XP Media Centre and VISTA Media Centre to provide remote control and access to your content via a web browser. Doug Berrett has ported his code (in Beta currently) to be a WHS Add-in (installed using the console). The add-in runs an Apache web server and will share all content stored in the Pictures/ Videos and Music folders, thumbnails are generated for the pictures and music folders are displayed using the album art. The only downsides are the separate APACHE server requires a separate port to IIS and maintains its own user name and password list separate to the system.

Doug was recently hired by the Microsoft Media Centre team and is now providing his WebGuide for MCE free of charge. For anyone running a MCE box at home, who wants to provide access via a web browser (to PC’s and Mobile devices!!!) head on over and download a copy of the XP or VISTA versions.

The Windows Home Internet Information Services Toolkit, otherwise known as Whiist… (makes perfect sense) was coded by Andrew Grant and won the Code2Fame challenge for WHS Add-ins. It provides a lot of configuration options on how to publishh the site. It allows for both Public and Private (local basic authentication) access to your photo directories. Allowing for:

• Public gallery e.g.. http://my.homeserver.com/photos
• Private authenticated gallery e.g.. https://my.homeserver.com/gallery

Thumbnails are automatically created for all pictures and the folders use the standard folder structure. The software does not allow for the publishing of Music or Video libraries and cannot be used to upload photos. The only downside with the software is the inability to publish the root \\server\photos share, You must publis a folder at least one level below the root e.g.. \\server\photos\public. (You can publish the root, but it requires playing with permissions, files and IIS.)

So what am I using??

Well I run Whiist on my production server publishing the \\server\photos\ share as http://server/photos. The share requires authentication and I have placed a link to it after logging into the WHS web site. I also have modified the main picture to bring me back to the WHS main site.

I load the SATA drivers from a USB key, put the CD key in, configured the regional settings and let it copy the files and reboot. At the first boot I received the message STOP: 0x0000007B INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE. Oops, you need to set the BIOS to boot off the SATA hard drive. Correcting this, the Windows install loads but cannot find the SATA drivers; an error 14 stating that $WIN_NT$.~LS\$OEM$\Win2003\SATADRV.sys is not available. Long story short, 12 install attempts later I find that the SATA drivers are copied to the wrong folder by the WHS installer. :-0

To fix the install and load WHS correctly I did the install as normal but when it booted to the 2003 installer, I first booted from a VISTA Install DVD, loaded the SATA drivers again and used the Repair option with a command prompt to create the necessary folder and copy the files into the correct location. I will do more testing with this to find an easy work around, until then I have included the basic steps in this article to work around the problem. The Microsoft WHS forums do not have an official response from the design team yet that I could see.

For the work around steps,

1. Make sure only the drives you want formatted are in the server, set the BIOS for the correct boot order.
2. Copy the SATA drivers to a USB key making sure to include the txtsetup.oem file.
3. Insert the USB key and run the install as normal, loading the Windows XP or 2003 drivers for the SATA controller when prompted.
4. At the first reboot, when you receive an Error 14 message about
   “$WIN_NT$.~LS\$OEM$\<folder>\<driverfile>.sys” not being available, copy down the path listed.
5. Reboot the server using a VISTA installer DVD, select the regional settings and language, click next.
6. Choose the repair option and load the SATA controller drivers from your USB key.
7. Click the Command Prompt button.
8. Navigate to the local hard drive, (usually d:\) to the directory listed in the 2003 install screen error. NOTE:
9. The folder listed <folder> will not exist and need to be created. Use the
   “mkdir \$WIN_NT$.~LS\$OEM$\<folder>” command to create the folder.
10. Navigate to the USB drive (usually e:\) and the directory where your drivers are. Using the “dir” command, you should see the file <driverfile>.sys listed in this directory.
11. Use the “copy e:\<drivers>\*.* C:\$WIN_NT$.~LS\$OEM$\<folder>\” command to copy the necessary files where the Windows 2003 setup is looking for them.
12. Replace the WHS install CD into the drive reboot the system. 

The Windows 2003 installer should now be able to find the necessary drivers to complete the install successfully.