I bought a used EX475 recently on Ebay advertised as upgraded (CPU and RAM) and functional, but after receiving it I am unable to RDP or connect to it. I have an EX470 so I thought nothing of the fact that the seller did not include the OS loaded on the WHS ... my plan was simply to use my media and perform a factory reset on the WHS. Unfortunately, I cannot get past the OS install and reboot, at which point my server just sits there for hours with its health light blinking. This appears to be a drive problem based on google searches, so I will attempt to list what I have tried so far:

Factory reset on the original drive (4x with no success)
Server recovery on the original drive (4x with no success)
Factory reset on a spare identical drive (4x with no success)
Server recovery on a spare identical drive (4x with no success)

I've left it sit at the 'Rebooting server' screen overnight, assuming it was doing a chkdsk on the drive to verify integrity. Nothing but a blinking blue light in the morning. I pulled the original drive 3 times and hooked it up via an external enclosure and ran a chkdsk on it. It found errors on the first run but seems OK on the last two scans. Even with my known good drive from my MSS, I can't get it to work, so I'm not so sure its the drive at this point.

I can't see the MSS in the router logs, so it looks like it is not connecting at all, but I do get a green and amber link light on the network port. As I already stated, I bought it as an upgraded WHS, but I have no idea what CPU is installed in it. I am running an LE-1640 in mine, and just bought an ADD X2 3800+ 35w for an upgrade to my existing EX470.

Short of borrowing a debug card or swapping the CPU, I am out of options on what to do next. Could the EX475 MSS have a problem with my EX470 media ?? I also tried using my v3 upgrade discs that I bought from HP a few years back. Any suggestions from the WHS gurus ? Keep in mind I bought this for a co-worker, so I can't invest any more of my own money into it to fix it. The seller had it listed 'as is - no return' so lesson learned for me for future Ebay purchases.

You could always just pop in the drives from your known working sever to see if the new server will boot and function properly. If it does then shut it down and put the drives back in your original server.

The part where the server actually reboots several times seems to now take longer than it once did before and then promt that pops up to tell you to continue appears to be a timed prompt in my opinion. You may want to direct connect the server to a client and perform the recovery. No need for a special cable the server will adjust itself for you. I recommend turning the server on without any drives connected to it and then when the health light blinks purple/red then seat the system drive and begin running the Server Recovery CD. Because its basically a new install I would opt for a Factory Recovery.

While the OS on the client performing the recovery is not suppose to matter I highly recommend using a 32bit Win XP Client. I have used Win 7 32 and 64 bit systems but they always have an issue when the connector software attempts to get installed and you get a message indicating that the software was not written for that OS. This is not a big deal because you can always run the origin Client Software and the recovery will pickup where it left off but with 32 bit Win XP its very smooth. You have to remember WHS came out in 2007 and although the newer OS's will work with it just better to use Win XP to avoid bumps in the road.

Let me know how you make out and any information from observations you make will be helpful. As for the Debug Cable well I always recommend them and if you do get one just know the Recovery Process sort of looks like its not going well when it is just let it run its course and eventually you will see the desktop open up and shut down and there maybe a temptation to interact with it just let it run its course so you can fully see it get through the process.

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Already done. I used the freshly retired original Seagate 500gb from my MSS .... same blinking blue health light.

Already done. I tried it both with a cat5 cable (non x-over) and then thru a 5 port switch with just the MSS and a client PC on its own network.

You mean a factory reset, not a server recovery, correct ?? I've done it so many times with this one that I'm being picky on the terms used just in case.

Already done. I tried it as well on my Win7 64 bit main rig and soon discovered that pitfall, altho I should have known better. I have since used exclusively my only remaining Win XP 32 bit PC for the factory reset attempts (with one attempt using a Vista 32 rig just in case).

I hate to go this route (buying one) as I cannot recoup the money for the cable since the customer isn't obligated to buy it for me. They paid me the auction amount for a working server, and what I received was not a working server.

One more thing to try, assuming it is an unknown variable on the MSS - swap out the upgraded CPU for the stock Sempron. I am unsure what the seller installed, whether it be an LE-1620 or 1640.

I myself have a 1640 and it worked for months in my MSS until a dust buildup pushed the temps up to a point it would shut down the server during the overnight backups. I'm aware of the issues with the 2.7 Lima version of the 1640 (as opposed to the more reliable 2.6 Orleans 1640), so I could at least swap the Sempron back in and see what happens. While I have it open, run a memtest on the G.Skill 2GB stick currently in the MSS. Google searches lead me to believe the culprit is the HD tho (altho my drive swap from last weekends work on this shows that a known good drive did not change the blinking health light).

Also, I'd be interested in borrowing a debug cable (I can paypal you in advance for its use - just refund me when I return the cable) if anyone can help me out with that.

Unfortunately I can't send out a Debug Board because I use them all the time both at home and at work.

If you do not want to move your drives to the unit you purchased then what I would suggest is that you use your unit to perform a recovery on the drive your working with for the unit your having an issue with. I would recommend a FACTORY RECOVERY since the server will be starting off as a new install. Once complete pop the drive in the new server and see if she boots up. This will be the biggest time saver of all.

The only thing I am unclear on and curious about is when you did all the attempts to perform a Server Recovery did the Recovery actually take place? One thing about knowing if the server is actually in its recovery mode is to logon to your router and check the DHCP listing to see if you can find a device starting with the name MININT followed by other things because if you do not see this then the Server is not active on the network or properly booting in its recovery mode. If the server can not boot into its recovery mode then something may be wrong with the hidden SMI file Area on the motherboard but thats easy enough to work around.

Let me know what you find out and good luck.

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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

Comp, you missed in my post where I used my recently retired Seagate 500gb from my EX470 MSS on this 475 and received the same flashing blue health light, even after letting it sit at the 'Ready to reboot' prompt overnight .... 6+ hours later.


Nothing at all in router logs or attached devices under that name. I looked two time over 2 attempted factory resets. I do like your suggestion to pop the problematic 500GB drive into my EX470 and attempt to make it work in that MSS. I haven't tried it, but ... damn .... if it hoses my MSS for whatever reason I will be VERY unhappy. I will then HAVE to invest in my own debug card to fix TWO dead MSS units.

If you have a docking station or USB-SATA cable then just connect the drive in question to your computer and check it out. If the drive reads properly and runs through a CHKDSK without issue then the drive should be safe to install in any computer or server.

If you turn the EX470 in question on without any drives connected to it and you then logon to your router you should see a device starting with the name MININT followed by other things and if your not seeing this then its possible the server has an issue with either its NIC or SMI Area. If you look at the network cable thats connected you should see a solid green LED and a blinking Amber or Yellow LED depending on your color perception.

The other thing worth noting is if you set the allowable devices allowed to connect to your router too low and you have reached that in connected devices reserved or not then it will not allow another unit to connect. Most routers default between 20-50 connections.

_________________
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

Comp, read my first post on the thread - I included a laundry list of things I've already done. To answer your questions, I'll quote my first post.



As far as running out of connections, I take my WHS offline each time I work on the customer WHS, as I am aware they cannot peacefully co-exist on the same network. I have two external USB enclosures, so I have plenty of diagnostic tools available, just no debug card. At some point, I could tie up $110 of my money into this repair, $30 for the USB to ethernet adapter and another $80 for the debug card, so I am really stuck for a solution here in dealing with failed hardware. It's easy enough to throw $$ at it and fix it, but I again repeat this is not my WHS, I bought it as a go-between between a co-worker with no Ebay account and a seller selling a supposedly working MSS. My bad, but these are the kind of jobs that shorten one's lifespan if you know what I mean.

You can always file a claim with eBay indicating the seller sold it as a working unit and its clearly not a working unit. Of course you will have to pay shipping back and quite possibly a restocking fee if it was from a reseller which sucks even more.

Anyway the only way I see to get the unit working is to simply perform a Factory Recovery using your existing server using a know working drive. This will not ace your server just get a drive configured and working so that when you pop it into the server your working with you can confirm if the server is functional or not. Its the simplest way to check things out but then if your not seeing the server when it boots into its recovery mode then its another issue altogether.

While things like docking stations, debug board and even a USB-LAN Adapter do cost money each of those items come in handy for troubleshooting issues with your current server. For me I use all 3 of these items and while the USB-LAN Adapters are sitting in a draw waiting for use I know that if a LAN Port should ever fail on any of my EX470's I have them on hand and ready to go so all I need to do is plug them and and move the cable. I also have a Bootable USB-Flash Drive configured with a modified SMI to be able to perform a recovery using a USB-LAN Adapter and while you can do it blind the DEBUG Board makes it easier when you need to reload the LAN Drivers when WHS is installed and wants the drivers to be installed. Its sort of an insurance policy I am happy to have here to keep things going but I also have a spare PSU, RAM and Processors and I even have spare boards, trays just to keep things going. Fortunately my EX470's are running well and the one I gave my gf is running well. Now these are not my primary servers they are the servers I am most fond of and attached too.

Anyway I can only convey to you what I know works based on my experience particularly with EX470's and I have purchased non-working units to convert into PortMultipliers but at the same time I worked with them to resolve the issues they had from Bricked BIOS, Failed LAN Ports, Failed PSU just to play with and see what I could learn from and share with others. This all started when I ran into an issue with my very first EX470 which took me several days to work around the issues just to get it back working. I know first hand how it feels to have an issue with a server and so my objective is to just help others with their server and with their PC's which is something I have been doing since the 1980's.

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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

Well now, I pulled the HD slightly out of tray 1 and booted the MSS with no boot drive, then popped the drive into it once it was up flashing its red light. I neglected to turn off my EX470 on this go-around (OOPS) but I did log into the router to check the logs ... I have yet to see the MINIT**** showing up, so I assumed I had a bad NIC, but was quite surprised this time to see this:



Instead of a blinking blue health light, I now have a blinking RED light on the MSS. I can still pull the drive and swap it into my known working 470, so I may get the time to do that later tonight. I feel good knowing the NIC is functional at this point. Note that my EX470 is showing up as HPSTORAGE (upgraded v3 software) and the MINIT***** is apparently the v1 HPSERVER trying to heal itself.

Edit: I can ping the server at this point, but I still cannot RDC into it. Probably because it does not have a configured network name and the RDC service is not started at this point.

The MININT followed by other things is the NIC Device name when the server is in recovery mode.

You are correct about the server names HPSERVER for HP v1.x and HPSTORAGE for HP v3.x. This means the Server OS has been installed an is waiting to be configured sort of the state the server would be in when it shipped from HP.

What I would do is run http://hpstorage:55000 or http://hpserver:55000 depending on the actual server name when you turn it on and it shows up on your network. This will allow you to download and install the Client Software onto your computer. Previous installs will not be valid so it will need to be reinstalled.

If all goes well you should be able to pickup on the server recovery where you first configure the server with a new name and password. Even if you can RDP to the server at this point you would not be able to logon because of the password but thats not all that important right now just getting the sucker configured is the important part and I hope you can get it to finish up where you left off by installing the client software from the server.

Note there is a slight difference between the client software between the original v1 and newer v3 in that they are similar but much different versions meaning the v1 is from 2007 and the v3 more recent which would include an updated client software but you need the client software the server will work with since they must match so getting it from the server is the best way I know of to do that.

_________________
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

OK, I can view this server's page -> http://hpstorage:55000, but I cannot access this server's page -> http://hpserver:55000 (progblem loading page error)

As usual, I can see my WHS (HPSTORAGE), but not the problematic one (un-named, but should be HPSERVER.

Since I cannot connect to it at all, I am relying on my original shipping v1 software CDs for the connector software. That software is located in a folder on the CD in the same root directory as the server recovery executable which I've grown quite used to in the past week. I have both CDs from that v1 set as well as the v3 CDs that I bought for my 470 MSS.

After reseating the HD and rebooting the 475 WHS, its again back to the flashing blue light, so at least I have established that the NIC is working. Plan is to power off my 470, pull both 1TB drives, pop in the 500GB 'damaged' drive from this problematic 475 and see if my 470 can get it past the blinking blue health light.

Your only going to see one or the other for the server your working on. So lets say you have the working server off and you see HPSTORAGE then it would indicate that the 3.0 software is installed on the server.

At the point where you are with the server I would expect to see a blinking blue health light and the Drive Lights off. The blinking blue health light is because WHS is still in a booting process but more so in your case its also in that condition because WHS still needs to be configured. The drive lights will not turn on until the one System Drives DATA Partion is added to the Storage Pool at some point if I recall correctly that drive will turn purple or red then turn blue when WHS includes the DATA Partition as part of the storage pool.

So I think your new server is behaving its just stuck at the configuration stage of the recovery. Sometimes when these things do not go well the best thing to do is pull the system drive then delete the SYS and DATA Partitions and reformat the drive then turn the server on with the drive not seated. Then when you see the health light blink Purple/Red seat the drive and start the recovery but use the Win XP client you said you had. This is how I perform all recoveries on my EX470's because I absolutely hate pressing that Status Reset Button. Most important do not use a wireless connection to do the recovery as both the client and server should have a hard wire connection to the network and if possible have the server connected to the router for best results as it will elliminate any connectivity issues with a switch and believe me switches can act up and cause all sorts of intermittent problems especially if they are fully populated.

Let me know how you make out and do not give up there is light at the end of the tunnel. I have performed more than my fair share of recoveries not so much because they needed to be done but sometimes just to observe the process or to replicate issues others report and then see what if anything I could do to help them. So stick with it your very close.

_________________
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

Whoa, we seem to be nearing the end of this quest to bring this WHS back to life !!! After swapping the problem 500GB into my WHs, (and pulling its 2 drives out temporarily, of course) I booted it up and came back 15 minutes later to ... drumroll ....

A STEADY BLUE HEALTH LIGHT !!! The drive LED is pulsing as well, so I was now able to run the v1 connector software, name the server, add a password, and set it to do recommended updates, which it is doing right now !! SWEET !!! This one has truly worn me out, and makes me question why I tie up resources and hours of my time to do what I do, but persistence and passion are my trademarks when it comes to PC hardware.

I will update once it settles down with its updates and I can swap it back into its rightful home in the MSS.

Comp, your advice and continued ideas on what to try gave me motivation to do everything required to get it to work. This was to be a Father's Day gift for the customer I bought it for, so I am very anxious to finish it off ASAP to deliver it to him this weekend. I still haven't cashed his check made out to me two weeks ago due to the problems I had with this PC.

While my posts don't indicate it, I have scoured over the WHS forums here and a few other sites that specialize in the WHS. These forums by far are the most informative and offer continued support well after MS has thrown in the towel on such a great device. I still read up on the EX470-X2 3800+ thread from time to time, and just bought an ADD X2 3800+ on Ebay last week. After 15 years in the IT field and 23 years working on PCs, I still know I haven't seen or done it all, and each day brings a learning experience opportunity.

That is great to hear and I hope thing work out well. I did see your post on the 3800+ and picked up the remaining 2 that were available I sort of gave up looking for them and read your other post and jumped on them today.

I really like the EX470's and they and WHS v1 have save me more time than they have cost me just in client recoveries. Although the EX470 is somewhat limited it does a great job as you know for backups and file sharing. I installed one at work just to backup the clients and video servers we have and its saved my butt manytimes. Prior to that I use to take things home and work on them and yet it was easier just to bring one and in work on things at work.

I am just happy your able to move forward with the unit and hopefully it will server the next owner well for many years but one thing I know will happen and that is when that person has an issue he or she will be calling you for help. Before they get that far please point them to this site so they can read and learn about and ask questions about their new server.

I look forward to reading your next post.

_________________
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