When you see the health lights blink Purple/Red then slide the drive back in

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~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

ugh... i am soo tired of this server.....
So I can get it to boot using the USB ram and I can see the server as before on the network. The recover disk says it finds the server but then when I try to do the server factory reset it fails - cannot reformat the drives. almost immediately after starting.

I'm going to chuck the thing out the window soon...

What am I doing wrong? I wish I could see what was happening on the server.

well... I had it started recovering but after about the 4th bar on the recovery it stopped and errored. Going to try again.....

It failed again...
Question: Can I copy the install DVD to my PC and run the program from there - seems it would be faster?

Will keep trying and trying...

SUCCESS!!! Finally.... had to switch to a different laptop to complete the recovery. Not sure why it didnt like my desktop. Both running XP... oh well.

I did the factory reset to the 3.0 version. Now I have to ask before I do anything, can I just take the drive two that had the duplication files on it and plug that back end and copy the files from it to the new drive 1? I also had a third drive but that was just a drive that I was backing up the server to. I assume I just add it back to the pool...

Thanks again for helping me....

Fantastic. Anytime someone gets there server back in action is always a good thing.

Sometimes the drive in the client you use to perform the recovery can be the issue with the process.

If you place the drive that was previously in your server that contains the duplicate files back in your server you do not add it to your storage pool but leave it as an unmanaged drive but to be honest I would install it on another computer and just copy the files through your network just to be more cautious and to have better control rather then having to RDP your server to copy the files.

If what is on the 3rd drive is not of importance to you then you can install that drive back into your server and add it to your storage pool which will format the drive for use.

Since you do have 3.0 installed you should make sure you get all the HP and Microsoft updates to bring the server sofware fully up to date. Then as I said before you should restore the files on your USB SMI Area but not with the files you used to recover the server but with a Ghost image of those files which will recover the SMI area back to full function so that the next time you want to perform a server recovery you will not have to use a bootable RAM Drive but if your happy with that then so be it.

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Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

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~ 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

Hi, I absolutly need a image of this SMI usb drive. Where can i get one.

patf_20,

Are you having issues with getting your server into recovery mode and if so what is your servers model? I know this thread indicates EX47x but I feel the need to ask. Thing is some people feel they need it when they do not and they can access the files by shutting down a service which exposes the SMI area at which time they can make a copy of the area but I would not mess with writing to it. Once you have the files then you restart the service and then reboot and the SMI area is once again protected. At this time I do not remember the name of the service but its in the device manager and its something like HPMEDIASMART.

Anyway I can help you but if you want to restore that SMI area this is something I can not help with but a couple people recently were able to restore it using a Ghost image of the SMI USB area which makes that image special in that it can put the area back the way it war originally since just copying the files to the area is not enough.

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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 your quick answer!
I have a ex475 for 2 years now. I upgrade it with a BE-2350 and a 2 GB ram. I wanted to format my ex475 because a install SQL server and sharepoint services. My server was unstable. And I wanted to upgrade with the v3 of ho home server.

The problem is that I pull a hard drive when the server was starting. It seem that I corrupt some files in SMI drive.

I really need a image of this drive, this is my only option.

I try many times to enter in recovery mode with no success. I try to debut the bios with my VGA cable, I change my ram chip.

Now, I'm running my ex475 with vista..... I can't install windows home server and Vail is not enough stable to but my data on it.

Please... I need help.

Many Thanks Comp1962. Everything works fine because of you.

Thanks!!!

Your welcome and always glad to help when I can.

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Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

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~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

I had the same problem and was able to get around it by giving a drive to a fellow HP EX-475 user and he used his server to put the OS files on my drive.

However, I would still like to restore my SMI usb drive, can someone help me with that?

Recently two users on this site restored thier SMI USB Area on their servers using a ghost image of the area. Just copying the files to it is not enough to make it work. There is something special with that area and I am not quite certain what it is as I do not play with it. I have made copies of the files it contains but since my areas are working I feel its best to leave it alone. You can create a bootable USB RAM Drive using a USB Memory Stick and then place the SMI files on that and actually boot your server from that area to put it into recovery mode. While I have never done this myself I do know it works thanks to information Diehard posted on his site but what he did was make a USB Memory Stick Bootable with some additional files for the EX49x but the process is similar for the EX47x MSS.

My quesion for you is do you have anything plugged into the bottom rear USB Port on your Server? If so maybe that device is what caused your server not to enter or boot into its recovery mode. If I am correct then you can simply shut your server down, unplug the device and follow HP's Server Recovery proceedure and watch the health light give off its blink codes at which time you can confirm your server can properly enter its recovery mode.

Better yet you can shut your server down. Then unplug all the USB Devices, pull out all the drives from your server and then turn it on. If your SMI Drive is working then your server will boot into recovery mode for you just watch the health light blink and if its alternating Purple/Red then your server is in recovery mode and your SMI USB Area is working and there is no need to do anything more.

If you do the experiments I mentioned about please let me know what you see.

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Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

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~ 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

Yes, of course I pulled everything out no drives no usb, I read all of the posts first before posting that I would like a copy of the files and if one of those 2 users can tell me what they did to ghost the drive I would really appreciate it.

I can help you with the SMI files but I do not have a copy of the Ghost Image of that area to recover it. All you will need to do is create a bootable USB Memory Card and then place the files on it after which you insert it in the bottom rear USB Port of your server and boot from there. It will place your server into recovery mode at which time you can recover the server. Thats basically the only function the SMI USB Device has so if you keep the memory stick available then you can always boot your server from that.

Now I have asked Alex about how to properly recover that area because lately it seems more and more people are reporting issues with it some do have issues others do not and believe they do but its something I think that needs to be addressed and made available to users like yourself. I do not believe its all that difficult but then again I do not want to mess around with my SMI Areas because they are working but I do have access to a couple motherboards to play with should my curiousity and determination get the best of me which may be the case very soon.

I will get back to you when I return to work to help you out with those files.

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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