I'm a little unclear. When I get my Win7 disk from Dell and upgrade my machine will it still be able to backup to my MSS without me installing the PP3 beta? I really don't like the idea of installing beta software on my production backup solution. Or would it be best to wait until PP3 releases before upgrading to Win7?

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Bryan
MSS 475 PP3 2TB Storage

Welcome to the forums!!!!

You do not need to install PP3 Beta 1 on your MSS. Windows 7 will runs perfectly in connection with the MSS without PP3 and all backups, etc. will function as they would with any other Windows PC (i.e. Vista or XP). PP3 merely adds some extra functionality between the MSS and Windows 7 client PCs. As a side note I have ran Windows 7 in connection with my MSS in various incarnations from Beta 1 to RC1 and have now been running the final Win 7 version since early August. Runs great with the MSS.

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HP MSS EX490 with Intel E6300
4 GB RAM
7 TB Drive Storage

MediaSmartServer.net Wiki, it's loaded with helpful information about WHS and the HP MediaSmart Server.

Thanks for the clarification. I've been anxiously awaiting the free Win7 disk from Dell which is supposed to ship today. I'm glad to hear that I don't need to wait until PP3 comes out before getting the benefits of Win7. I'm really hoping that making the switch to Win7 will solve of some of the problems I've been having with Vista.

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Bryan
MSS 475 PP3 2TB Storage

This is what I learned.

You can run your server with Win7 and backup all your computers.

What you can not do is a so-called "bare metal restore" of a Win 7 computer. Which means, in English,
the HP server can not restore your Win 7 system drive to the state it was in prior to crashing.
If you do choose to backup your Win 7 system drive to the server you will be able to restore individual files from the Win 7 system drive.

So if your system drive crashes and you are running Win 7, you're not getting back to operation without restoring the system drive without help from the HP server.
Either reinstall of Win 7 is required or a restore of your system drive from an image taken of the system by some process other than by the HP server (i.e., by using Win 7s own
built in imaging program or some third party imaging product).

Once MS releases PP3 this "bare metal restore" functionality will be made available to Win 7 systems. I personally consider it basic functionality for the product.

PP3 will include other enhancements to take advantage of Win 7 unrelated to this "bare metal restore" issue.

That's a bummer. It means I'll likely wait until PP3 is released before I upgrade any machine to Win7. Being able to do a bare metal restore is indeed a basic functionality of the product and I do not relish the idea of having to first install the beta of PP3, use it until the final release comes out, uninstall it probably along with the connector from any Win7 boxen when it finally does release, then install it again along with connector(s).

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Bryan
MSS 475 PP3 2TB Storage

Does anyone have any clue as to when PP3 with be released? I'm still awaiting my Win7 disk from Dell so maybe, just maybe, PP3 will arrive before I get the disk anyway.

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Bryan
MSS 475 PP3 2TB Storage

I'll have to try doing it again to see what happens. I'm not 100% sure but I think I did a bare metal restore on a Win 7 system using the HP MSS running PP2 (not PP3). It was many months ago and it was running either the beta or RC1 version of Win 7. I have not tried it while the MSS was running PP3 or a backup created while PP3 was in use.

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HP MSS EX490 with Intel E6300
4 GB RAM
7 TB Drive Storage

MediaSmartServer.net Wiki, it's loaded with helpful information about WHS and the HP MediaSmart Server.

I did successfully restore my netbook running Windows 7 RTM and also Windows 7 RC from a backup on my MSS.

Klode

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Microsoft MVP 2010 - Windows Home Server
Acer H341 - 1X WD5000AAKS - 3X WD10EACS - 1X WD5000AAKB External - Geek Squad 875VA 525w UPS on WHS controlled by GridJunction Add-in - WHS BDBB - WHIIST - SBS Fax Server - D-Link DIR-655

I'm just repeating what I was told by HP.

Same here, with beta and RC versions of Win7. That was way before I installed PP3 on the server.

Bare metal restore is a feature of the WHS restore disc, not the target OS... I wonder why HP would say that?

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Ben.

HP EX470 w/PP3, 8.0TB (2x500GB, 5x1TB+1x2TB WD Green Drives, 2GB RAM), TR4M-B
PC1: Desktop, Windows 7 Ultimate (x64)
PC2: Media Center, Windows 7 Home Premium (x32)
PC3: Desktop, Windows XP Pro SP3 (x32)
PC4: EeePC, Windows 7 Home Premium (x32)

I tried restoring a W7 system from my (fully updated) EX475 MSS yesterday. As far as I can tell it worked! I was experimenting with some RAID configurations and ended up abandoning it when I did not get the speed improvement I was looking for so it really did not get thorough application testing, just a quick performance comparison. But I did not get any errors or indications that it had failed.

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....JBick

EX475, 2 GB, LE-1640
PC1: Vista-->W7 Ultimate/32, (D-Drive RAID-5 Array)
PC2: Lenovo Laptop, Win XP Home SP3
2xLinksys WRT54G v1.1 and 2xNetGear GS105 Gbit switch

I am currently running Windows 7 x64 with MSS running PP2 and it performs scheduled nightly backups without any problems.

There isn't any ambiguity as far as HP is concerned. The full metal restore of the system drive isn't currently supported. If oyu doubt this simply call HP and confirm it yourself.

HP is aware that people have reported successful results doing such a restore. Others may be in for a surprise. If the function was supported, I assume, HP would champion the fact.

When it comes to backups I don't want to be on the cutting edge. I won't run beta software and if the manufacture of the device/software says a function isn't supported in the current software then I'm not comfortable using it as a backup tool.

I do think people should be informed so they can make a decision accordingly. It isn't supported. Which I guess means don't be too surprised if a
restore of your system drive fails when you most need it to succeed. Notwithstanding messages telling you that it succeeded when initially doing the backup.

"Not Supported" is much different than "Doesn't work" which I believe was the initial assertion that people were objecting to.

I definitely understand not running Beta software or wanting to be a guinea pig for MS or HP. I don't run beta's on my primary Home Server, only on expendable test or development servers.

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Alex Kuretz
Remote Notification: Monitoring and alerting for your Home Server via email, Twitter, text message, RSS, push notifications, and on your Mac desktop
Have you tried our Add-Ins?

You are correct and I was imprecise.