Let me explain it this way. You should not have to do anything. Now I have video on my servers so I can see exactly what takes place so bear with me. When you disable that service and reboot the server it disables the protection of the SMI USB. When you logon to your server in your case RDP in mine I logon just like I am at a regular PC, what happens is WHS see's the SMI USB Device and then loads a driver to use it. Once that driver is loaded you should see the SMI USB as another Local Disk other then what you see now meaning C:\ and D:\ but it should be the highest letter on your system meaning if you have unmanaged drives they will show up first and the SMI USB drive would be the last drive.

If its not showing up then I would check the Device Manager and see if its listed with the YELLOW QUESTION MARK if so then I would select that and ask for it to update the driver as something may have gone wrong when the driver first was loaded or attempted to load.

Please do not mess with the DISK MANAGEMENT or you will create an even bigger problem.

Anyway an easy way to test if the SMI can boot your system is to shut it down by taping on the power button, or from the console then slide out the system drive, disconnect any USB device connected to the bottom rear USB port and turn the server on. You will hear the fans speed up and slow down then in oh 2-5 mins just look at your Health Light, if its blinking Purple/Red then your server has entered recovery mode and your SMI is working and there is no need to mess with it. At this point shut the server off put everything back in and reboot if you want to perform a recovery in this manor then download the attached file and follow the instructions and see what it does for you.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

Thanks for the advice. I just want to do a factory reset on the server, and at the same time upgrade the SW to v3.0. I guess the missing flash memory is the reason the paper clip recovery mode routine does not work.

I don't mind booting from an external bootable USB thumbdrive, and if I don't misunderstand, all I would need to do this is the files originally found in the SMI disk. How can I get those files? I do not endorse piracy in any way, but I can't see that this comes close to piracy as long as the files should have been there in the first place, and HP does not give them out themselves. I have bought the upgrade DVDs.

Can anyone please give me any advice on how to get these files?

I have tried this, and the health light is red, no blinking. Guess this means that the SMI disk blank. Actually I don't really care much about the SMI flash disk as long as it is possible to boot from an external USB device with the right files.

On the Server recovery DVD there is a folder called Recovery Image, containing the file volume.image. Are the files needed on the external USB device stored in this image in any way. Can they be retreived by opening the image with DeamonTools or similar, or do I need to get the files from someone with a working SMI flash disk?

PM Sent..


So what actually happens.. well in my case is that the flash was gone. When pressing the button on boot, the health indicator turns solid red. After recovering the flash parition and copying the files back in it would hang on verifying dmi pool data and flash purple and red all day.

the only way i know to get it working 100% is to recover the entire 'disk' with an image file. Myself and Diehard have now tested this and we are both up and runnign

qdos,

I had an EX470 where the paperclip reset button would not work. Removing the system drive and putting it back in would. However in that circumstance with my server in a bad condition I had to reformat the drive. To protect your data as it exists now. I would opt to use a new drive and install a factory fresh image on the new drive using the documentation I provided.

The reason why is if something fails then you can still pop in your original drives and use the server until a solution can be found. This makes good sense and drives are cheap. I say get another drive or pay for the advil later......

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

Thanks toyceli22! I'm now up and running as well

I agree with the precautions Comp1962, but I had everything backed up, and nothing to loose so I chose to take the risk. This is the closest I get to thrill seeking The only think I wish I could do now is to be able to remove the WHS Connector from the computer running XP without getting the 'fatal error during installation' message... I've tried to delete the folder and remove the keys from the registry, but the thing keeps coming back up as soon as I reboot.

qdos,

First lets see where you actually are:

(1) From your last post it appears your server is ok - Does this mean you installed the 3.0?

(2) Removing the connector software should not be a problem. I have removed that software more times accross, desktops, notebooks, netbooks running a XP-Home, XP-Pro, Vista Home Premium 32 Bit, Win 7 Ultimate both 34 & 64 bit versions. It should just remove itself without an issue.

Now I will be honest there is a time and a place for entering the registry but I always advise the registry is the place of last resort. Also before messing with the registry I hope you made a copy of it but whats done is done.

So how do we get your Console Connector Connector off your system? Well I suppose you could try it in reverse meaning reinstall the software and allow it to rewrite itself back in. Then I would reboot the computer and then goto add/remove programs and then remove it hoping that it has all its components to properly remove itself.

So lets just try what I mention and see what happens. But if your trying to remove the software at this point is it because this is the computer you want to recover the server with and so my quesiton above is not necessary......

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

Comp1962: Yes, I've now installed 3.0

I was able to successfully remove the WHS Connector and MediaSmart SW from my Windows 7 computer (which I am using to reinstall the server with), but the XP computer fails. The MediaSmart SW uninstalls fine, but when trying to remove the WHS connector it just show a message box with 'fatal error during installation'. After a bit of Googling I can't find a solution, and I've tried to repair, install it on top then removing, but still fail.

Try using a restore point to bring that unit back a few days and then go from there.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

Uninstalling went fine after installing the latest version from the upgrade DVD over it first

qdos,

So everything is fine now or do you have another issue you want to bring up?

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

Toyceli22 - can I inquire where you found the ghost image? I'm looking to repair my 485. Comp1962 helped but I'm running into the same situation - can recover from a bootable usb stick, but not the internal SMI area.

I just wanted to record that, although it is four and a half years since Comp1962's post on this subject, I had an identical failure 2 days ago and after searching everywhere for help, it was his downloadable document that helped me understand how to get my 485 into recovery mode - and it worked. Thank you!